My birthday is in May, and I am a Taurus. Horoscopes are complete nonsense, except for all the ways they seem to be true (this is humor). Regardless of the stars, I do tend to go at work and justice-side things long and hard and with a certain amount of push, but to keep that up – especially as the years do pass – I need real rest, times of just lollygagging (dilly-dallying!) or daydreaming, unpeople-y down time and sleep. 

As the weather and the world get so lovely, and summer adventures beckon, there’s a new challenge. We all know that the world is struggling, and our country is in a dangerous place – and not just at risk, but extremely hard to predict, given that we are affected by the pure whims of unserious people. To attend graduations, celebrate birthdays, or go to the beach or paddling down rivers at such a time can be a surreal kind of experience, but it’s one that has an actual name: hypernormalization. A term born in Russia, it was brought Westward by the work of Adam Curtis, who wrote:

““HyperNormalisation” is a word that was coined by a brilliant Russian historian who was writing about what it was like to live in the last years of the Soviet Union. What he said, which I thought was absolutely fascinating, was that in the 80s everyone from the top to the bottom of Soviet society knew that it wasn’t working, knew that it was corrupt, knew that the bosses were looting the system, and knew that the politicians had no alternative vision. And they knew that the bosses knew that they knew that. Everyone knew it was fake, but because no one had any alternative vision for a different kind of society, they just accepted this sense of total fakeness as normal. …Everyone in my country and in America and throughout Europe knows that the system that they are living under isn’t working as it is supposed to; that there is a lot of corruption at the top. But whenever the journalists point it out, everyone goes “Wow that’s terrible!” and then nothing happens and the system remains the same.”

So that doubling & tripling sense of “It’s bad/but I’m ok and things seem much the same/I want to check out/but I should do something” is both real and you are not alone.

So… what, then? As people of faith, we have faith in something, right? And for me, that “something” is two-fold: first, that humans can be wonderful and we have a lot of power when we work together and put our efforts into dreaming up better things. (We are also darn good at erecting roadblocks when we want to slow or stop something!)  And second, that we don’t know the future, and as Gandalf reminded Frodo, “There are forces at work in this world beyond the will of evil.” Greed and hubris and the hunger for power are deeply corrupting – but they have a limited shelf-life, and by staying present, working hard, and building up communities of strength and love, we can make a difference. We can turn the tide.

Perhaps, like me, you were born to dilly-dally, and need your rest time and times of laughter, good food, and beauty. But we have to fight fascism. So please: don’t make looking away and avoiding news your default. Rest and return to those things that are important to you. Find the institution you love and protect it. Find the people you love and protect them. Find the hope you have and nurture it. But it’s ok to dilly dally a bit, from time to time. 

Rev. Audette Fulbright Fulson, Lead Minister