Coping With The SCOTUS Ruling
I was sitting in my office when my work bestie called to tell me the news. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) had overturned Roe vs. Wade.
It’s like we aren’t even people to them, I think.
I drive home with the radio off. Something I do when I feel overwhelmed. It sometimes helps when I turn down all the noise possible.
Grandma, can you believe they did it again? Of course you can, I think.
I wasn’t actually speaking to my late grandma. My brain went on to do the mental math to calculate her age when the Roe vs. Wade ruling occurred in 1973. She would have been 47 years old. Likely her entire reproductive “fertile” life. I began to cry.
I think about what she and her friends may have gone through that she never told me.
What the hell do we do…?
Be calm, be smart, don’t give up, I think. (or grandma tells me, who really knows anyway?)
Fast forward some weeks, I’m choosing to take care of myself while also being honest. I’m giving myself permission to use as many (or few) words as I want. And it has more often been less than more.
You do not need to justify your position repeatedly. You do not have to have this conversation if you don’t want to, I think.
I have started to face my own mortality, it seemingly becoming more imminent overnight.
You could, people will die because of this. You need to face what that means, I think.
I’m allowing myself to be all up in my feelings and also letting them go so new can pop up.
Screaming at the television is OK. Just also turn the channel, breathe… and laugh, I think.
I grabbed some pool time with my niece and we talked about fun teenager stuff, in addition to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and how that is dangerous to women.
She is getting some of the complexities, I realize. Don’t give up. We can do this, I think.
I go to a yoga class and the closing contemplation was on “letting go in here so we can fight out there.”
That sounds incredible. I think about how free and light I could allow myself to become so that I have more space to dissent out there. I think about it as a choice.
Your boss encourages you to write a blog on coping with the SCOTUS new ruling. She shares that she wants us to feel powerful and safe as we work together to make positive impact in the community.
I’m with the right group of people. The time is now, I think.
I’m not entirely sure what my grandmother would say. Nobody actually has the answer. But I find that the more I am willing to quietly feel her anxiety and fear, that has now become mine and perhaps yours, I have surprisingly found comfort. The more I talk with others, I find more courage. And the more I take care of myself, I find more strength.
