Flames & Fury

LISTENING: to my cat eat his food
FEELING: overwhelmed
SEEING: the dark gray skies outside

Will our future consist only of flames and fury? If a meteor tore through our atmosphere today, would we even know it? Or would it collide with the rockets in the sky over Gaza? Would it fall onto grass already burning wild in Texas? Would we point a gun at it the way a police officer did when he saw a human body ablaze?

These are the questions I ask myself today. In my heart, I know there will be more to our future than the ashes of our pain, the embers of our failure. I know red and orange will be drowned by blue — that rains and floods and monstrous waves will terrorize us, too. Surely, the sun will rise again and awash the shredded lands in its golden hues.

Today, however, I can't imagine that. All I can see is fire. All I can hear are Aaron Bushnell's violent, pained cries: "Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine!"

Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I can't get his burning image out of my head.

I've decided to make most posts available only to paid subscribers. The media industry is in a freefall these days. If you all care about the news and the workers giving you it, you should feel compelled to pay for it. I know I'm not giving you "the news" through this newsletter, but the newsletter helps fund my ability to do just that elsewhere and share it with you all here.