Bowing to despair is even easier than coffee overdosing.

Yesterday, I was sad.

My inner insufferable yoga teacher started right away. “Sad? You should be grateful, look at all you have, blah blah blah.” Really. How about no. I was sad, and as a wise hippie once put it: “Sometimes, you just have to stand there and hurt.” It came and went, but for awhile, there was no quick fix available, and cliche solutions were doing more harm then good. I felt like how my girlfriend Maru described her mood recently:

“If I hear one more person say

‘Love and Light!’

I’m gonna collapse in terror.”

You know those patches? Sometimes it just rains sadness, and you can bust out the gratitude umbrella on me all day long, it will only make me feel bad that I don’t feel good. Looking up at the gratitude umbrella, I’ll see that I’m outside of it, getting a facefull of  runoff.  Thanks but no thanks, inner yoga teacher. sadness is an inescapable part of the human condition, and a self-forged wellspring of gratitude just looks like a shiny red wheelbarrow of falsehoods from that place. And from there, I was cheerily gazing at some inspirational images.

In these times of woe and strife, CAFOs and GMOs and Oreos and Newt, sometimes, ya gotta get dosed with a shot of hope, and fast. But in yesterday’s mindset, in spite of two awesome ej articles on hope lately, I was put off by the very word. Pro anything was too fluffy, but I could definitely do some anti.  Anti Despair. I could work with that. So get over here and  click it if you are in for a shot of the good stuff. But really, let’s avoid the h word for now.

“Southbound Pachyderm” from Prius can make it all ok for awhile, and that is something. Cartoon premise and execution in this vid are not just the balls, but the furry red balls from hell. Drink it in like cold water, it is a healer.

Greece just banned animal circus, that rocks. Animal enslavement vanishing can wrench me out of a funk.

This amazing eleven-year-old-kid putting the smack down on Monsanto at TED can bring you up short. When he speaks of making it all happen one kid at a time, you can almost feel your cynicism drop off.

BUT THE WINNER is this WHAPAAA piece taken in a supermarket.  Old school candid camera with a tasty current events/vegan twist. Not gross I promise. Funny no matter where you stand.

So remember,

Wait, there’s nothing to remember.  Just enjoy, and f*ck despair.