38. "You're so resilient"

Overcoming our own ability to overcome

Remember what you wanted.

Those things still matter. A pandemic could not erase them. Perspective has not replaced them.

Beware the ones who will tell you what you wanted no longer applies. The ones who climb ladders and pull them up as they go. The ones who say the goal posts have moved as they plow the entire field.

They’ll hang over your fence and say you should have planted corn in your rose garden.

When they praise you for your resilience they are praising you for overcoming the difficulties of the world they refuse to mend.

When they praise you for your resilience they are saying thank god that did not break you because we cannot afford to change.

When they praise you for your resilience they are watching a drowning person claw their way to shore while standing on the beach and clapping. And clapping.

And clapping.

Resilience is not meant to be a daily ritual. Survival isn’t a virtue.

Nothing that happened this year was unprecedented. We’ve been through disasters before. And the only consistent thing from one disaster to the next is our utter unwillingness to help the most vulnerable prepare for the next disaster.

Because we’re resilient.

And what does not kill us makes them stronger.