Four thoughts about living in reality

I don’t mean politics isn’t incredibly important; clearly, it’s often life-or-death. What I mean is that when you go to dinner at a friend’s house, or work on your novel, or help your elderly neighbor with the groceries, or saunter through the park, you’re not somehow participating in reality less than if your head were stuck in politics. Indeed, the opposite might be the case. Every time I glimpse again that politics is just one conceptual overlay, I’m plunged back into the larger reality that contains it. And I’m freer to engage in life, including political life, more effectively than before.

This entire newlsetter from Burkeman is quite good, but I especially liked his reframing of politics and the role it plays in our reality. I can get very caught up in the minutiae of the current political situation so starting about 2 weeks ago I stopped going to any news sites at all. I read one news magazine that comes out on Fridays and is a recap of the events of the previous week, it’s free through the Libby app via my library. What I’ve realized is how much time and energy I put into things that made no difference in my day-to-day life and that I have no control over. Slowly but surely I’m getting better at putting up really helpful boundaries and this reframing was super timely for me.