I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

The news is always bad, but the last few days have felt overwhelming.

• A gunman (claimed by Hamas) killed 6 at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
• Netanyahu pledged retaliation against Gaza for this because...whatever else has happened in Gaza should not be considered retaliatory enough as it is?? Or because Gaza isn't suppose to retaliate?? Or some other reasoning I don't understand... I mean, they also killed the shooter, so...I dunno.
• Also Israel bombed a residential area in Doha, targeting—and killing—5 Hamas leaders, and 1 security guard (so, like, wasn't that retaliation?...I guess I don't understand the word very well).
• Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, the bullies.
• Russia also has sent drones into Polish airspace, setting a large portion of Europe on edge. 
• NEPAL, friends. What? They overthrew their government, burnt down their parliament building. Props—you do you, boo. But then they also, like, burned the ex-first lady alive and did a bunch of super violent stuff? Less cool—exceedingly uncool.
• There was a school shooting in Colorado. Nice. Neat. Great. Seems we can't get enough of those. Hope and prayers. Pop some popcorn. 
• There was a shooting at UVU, targeting and killing Charlie Kirk, a political activist who—honestly?—gives me the ick. But, that doesn't change my mind about gun violence. Let's use our words, friends. No one deserves to be hunted down and murdered for something they said, whether they're a democrat (and democrats have died this year from targeted assassinations as well, let's remember) or republicans. Let's use our words where possible (incidentally, this is most places). I can't imagine how devastated his family is right now. Unconscionable.
• UVU is just down the road from BYU. I attended both UVU and BYU. Rachel is at BYU. My sister was right by UVU when it happened, saw the emergency vehicles. Our good friend has an office right behind where it happened. I know multiple young adults attending UVU. It's a lot. 
• And last week UGA sent out a notification about an active shooter on campus (which ended up being a hoax, but it was still unsettling). 
• The president of the United States posted an AI image of himself in front of the burning Chicago skyline with the words "Chipocalypse Now!" scrawled on the side. He remarked that Chicago was about to experience war. How in the world is any of this normal? Besides the fact that "Chipocalypse" offends me as a linguist because it simply fails as a portmanteau (everybody is going to read that as "chip-ocalypse now," not "shipocalypse now," which is how it would be pronounced if we were trying to say Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑ.ɡoʊ). No one says (tʃɪˈkɑ.ɡoʊ) with a hard /ch/...unless they're speaking a foreign language, at least from my experience). But also it offends me as a human and as an American. We don't pick cities to wage war against. Ludicrous. 

And we're all expected to go about our merry ways. And I guess that's all we can do. 

I'm sure someone is itching to suggest that I simply not watch the news. And I suppose that's an option. 

But my friend Amy recently posted a clip from The Sound of Music where Max and Captain von Trapp are debating the political climate in Austria in the 1930s (spoiler: things, uh, didn't turn out great):

Uncle Max: What's going to happen's going to happen. Just make sure it doesn't happen to you.

Captain von Trapp: Max. Don't you *ever* say that again.

Uncle Max: You know I have no political convictions. Can I help it if other people do?

Captain von Trapp: Oh yes, you can help it. You must help it.

If you can afford to stick your head in the sand, it probably means the status quo is working in your favour...for now. But there's the whole "first they came" principle at play here as well, so the sand isn't my first choice.

Plus, my husband is, like, a political scientist of sorts...we don't not do the news at our house.