#122 - Rabbit rabbit it's September, baby!

This morning is my ideal when it comes to weather.

It’s crisp & slightly cold, I’m wearing shorts and a giant sweatshirt, and there is an iced coffee in my hand that has nutmeg sprinkled on it.

Let’s gooooo let’s go fall, let’s go September!!! My birthday is in 14 days and honestly, I think September has a solid lineup of month attributes.

Sapphires? One of the best gems.

Virgo & Libra? Two of my favorite astrological signs.

Autumn Equinox?? One of the top two equinoxes!

Back to school vibes, last grill of the season at labor day parties, first month listed in that 30 Days Hath poem/mnemonic device.

Break out the fall wardrobes and strap on some chunky boots y’all it’s TIME!!!!

Septembers heeeeere!!

(It’s supposed to be 90 degrees this weekend, but plz let me live in my fantasy.)

Last year, every time I said 2023, I would tack on the phrase “not a real year”. And not to be like ~the future is near~ but…2024 sounds even less real to me? But I’m starting to think that’s actually a problem, and maybe the adjustment to the new century has stalled because we’ve changed what world we live in but it happened in 2020 so “the twenties” feel real nebulous because no one wants to admit to the reality of the world we live in now.

(Covid happened & it’s here. We’re not getting the past back. And we need to figure out how to collectively grieve so we can figure out the actual future that keeps everyone as safe and healthy as possible.)

I think it’s tied to the hesitancy to plow through and create energy policies that make sense with the imminent climate collapse too. This idea that 2030 is a far-away futuristic time where there will be flying cars and little robot assistants and we’ll all wear white and silver and Zenon and Greg will be figuring out how to thwart Wyndham’s plot to plant a computer virus in her Space Stay to collect the insurance policy when it falls out of the sky.

Turns out, the future is far stupider in some ways. What do you mean Seattle is setting up for self-driving taxis? Seattle. The city with some of the worst traffic in the country, wants to add autonomous vehicles that aren’t even road safe to its ever-increasing traffic flow.

The most harrowing part of Ronan Farrow’s Elon expose was the revelation of just how much public infrastructure has fallen into the hands of the private sector. And Elon in particular is so rage-inducingly stupid it really reveals way more about how out-of-touch most politicians are with the reality of technology.

What do you mean the US is relying on his wi-fi service Starlink to communicate with Ukraine while Elon’s chit-chatting with Putin? Not even through like a back door, they’re out on the porch baby!

I’m sad that Vegas got bamboozled into creating a completely unsafe tunnel that will never do anything for anyone instead of getting better public transport. I’m really over the anti-train/bus sentiments btw. I’m gonna get so fucking rude for a second but like, change is coming. We can be openly sad about that fact, we can mourn the life we expected to have vs. our reality, but if this summer proved anything—it’s that the Earth doesn’t care.

Climate crises are just going to continue to escalate. Even the people who want to live in denial will experience the aftereffects. And it’s everywhere and affecting everyone so, ignoring it won’t solve anything.

And like, we’re woefully unprepared for the reality. I didn’t even know there’s no aid for businesses in natural disasters—it’s all loans. And the FEMA stipends are barely enough for people to do anything with, so response efforts come down to people like my sister getting in touch with anyone who may have a GE connection so she can get dehumidifiers donated to her town post-flood because waiting for bureaucracy meant that homes could be lost to mold by the time help arrived.

People got upset at teens in LA playing in wastewater—but we don’t have massive informational campaigns telling them why they shouldn’t. We’re in a public communication crisis, as well actually.

It’s fucking abysmal and it’s because they’re lying to us because they can’t be honest about anything lest it impact the bottom line of businesses.

But like, maybe some businesses don’t need to exist? Maybe a lot of the possible labor we have available is being woefully mismanaged and people are spending precious time and energy creating waste products that nobody wants/needs/asked for?? Maybe having MORE JOBS isn’t the only measuring stick we should use and we should be looking at how well these jobs are paying and the benefits packages and the humaneness of the conditions and if people are satisfied with the work they’re doing.

And different people find different jobs satisfying! But I think everyone needs to feel like they’re contributing something by doing their job. People like to feel helpful. And I think a lot of jobs today force people to do things they know are unhelpful/obfuscatory.

Idk, does anyone think the dudes who figure out how to delay the subway construction so they can bleed the contracts for some extra millions are happy? Do we think they glow with joy when they walk through the world? Oh, we think they’re probably pretty miserable and yelly because they’ve decided to “game the system” and think they’re better than all us honest rubes who refuse to “play the game and get ahead”?

Well, they’re playing a losing game. The end of the game is the same for all of us, no one gets to cheat death. And unless Martin Luther was like real wrong about indulgences, I don’t think the money hoarding they’re engaging with is going to…do much.

Like maybe at some point they thought it was a “noble goal” because it would “protect their family from the consequences of their soulless actions” but like, you can’t outspend a flood! Uh oh, unlike ConEd, tectonic plates can’t be bought off so they just make the earthquake happen in the poorest neighborhoods!!!

When talking to my friend the other day I realized that the election won’t be happening before we have another entire summer. That’s what’s going to decide shit. They can eat all the corn they want at the Iowa State Fair, they’re still going to have to convince Americans that they’ll do something.

It’s so personal and it’s everywhere and we all have connections to it because uh oh the internet ushered in globalism and now we know more than ever before about everything happening around the world and yeah maybe that’s super overwhelming sometimes but we can’t put it back in the box. Everyone knows someone who’s going through something, and, if they haven’t met someone in person, they’ve watched a TikTok and got information about some random injustice that person suffered in the aftermath.

(Also, can we talk about the fact we’re definitely witnessing elder abuse re: McConnell and Feinstein? Like I don’t like either of them as career politicians, obviously—the latter is more ~uses her power to buy stocks to accumulate wealth and the former is more ~literally everything that’s wrong with politics because he started blockading Obama and tanked Democracy in the process—but like, this is fucking weird. If we’ve seen Mitch freeze up twice in public, that means it’s happening way more in private and they’re keeping that shit locked up TIGHT because no one can run the Senate as “effectively” (and a hallmark of Conservatism is their fear to even try). But Elders deserve protection from people around them taking advantage of them for money!!! These are two of the most powerful people in the world and their staff & families seem content to let them be Weekend At Bernie’d through the hallowed halls of Congress. Also, the whole documentary Telemarketers on HBO was about how the elderly population is being scammed for Police Unions and robocalls are just the newest version of that and like, Venture Capatalists are buying up retirement communities so they can bleed the boomers dry since none of their kids have the necessary financial/physical infrastructure to care for them because we’re too poor and don’t own our homes AAAAHHHHH!!)

A lot of institutions have been skating by on reputation and the fact that they’ve gone unchallenged for like a little too long. If small indie companies can pay their actors/crew SAG standards, then why do large studios even need to exist anymore? They haven’t been around forever—many of them are less than 100 years old. The Supreme Court didn’t use to act like this—but they raptor-tested the fences for a few years and are now acting as if they’ll never get shocked (but also that we, the American taxpayer, should pay to keep the electricity off so they can continue to climb over larger fences is this Jurassic Park reference getting away from me now??) and like all it takes is ONE robust ethics reform and they’re cooked!

Unions forever, but also like, specifically unions with good leadership. I’m really nervous that by creating blanket solutions, we’ll neglect to keep the solutions healthy and rely on bad actors who may or may not be sabotaging their union’s efforts on purpose. Unions didn’t just fade away due to the Pinkerton's busting efforts/influence and we’ll do ourselves a disservice if we ignore the harm that bad Union leadership can bring.

Negotiations are only as good as the negotiators.

But today? Today it’s cold.

It’s September, 2023.

A very real month.

And there is real work to do and maybe it’s time I stop underestimating myself and start honestly assessing what I’m contributing to positive change beyond lipservice (and voting).

Oh noooo you mean I can’t continue to run away from myself and reality via smooshing my subconscious into a flat panic about how “messy” my apartment is because that fixation is way more in-my-face/my brain knows how to worry about that but not so much about *gestures to the world* this?

Fine. Fine! Fine.

Flip that calendar babe, new month’s here!

Time! Marches! On!!

I hope you have a wonderful month full of checking boxes off, getting shit done (because September has Big Virgo Energy and sometimes it’s good to indulge in rigid efforts of accomplishment), and you have a good time doing it.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it has to be a drag! Let’s solve world issues and then go get a muffin or something. Sound good?

✌️ 🩵 & 🎂

From The Vault

Last year: #60 - September, Baby

Two years ago: #12 - He's All That Is More Confounding Than The Original (and the original was baaad)