When people ask me how to keep calm in such chaotic times or remain at a decent heart rate when being faced with ignorance, I remind them it is often about intentional allocation of where one invests their energy.
I have never been an advocate of ‘convincing’ a bigot to not be so supremacist, or one who believes that structural violence is a cognitive issue that would be solved simply by making people ‘more aware’.
My calmness comes from a covenant I make with time & ancestors to be diligent in our collective responsibilities, to cultivate dignity for the breathing & the buried, to not turn to those who have inter-generationally degraded loved ones, to validate love or life, & to remember:
“…if you are ever confused about where to invest energy, remember there is far more benefit in whispering beauty into a garden than shouting obscenities into a black hole.”