What is happening right now?
Teacher friends describe fights at the school, kids who swear at teachers or the principal, assignments not completed, and an inability to intervene without parents getting upset. Why do these kids think this behaviour is okay? Why won't parents allow teachers to discipline their children?
ER doctor friends describe belligerence, patients drunk or high and not wanting help, just somewhere to stay warm and get a sandwich, leaving whenever they want, showing up again when the homeless shelter kicks them out. What led them to this point?
Stores all have those signs now that "shouting and swearing will not be tolerated." Security guards are everywhere. When did it become okay to shout and swear at people, something I witnessed during the COVID toilet paper fiasco?
A friend's fifteen-year-old daughter put up with parents yelling at her when she refereed a soccer game for eight-year-olds.
What is happening?

Can there be a reverse FOMO (fear of missing out)? What would that look like? Fear of doing something you really wish you hadn't? (Makes for a very long acronym). Absolutely fine with missing out (AFWMO?) I'm thinking of this topic because of the recent solar eclipse. Perhaps you heard about it? Obviously, I'm kidding; there was talk of little else leading up to April 8th, whether  purchasing eclipse glasses, avoiding high-traffic areas, or monitoring the weather. Did you view the eclipse?

In my recent experience with writing and writers, I’ve noticed that many– if not all– sometimes question their purpose. When the world is in disarray, what is served by short stories, fiction, poetry? Arts programs are often the first to be cut from cash-strapped schools. People refer to creative pursuits as hobbies, even if the creators are living off the craft. What resonates for one person may not for another. How do we place a value on art?

Have you ever attended Cirque du Soleil?
We've been lucky enough to attend a few times: so many performers with so much incredible talent. How do they find these performers, who seem able to do anything? Street buskers want ten bucks to juggle three or four balls, but in CdS there was the guy juggling eight balls, while also shooting them one at a time into a little cup he wore on his head. How? Someone walks across a taut high wire, to great fanfare (in a usual circus), but then a team of CdS performers uses a slack line, swinging it side to side while doing handstands and two-person cartwheels. People train for their entire young lives in figure skating, yet somehow CdS has an entire show full of skaters who can not only do the usual jumps and spins, but also go up and down ramps, do flips, and perform as a team. How is this pool of talent possible? Where do they find these people? It feels like the franchise has figured something out, either a magic way to bring out the best in a group, or creating a space for people with these particular skills to actually make a living.