This fall and winter are going to be historically nightmarish. I’ve been asking myself how we prepare psychologically to endure what’s coming... and the answer is, I don’t know. I can’t. I’m already hanging by a thread. We all are.

At this point, without drastic and immediate intervention, we are headed inexorably for a mass death event that most Americans haven't seen at home in their lifetimes. Maybe that's why so many people seem so indifferent to mass death and what it means.

Those who are fortunate enough to physically survive will be traumatized for a lifetime. We are marching straight toward the generational tragedy that will haunt us as long as we live, and we're talking about cancel culture and the fucking stock market.

What we're not talking about: every child who loses a grandma / uncle / cousin / neighbor / family friend and will spend the rest of their lives wondering if it was their fault, if they brought that death home with them from school and never even knew.

What we're not talking about: hurricanes are coming, and every at-risk person & their families is about to be forced into a horrific choice between evacuation, exposure, and potential death from covid, or remaining in the path of the storm and potentially drowning in their attic.

We're not talking about today's children who will never get over their fear of being in public, of being around other people, of being outside. We're not talking about what it means when you allow the doctors and nurses to die first.

We're talking now about the current rise in substance abuse and domestic abuse and mental health crises, but we're not talking about the way that survivors of mass death events are vulnerable to those factors for the rest of their lives.

A mass death event like this literally takes generations to recover from. A lot of the people who experience it never recover. And their damage harms their children, who grow up with abusive parents, addicted parents, emotionally numb parents, anxious & terrified parents.

We all want to go back to normal. We wanted the summer to be normal & we want fall to be normal. We want community for our children & we miss our families & we want college kids to learn & we want to go back to work. BUT NOTHING CAN BE NORMAL DURING OR AFTER MASS DEATH.

What I am screaming as loudly as I can: it is worth it to avoid mass death. It is worth whatever sacrifices we have to make, whatever normalcy we give up, whatever incredibly drastic & serious & life-altering choices we make. It is worth it.

it is worth it to give up a year of our lives so we don't have to give up the rest of our lives.

Even if we live, we will not survive what's coming.