times like these

I’m tired of apocalyptic catastrophizing
I’m tired of this foreboding sentiment
that the world is ending
that the times we live in
are any different from the times
that have always been
that will always be

Tell me,
please,
what do you mean
by “times like these”
?

Show me a generation of humanity
that has not lived through catastrophe(s)
Show me a world that has ever existed
that wasn’t completely broken
Show me a time that was free of
     hunger
     pain
     fear
     existential dread
     existential threat.

I’m not saying I choose to
pretend that everything is hunky dory
I’m not saying I glorify the now
I’m not saying
that things aren’t utterly broken
I’m saying I choose not to pine
for some fictitious past period
that never existed
or some impossible utopian future
that will never come to fruition.

I choose to tell myself a story
that the time I’m in is exactly
when and where I was made to be.
I choose to embrace “times like these”
as the messy
flawed
corrupt
absolutely beautiful
hope-filled
reality that is.

I refuse for “times like these”
to render me disempowered
I cannot and I will not
live my life from that place
of disenfranchisement.

I choose to live
in the only world in which I can exist,
the only one I can influence:
the one I’m living in
     right.here.
     right.now.

Who and where and when are you?
Will you join me?