Happy Days – Week TwentySix
I am desperately trying to find the time to reaffirm my commitment to spreading joy and gratitude.
I know I am woefully late with these missives and it has been weighing on my mind, but life has gotten away from me. Luckily, I have continued to take photos every day so I still have the memories of these daily snippets. I’m really glad for these photos because my memory is crap. I honestly do seem to think in pictures.
Things seem to be spiraling out of control in the States at a quicker and quicker pace and I am having a hard time recognizing the worth of things. But then I talk with other people who are having the same feelings and create more community in person and realize the value of spreading joy. It is an act of resistance. Life continues on and being joyful in life is vital even if really cognitively dissonant. We must continue to celebrate the good things and fight for what is right and just.
I read this article on the Guardian “Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real“ and it really helped put things back into place. There are so very many salient points and I shared with various groups of friends and activists. The concept of “Hypernormalization” is a central theme of this essay. There is a long but worthwhile documentary on Youtube about this by Adam Curtis. It follows up on his cult classic the Century of Self made in the early 2000s.
I came to the conclusion of the first paragraph of the Guardian article weeks ago because in talking with friends who are good people, they are no longer reading the news because it hurts them too much. It’s not that they don’t care or don’t feel, but for their own mental health, they have to protect themselves from all the pain. It clicked for me to understand why people are “checking out” and to understand “how does they let this happen?” in regards to past horrific events.
”People don’t shut down because they don’t feel anything,” says Hickman. “They shut down because they feel too much.” Understanding this overwhelm is an important first step in resisting inaction – it helps us see fear as a trap.”
…………
"Experts say action can break the spell. “Being active politically, in whatever way, I think helps reduce apocalyptic gloom,” says Betsy Hartmann, an activist, scholar and author of The America Syndrome, which explores the importance of resisting apocalyptic thinking.
Greguski and a co-worker have been helping distribute multilingual information about legal rights and helpline numbers, to be used in the event of Ice raids.
“It’s easy to feel like: ‘Oh, I’m in community because I’m on TikTok,’” she says. But genuine community is about “getting outside and talking to your neighbor and knowing that there’s someone out there that can help you if something really bad goes down,” she says.
Being active politically, in whatever way, I think helps reduce apocalyptic gloom
Betsy Hartmann, author of The America Syndrome
“You’re actually out there talking to people, working with people and realizing there are so many good people in the world, too, and maybe feeling less isolated than before,” says Hartmann.“But I also think we need a broader vision,” Hartmann notes. She suggests looking to resistance efforts against authoritarianism in countries like Turkey, Hungary and India. “How might we be in international solidarity? What lessons can we learn in terms of rebuilding sophisticated, complex government infrastructure that’s been hacked away at by people like Elon Musk and his minions in a more socially just and sustainable way?”
“We are in a period now when it’s absolutely essential to protest,” says Hartmann, citing the Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth, who argues that just 3.5% of a population engaging in peaceful protest can hold back authoritarian movements."
May 5 – Day 177
Our street was full of Dutch flags remembering the date when the Netherlands was liberated from the Nazi regime 80 years ago – May 5, 1945. This year seemed more relevant than ever to remember WWII and to fight the rise of authoritarianism.
There are very few public holidays in Holland and May 5th is a holiday only once every five years. That happened this year, and because of the calendar shifting, it won’t be a public holiday again until 2040 as May 5 falls on the weekends in 2030 and 2035.
May 6 – Day 178
The canals in our neighborhoods are being dredged of invasive plants and it’s impressive to watch these huge machines right next to and sometimes floating in the water. Taxes are high here in the Netherlands, but we see the results all the time and I am glad to live in a society that takes care.
May 7 – Day 179
I went into Amsterdam for work and this scene was quite pretty at my little local train station. It’s been quite sunny which is nice but also unusual. Last year the spring was super wet, this year it’s much drier. While I was in Amsterdam, cool things were happening in London.
Friends went to Dad’s presentation and signing of his book and Q&A before the screening of Apocalypse Now at the BFI in London and shared these photos. Sadly, I wasn’t able to be there, but luckily friends went and the BFI put his Q&A up on YouTube.
May 8 – Day 180
We spent the day traveling to Brussels to renew our son’s US Passport since the consulate in Amsterdam is closed. The US Embassy is a fortress and of course no photos allowed, however this Belgian governmental building was much more welcoming and joyful.
May 9 – Day 181
I only know about the Atomium because it is often mentioned in Duolingo Dutch practice. I had never heard of it before. It was made in 1958 for the World’s Faire and was supposed to only be around for a short while, but has become a major tourist attraction which we gladly participated in. It represents an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times and is really cool. At the very top, there is the panoramic view and a restaurant. You go up, have a look around and then go back to the ground floor. Then you continue the tour via escalators. There is a historical museum part in one of the spheres, then you take a super steep escalator up to another one where there is a cool light show and then down another escalator to yet another show and then down to the ground once again. Super interesting and unexpected. The escalators were a trip. It was super scary going up the long and highly inclined one connecting one sphere to another. We expected to be scared going down, but it was fine. Going up, you really felt like you were fighting gravity and that you would be pulled backwards and fall.
Find and follow the light in the Atomium! Pretty cool exhibit from our visit to Belgium in early May. I only knew about this structure because of Dutch practice in Duolingo. The world is weird and crazy and awesome and beautiful.
— Beatrice Murch (@murchstudio.com) 2025-05-26T07:46:42.246Z
We then made our way up Belgium to Antwerp to spend the weekend and visit with friends who live there and also friends who came with us to see a photo exhibit. We had a yummy lunch of smash burgers at “Beastie burgers”, checked into the hotel, got more work done, and then had dinner with our friends at an Argentine Grill. The interior design at “Beastie Burgers” in Antwerp was pretty stunning - so much music memorabilia and cool design.
May 10 – Day 182
With our friends, we walked through Antwerp from the diamond district to other side of town to the FOMA museum to see the photo exhibit of Lee Miller in Print. We ducked into what we thought was a beautiful church and turned out to be a building dedicated to worshiping capitalism - complete with what looked like confessionals, but were in fact small offices for people to conduct their business in private. The opulence was off the charts and impressive. The building is the Bourse of Antwerp.
The Lee Miller photo exhibit was incredible - I only knew a bit about her work, especially as a photojournalist in WWII for Vogue. Miller’s earlier work with Man Ray was thoughtful, surreal of course, and beautiful. According to the Guardian, there will be a large exhibit of her work at the Tate in London October through February. If you have a chance to see her work, I highly suggest you go. If you cannot make an exhibit, I strongly suggest you watch the film. It’s really well done. If you saw Civil War, the photojournalist - Lee Smith - was inspired by her work.
Weeks after watching Lee, I am still thinking about this powerful film, her powerful work, her powerful resistance to fascism, and the patriarchy, and the incredible documentation of the dehumanization. There were 9 production companies who came together to finance this film. It took 9 years to bring to fruition. It's difficult to make films as a woman. And difficult as a woman to make a film about women. Persistence, resilience, perseverance and power. Respect.
May 11 – Day 183
Mother’s Day in the Netherlands and the US. I was treated to a lazy and luxurious breakfast at a cafe in Antwerp. It was Sunday morning, so not much was open which meant a mostly empty city, which was just lovely.
I drove us home and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the garden with the cat by my side as he enjoyed some catnip I got from the nearby garden center.
No music this time, but enjoy these animals being cute:
Cockatoo tells his dog friend about his day.. 😅 #Animals #Pets #Wonderful
— animals being cute (@animalsbeingcute.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T22:07:43.345Z
Pretty full week Bea. Well done for making it to this one :)