I scrolled on Tiktok and a creator referenced the notion that our art used to reflect the times. Many artists have mused that it should always reflect the times. I felt my pulse quicken (that also could have been the coffee but I digress).
I had to ask myself if my art is reflective of the time. The answer lately is if the time is about me and personal struggles, then it’s yes. But more than anything, the time we are living in as a global community has sapped so much from my being, tested my courage, my willingness to change, that creating art has felt like a long-lost love I am slowly finding my way back to. I want to shout at him and exclaim “I’m on my way…the train was just running late…but I am coming!”
I never really left you.
I told my husband, my therapist and a friend if I could turn into some kind of time-bending, immortal superhero with infinite resources who could protect the people of Haiti, Sudan, Congo, Palestine and hungry, near frozen people making concrete their bed tonight not ten minutes away from me, I would.
But I am a lone soul.
As often as I can fool myself into feeling completely helpless, the truth is I am not. You are not and although we will never be the fantastical superhero I described, we are not helpless.
Let me repeat.I am not helpless. We are not helpless.
I am at the very least capable of putting my drop in the bucket.
For me, it is writing here about the people I hope are freed and the peace I am so desperate for it aches. It is taking a small portion of our household budget monthly to donate to 3-4 trustworthy causes. Automate it and forget about it.
It will cost me less than I have ever spent on sandwiches and the mediocre cups of coffee I tend to sip.
So no, I am not helpless. I just can’t do it all. None of us can. Not on my own.
We never have.
That type of individual thinking is a delusion.
Kristina Hamlett writes to connect, heal, and be a force for change. 