How a Day of Renewal Can Help You Recognize You're on the Verge of Winning

Your tips are greatly appreciated! Upgrade at 30% offAugust is the time to go to the water park. Though there’s still a whole month of summer that remains, once the calendar is flipped you feel as if you’re clutching a root overhanging Charybdis to prevent yourself from sliding into the gnashing teeth.We went on a Sunday with a forecasted high of 78. I chose the park I used to visit when I was young. I remember the tube ride that alternated between fast shoots and still pools. You come out of the shoot and smash into the other riders giggling and laughing as their tubes are overturned.You end up getting your suit pulled down and your kids go, “Dad!” Then they laugh like they used to laugh when they were three and they got a glimpse of nudity.There’s a precious, innocent age when there’s nothing funnier in the world than a bare behind. Sometimes we can go back in time if only for a moment.I hadn’t taken the kids to this park before, because it’s next to where I used to own a business. I left the business because the area was so conservative.It pained me to think I was friends with people only to have them support harassment and violence against immigrants.This abuse is something my wife has faced and my kids.These people had met my kids when they were babies. Why didn’t they care? Why did they pretend to be my friends?We’ve been in a period of hopelessness now for more than half a year. Human beings are being snatched up off the street not by crime but by the government. They’re being sent abroad to torture. They’re being held in domestic detention camps.Prison camps.Concentration camps.The weight of that injustice is constant. The ravenous teeth of Charybdis grind beneath us. For six months we’ve endured this. For six months we’ve dangled.I’ve had enough.“Let’s go to the water park. Nothing is certain, but we have this moment. Let’s laugh like we’re innocent and the universe is good.”I’m often compelled to do things without completely understanding why. As I drove to the water park of my youth, I entertained thoughts about what I’d do if I saw any of the betrayers.The people who claimed to be my friend and voted for a man who would hurt my children.What would I say to them? Would they be embarrassed? Would they be able to face me, or would they look away and pretend I was a stranger?I kept telling myself that they probably wouldn’t be there.But let’s face it.People like that are everywhere.We pulled into the park and the kids were skeptical. That’s normal when an experience is new. “Will it be hot enough today?” I heard them say.I knew we just had to get on the first ride. We had to break the seal of the experience. Get them in the tube. Feel the first splash and everything would be good.It seemed like it took them forever to change, but eventually they came and we headed out into the fray.There, standing at the tube return, was a women I knew. She’d worked for a few years at the store I’d owned. I saw her and called out her name and offered an embrace which she accepted. I felt uncertain how she might feel since I’d dropped off the face of the Earth.The girls were already running up the path to the start of the slide, but my friend, the woman, had a moment to chat as if we’d met at the grocery store passing by.“How are you?” She asked. “How are things?”“It’s been hard,” I said, and I decided to speak plainly. Why hide what you are feeling when people ask? “We’re keeping our heads down because of all the hatred and anti-immigrant sentiment. We were afraid to travel this year. We’re trying to wait it out.”“I know,” she said. “It’s scary. My daughter wanted to drive to California and I told her no, I told her it was too dangerous.”It pleased me to hear this, because I wasn’t certain what she thought. We’re conditioned not to ask out of fear of what we might find. I knew her to be a good woman, but she lived in a conservative county. How much pressure of denial did she feel?Yet here she was speaking to me, embracing the terrible truth. She understood, and that brought me hope.I took my tube and followed my girls and we tried to forget our problems and have a good day. We did have a good day. I felt renewed. I didn’t realize how much I needed the break.We can push ourselves too hard, even in desperate times. Even when facing the end of the world, you have to stop and laugh and embrace your loved ones tight.Otherwise, what’s the point?Don’t wait for everything to be perfect to find your joy. Find it now. This moment is your life.The lines were short because the people already thought that summer had ended. Their retirement was premature. The lines were short and we rode all the slides again and again. When we were finished, we were tired and I drove home content.Sometimes I’m compelled to do things without fully knowing why.I took my kids to the water slides in a deeply red county.I found resistance and camaraderie there, and I was pleasantly surprised.We’ve lived to fight another day.I’m inclined to think that the fight is subtly turning our way.You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe