Take Care of Yourself

If you’ve ever been on a plane, then you’ve sat through one of those boring, in-flight safety demonstrations — instructing you on what to do in case of certain emergencies.

One of the things you are told to do, should cabin pressure drop — which is counterintuitive if you’re a parent — is to put the oxygen mask on yourself first, before putting it on your child. The lack of oxygen caused by the drop of cabin pressure could lead to hypoxia; and if you become confused, weak, and pass out, your child would certainly not know how to help themselves, thus leading to both of you suffering the consequences.

Like a frantic mother who puts the mask on their child first, those of us in our struggle do something similar: we try to help fight the enemy in whichever way we can, oftentimes at the expense of ourselves, which over time, leads to battle fatigue and us “passing out” due to the stressors that come with it.

I know — I’ve been there.

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The Hard Truth

One of the ways people burnout, is they never take a break from the fight. They feel if they take any time off, everything will fall apart without them, or they will miss out on something important (fear of missing out, aka, FOMO). The hard truth is, and I say this bluntly: none of us are that important, nor is any event.

If anyone of us died today, the only people who would truly care and really be affected are our closest friends and relatives. Even if you were famous (or infamous), you’d be in the news cycle for about a week or two, max. Everyone would be talking about you, until the next big thing — then, on they go with their lives.

“Did you hear that Lucas Gage died yesterday?”

“OMG. Yea, I heard. He’s was a good man; I really liked his Twitter account.”

“I’m gonna miss his posts! They were funny.”

“Lol. They sure were!”

“Anyway, gotta pick eggs up from Costco. Bye now!”

“Bye!”

The same is true with any particular event. Although some events can certainly change the world, and will be recorded in history — an event like 9/11 — as time passes, everyone will eventually “get over it,” adjust to the changes it brings, and move on with their lives. There is always something that comes next. Remember the Covid lockdowns? We endured them for nearly two years; we got over it, and now we’re back to our “normal” lives — well, most of us.

Is it true: there is nothing new under the sun. Indeed, humanity faces the same things it always has, over and over again: crime and cancer; war and genocide; famine and natural disasters; and of course the good stuff, too: butterflies and birdsongs; birthdays and ball games.

I have my own saying about the cyclical nature of things: “It’s all the same shit in different forms.”

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Take a Break

It is mighty honorable of you to sacrifice comfort for our struggle, but you have to pace yourself in this long war for our sovereignty. Even our greatest athletes and warriors have to get some R&R (rest and recovery), lest they become less efficient at their task.

None of us have infinite energy, infinite patience, infinite durability. Despite how tough we may be, both mentally and physically, we are not indefatigable nor indestructible — we all must take break at some point, whether we want to or not.

Some of us are quite stubborn and refuse to listen to our body and our mind, when both tell us to take some time off. Again, I know; I’ve pushed myself way beyond the limits, and all it did was drive me mad. It is neither good nor necessary for you to go that far, due to FOMO; for you are no good to us depressed, diseased, or in worst case — dead.

When your mind and body are telling you it’s time to take a break — take one! There is nothing wrong or selfish about taking a break from it all. Log off of social media; spend quality time with your friends and family; take care of other matters you’ve left on the back burner; go take a nice vacation; unplug yourself from the Matrix, completely. No matter what you do, this war will still be raging on when you return. And when come back, you will feel refreshed and ready to fight hard, once again.

But you if never take a break, you will be broken by the demands and stressors of this war; and a broken and injured soldier is always a liability on the battlefield.

So, for your own sake and our sake, take a damn break.

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