Last week I was reading this about Asheville; (I lost the name of sender) ”I’ve found myself obsessively doom scrolling on social media, waiting for the next mind-blowing flooding video to pop up about the devastation in North Carolina. I’m exhausted by it, and yes, depressed. I can’t tell you how many people have shared that they’ve just broken down and had a huge cry. It’s not a matter of if you’re going to break, but when.”
For sure I thought I was tough enough to weather challenging times. I have been through a lot in my life, however unexpectedly, it happened to me too.
First I was exhausted of moving my stuff to storage during hurricane Helene when Covid hit me and as a result the newly adapted implant got infected by a very low immune system. I had to fly to Costa Rica to have it removed.
In the dark I coincidentally grabbed my Dutch Passport and got in trouble getting back in the country in Texas with a fat face from surgery without a visa….That was the point when something in my head just snapped. I was not willing to cover up my depression any longer with toxic positivity. I knew I had to take some action not to slide further into darkness and I asked my friend in Sarasota if I could live with him for a while, which was agreed upon.
As a modern nomad I am able to catch my breath in another place, in another world altogether without surrender. Now I am working not only on plan B but also plan C, because I learned that the unexpected can happen at any time.
If you want to learn more about the impact hurricane Helene had on the River Arts District in Asheville there are two very well executed podcasts from Scott Sourdough.
It is from Not Real Art. In this special edition of Art World Horror Stories, Asheville photographer Michael Freas discusses the impact of Hurricane Helene on Western North Carolina. https://notrealart.com/photographer-michael-freas/
In the second episode Scott talks about the future, https://notrealart.com/rebuilding-asheville-after-hurricane-helene/
