Zero Complaints

 I said it today, about the cool breeze after a week of sweltering non-breeziness.

"I have zero complaints"

It's a very specific statement, in a specific setting, under specific circumstances usually.  For me, though, I'm a zero-complaints kind of person.  It's not that I'm quiet.  Naive isn't me either; quite aware of bad guys and whatnot thank you.  It's that my personality tends toward conflict resolution, not conflict.  I'm not even competitive!  I've never enjoyed winning if I thought someone wanted it more.  It just isn't important to me. {If I went to therapy it would likely be suggested that my self esteem is so low that the risk of a loss isn't worth the reward of a win.  Which is why I don't waste money on therapy.  Believe me, I've considered the theory.}  Other people being happy leaves me full, not empty.

Zero complaints, however, does not mean zero concerns.  I have all the popular concerns!!  And someone like myself feels caught in a moral anti-grav situation (I've been reading space stories lately); tetherless, no foothold, weightless in a useless way.  I'm geared toward injecting positivity into situations but....  

How do you resolve someone's hateful joy?

What can bolster the weight of a career cut short by corruption?

What words can comfort a society who lives on the edge of their seat, waiting for it to be their turn as the victim?

Actually these questions have all been answered.  Our country is new to this game, but it's an old playbook.  It feels so villainous to us, because it's us!  How did this happen here?!  Yeah, that's what everyone who's doing well asks when they're no longer doing well through no fault of their own.

Empires don't fall in a day, but they all fall.  Look to the history books for ideas of what happens next, where to scream, and how to help each other heal.  The helplessness we feel isn't real, is what you'll find.  It's a weapon that has been used by schoolyard bullies and tyrannical leaders alike.

You have a voice.

You have power.

You can make a difference.

To quote Percy Shelley

"Rise like Lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number,                                                                           Shake your chains to Earth like dew,                                                                                                             which in sleep had fallen on you.                                                                                                                 Ye are many, they are few."