Never-Ending Story

The eternal battle of hope, imagination, and new beginnings against the Nothing

Atreyu with Falkor in the film the Never Ending Story (source)

Child of the 80s here! And a bookish one at that.

I grew up under the terrifying spell of The Never Ending Story. In the film, a bullied child falls into a bookworld, Fantasia, where the malevolent Nothing is devouring the land. Fantasia, which overlaps strangely with the boy’s real life, represents the boundless human imagination, while the Nothing represents the death of dreams and hopes.

At a key moment amidst the adventures, the hero looks in a mirror. And the little boy, reading along, recognizes his own face.

So too with us.

The end of the public health emergency is our mirror moment.

Here we look and find ourselves, deep in the never-ending story of hopes versus despair. We might feel small, weak, and bullied. Yet we are called to fight unimaginable battles (to keep masks in healthcare?! SMH), to make incredible sacrifices to protect ourselves and others from the Nothing that wants to devour the possibility of other realities.

Against the nothing, we hold fast to the fragments of our dreams, even if they be only one grain of sand.

We find art. We find others. We endure.

(A friend recently taught me the Sanskrit word titiksha, a useful watchword for these times.)

The end of the emergency is an invitation to resolve anew. To make new efforts to build community and dare to dream. In that spirit, I share the work of the fellow-travellers who’ve been making hope lately:

• ❤️ Art: laugh in recognition with The Masketeers Comic ❤️

• ❤️ Music: sing along to the Mask song (cuss words, nsf kids) ❤️

• ❤️ Words: adore this rousing call to “Create New Dynamics” (fellow Hudson Valley folks!) ❤️

• ❤️ Education: learn about disability justice from this multi-media syllabus of work by Stacey Park Milbern ❤️

Even when you can’t imagine how… change is possible. Especially then.

Action

Has your doctor unmasked? Share your healthcare experiences since the end of universal masking! Stories will be collected and shared on social media.

Two more days to do it here!

Credit David Finch

Links

• 10 Things That Are Harder Than Wearing A Mask

• How To: Understand Local Wastewater Data

• Fed up with isolation? If you’ve got the resources to move to a Covid-safer community, check out this Discord server. (Or simply come check out what’s happening in the Hudson Valley!)

Just found us recently? We recommend starting at the beginning, with Fidelity to the Event.