Phetasy News - Holiday Trigger Alert
Dumpster Fire 102 - Everyone Is So Broken, Factory Settings 10 - Gratitude, Noam Blum Thinks Twitter Is Too Important, Politically Homeless - Depressed & Disgusted, and Holiday Merch!
Greetings from the Phetaverse!
The holidays can be tough. They’re like a mushroom trip: whatever you’re feeling, they accentuate. If you’re lonely, the holidays can make you feel lonelier. If you’re grieving, that grief can feel more acute. If you lost someone during the year, the first holiday season without them can bring up the early feelings of shock and loss all over again. The traditions you shared with that person or pet just aren’t the same without them.
There are awkward, obligatory family gatherings where oftentimes the booze is flowing and mouths are running. Old wounds are opened. Political differences are debated. New wounds are created. The ghosts of your past are everywhere, triggering memories, good and bad. A floodlight is cast on the resentments you’ve been collecting throughout the year(s) and you’ve decided now is the time to dust them off and air your grievances, one at a time, in a drunken family toasting. (Roasting?)
Maybe you love the holidays and always have. The vibe is chill, man. The family gatherings are peaceful and worth the effort. The food is delicious. It’s a time where everyone gets to slow down, watch Christmas movies and catch up. Perhaps you enjoy the hustle bustle of going from shop to shop to holiday party to family event. Either way, you’re grateful to partake in another year of exchanging gifts and sharing family traditions.
My current holiday mushroom trip is the new baby version, where everything is extra exciting and new. As I wrote for The Spectator, my daughter has managed to shake me out of my Grinch-like cynicism and look at the holidays with a fresh pair of eyes. Her eyes—which are wide with wonder and curiosity and joy.
No matter what mushroom trip you’re on for the holidays—lonely, grieving, triggered, filled with wonder or some combination of all of it—like any trip, when you’re in the thick of it, an important reminder: this too shall pass.
Thumbnail artwork by Lara Cullen.
Email laracullenstudio@gmail.com to inquire or contact her.
So profoundly true. I try to avoid politics. Luckily my sister isn’t drinking anymore. And we do Christmas at her house. I definitely relate to all the old wounds being opened during holidays with family. Old wounds which never really healed because they were never really addressed to start with. Painful. Tough. Yet this past Thanksgiving was chill and good and easy. I think it’s because of my dad’s terminal cancer, and because my teenage niece survived a very serious suicide attempt last year. And the past couple years of Covid. We’re all grateful.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/