It’s just me this week. Faith is out being a busy Gen Z human (working, auditioning, and she got cast in a show!), so you get me and a couch full of snoring dogs. I came on to talk about the thing she and I have been trying to record about for weeks: creativity, and what happens to it when the world feels too heavy to make anything at all. I’ve been a writer my whole life, first for myself, then blogging back when we all opened our Blogspot accounts and wrote about motherhood into the void. That writing was how I connected with people. It’s still where the creativity lives for me, and lately it just hasn’t been flowing. I think two things are tangled up in that. The first is the obvious creative block. The thoughts are there, but the follow-through to sit down, flesh it out, and keep to a schedule isn’t. The second is bigger, and it’s the one I really get into this week: what is my responsibility, and what is my lane? Back in the early internet days there was an unspoken rule. When something huge happened in the world, you paused your regular content and said something, or you went quiet, but you didn’t just keep posting your lunch like nothing was happening. Now the rules are gone, everybody judges everybody, and I keep circling the same questions: * What’s my responsibility? I’m not a journalist. I’m a counselor, a psychologist, a mom, a transplant to a new city. Do I speak on what’s happening, or point to the people who know more? * What do I do with my privilege? I’m a safe woman in a safe house who doesn’t look like the people they’re coming after. That’s exactly why the question matters. * Who am I to talk? And when I don’t talk, why does that feel wrong too? So I do talk about it: the 15 Minnesotans arrested this week on federal charges that sounded made up, hauled off in a tactical-gear spectacle for the “crime” of protecting their neighbors. Fourteen released by that night. Meanwhile two people were shot dead in the street by federal officers and there’s no investigation at all. ICE never left Minneapolis. The news just stopped covering it. Here’s where I landed, at least for now. The wonder isn’t always in the weeds. Sometimes there’s no bright spot inside the fight itself. But I can lift my head up, get out for a little while, and go fill up on the bright stuff. For me right now that’s the rise of women’s sports. It fortifies me to go back in and keep digging. I don’t have the answers yet. But I’ll keep showing up here and sharing the walk-through, and I hope that’s enough for now. Reading, Watching & Listening To * Watching: Sports, all of it. Lynx and WNBA games, the World Cup (I’m always more excited for the women’s, but I’ll take the men’s), the Knicks’ run, and, because my son is home from college, whatever he puts on: Giants baseball, any baseball, any World Cup match he can find. Can’t “recommend” it exactly, but it’s a lovely escape and a great way to connect with a kid who’s home. * Listening: Post Moves, the WNBA-centered podcast with Candace Parker. The recent episode with Leslie Jones was pure joy. The game talk, the athlete talk, and Leslie is hilarious. * Reading: Have a Great Summer by Francesca Cocchi, a lovely little rom-com set on the exact stretch of the Jersey Shore where I raised my kids (Monmouth and a little Ocean County). Made me deliciously homesick. Give it a shot even if you’ve never set foot there. The weeds are so thick right now, but keep looking for the wonder, because it’s what helps you get through them. Reflection posts and show musings drop on Substack twice a week. Subscribe, share it with a friend, and sign up for the weekly emails. Join the paid Women of Wonder community for Monday discussion prompts and monthly live calls: https://thewonder.life/show/ Get full access to Cristie Ritz-King, PsyD at critzking.substack.com/subscribe
