[Alternate Title: "Board Games as Group Therapy"]
Thom Yorke has explained the band has to 'detach themselves emotionally' when playing this song because it's one of the only sad songs Radiohead sings that doesn't contain some 'measure of resolve'. It's about the 'fear of capitalism' and 'inevitability of defeat'.
A friend recently posted to our group a little infographic called Managing Crisis Fatigue. I read it eagerly, hoping, as one might, for some little tip or trick to help me in these interesting times. I've actually heard multiple people recently refer to these as interesting times. I assume, perhaps wrongly, they're refering to the 'pseudo-Chinese proverb' (no known source) "May you live in interesting times", an expression often mistaken as a blessing but intended as a curse. Peace is 'uninteresting'. Turmoil, strife, chaos... those are interesting, in hindsight or from a distance. Rather taxing otherwise.
So I dove on this little infographic with much interest desperation, as we do these days, in the hopes of some valuable insight, but alas, it didn't suggest anything I wasn't already trying - limiting media exposure, focusing on what you can control, grounding, setting conversational boundaries, staying connected, prioritizing self-care. But it did remind me of something very important I came across recently, and which I wanted to share (and will, below), and which is my motivation for writing today.
But before I get to it, there's another point I want to make first too, one I made to a friend a little while back when she embarked on dealing with a tremendous grief while also trying to stay sane and functional. I thought I'd written about it before, but a quick search was unable to find it. It seems I referenced it once when talking about grief, but didn't go into what I meant. "Staggered breaths."
When you listen to orchestral music, you hear continuous sound coming from wind and brass instruments. They're able to achieve this because when you have multiple people playing the same instrument, they can breath at different times, creating the illusion they're all playing continuously.
(If my music-teacher friends feel like 'umm-aktually-ing' me to bring up "circular breathing" as well, don't, you'll just ruin a perfectly good metaphor. Focus!)
"Staggered breathing" is how we, as a society, get through interesting times. It's ok if some days you're feeling weak, so long as you've surrounded yourself with and connected yourself to enough others, so we get to take turns propping each other up. But I do think it's important to understand that. To see that it's a system, a mesh, a network of friends and family. You're not trying to survive alone. We're trying to survive together.
That is how we all get through this.
So that little infographic didn't have anything new to offer me, but I'm hoping maybe I have something important to offer you.
So reader, if you've made it this far, you get homework. It's important, and don't fret, it's only a one-minute video:
Watch and share this with your friends and/or family.
Build your mesh, your network. And let people know they're a part of yours.
