Tassels of happiness on a curtain of gloom

There is a lot that fills me with dread out there.  I don't want to add to other people's sense of dread -- not only for kindness' sake, but also because it's hard to take good action when we feel low.*

So, while acknowledging that there's a huge curtain of gloom draping over the country right now, I'd like to share some small tassels of happy news.   They exist; they're not the main story, but they are there.  

You might have inferred that, of all my children, J-son has had the largest roller-coaster of a life.   In recent years, he could have won any family prizes we would have given for what one might euphemistically call "adventures": economic adventures, legal adventures, pharmaceutical adventures.   Heck, even just thinking residentially, he's had more addresses than any of us.   

Throughout all of this, I've tried to carefully walk on the balance beam of support without enabling, of being a non-judgmental resource while not condoning self-destructive acts.  What I just wrote there sounds lovely in theory, and of course it doesn't work so nicely in practice.  But there it is.

So here's a little tassel of happiness.   J-son just texted the family to say that he's got a job.  

Actually, this is three tassels of happiness:  the first is that, in spite of all the odds stacked against him --- the pandemic, potential racism (he's in a predominantly rural, white area right now), his current living situation, his past "adventures" --- in spite of all that, he's got a job.  The second is that, he did this himself: it wasn't me or his former foster mom or any other adult leading him by the hand and making connections; it's him, showing initiative.  This is the first time he's applied for and gotten a job without a parent helping him.

The third, and the one that most warms my heart, is that when this happened, he texted the family.  All the bridges that could have been burned during these adventures: they're not burned.  He's proud and he knows we'll be proud of him.   It's a frilly little tassel of joy for me: he texted us that he got a job.

The family texted back with lots of congratulations.  And J-son writes,

Thx everyone means a lot

Miss u all

I miss you, too, kid.

* It's hard to take good action when we're overwhelmed with dread, 

because we don't know what to do.  We shouldn't have to say 

"police should protect citizens, not murder them"; 

we shouldn't have to say that bigotry and xenophobia are sins 

against our neighbor (and against God, if you believe as I do). 

How do we stand up and say what we shouldn't have to say?  

And who do we say it to?   I did attend a rally downtown with

my daughter over the weekend, and I revised my professional web pages 

to describe not just what  I teach, but that I teach it for reasons of social

and economic justice for all people.  I'm still casting about for more

meaningful and effective responses.  Suggestions welcome.