Front Porch Chats S2 #13

I was talking to a friend this week about getting older. How our bodies have experienced different kinds of collapse, and things just hurt when they didn’t before. It’s a pretty common refrain now amongst my peers. I imagine it won’t be long before we stop talking about it because it’s just accepted: Everybody fucking hurts.

Maybe a little bit. Maybe a lot. Nobody exempt.

However, she had been told to walk every day and she was doing it! Hating it a bit, “trudge” was the word she used, but she was still walking. As someone who has spent the past 25 years walking nearly four miles five or six days a week, I did my best to be encouraging.

“We didn’t get to this place overnight,” I told her, “time and wear took its toll on us. Give yourself the grace to get better at a pace, too.”

Because that’s how things really work: Overnight change is almost never a thing. We find ourselves where we are gradually.

This weisenbock from Varietal smells boozy and it tastes like banana. I guess that isn’t inappropriate to style but I am not fond of this take. The liquid burns a little going down and the lingering flavor is of banana candy. The 9.6% ABV is really showing in this beer but not in a good way. Think I’m going to pour this one out for the ancestors.

It’s been a difficult week for America. Most people might be tempted to ask, “What in the living hell is wrong with you, Memphis?” but I assure you that Memphis is just standing in the shadow of America. There is nothing wrong with Memphis that ain’t wrong with the entire goddamn country.

And it can be tempting to quit. Everything hurts. Emotionally, physically, mentally. It’s all just a Bob Ross brushstroke of pain across the entire canvas.

It really does feel like the Bad Guys are winning, all the damn time. It’s draining as hell.

Keep going. Keep caring about your neighbors and the people who are explicitly vulnerable. They are you. And we didn’t get here overnight.

We won’t get out of it that way either. We won’t get anything if we quit. Take a break if you need to! I have friends who are particularly exhausted by…well all of the brutality. You gotta care for yourself in those moments.

Just keep at it. Little bits, every day. We deserve better, and we’ll get it only through a collective, cumulative effort.

Chin up and grace to those who need it.