How Are You Coping?

It’s 4:00 am. I cannot sleep.

Welcome to Fat Tariff Tuesday. I spent at least two hours before bed last night scrolling. And scrolling. And scrolling. I told myself I wouldn’t do this. That I wouldn’t get sucked into the vortex of chaos that is swirling around us. But I did.

Is anyone else wishing they still had their notes from Econ 101?

Is anyone else envisioning long lines at gas pumps, with angry folks shouting for a drop of fuel? Is anyone else having flashbacks of empty shelves at Trader Joe’s, with folks reaching for (or fighting for) a lone avocado that rolled under a dusty bin, now desperately desired? Of course, in other parts of the world, this is already every-day life.

I’m usually pretty positive. I tend to look up rather than down. I try to vibrate energetically above negativity and over all crappiness. But these are interestin’ times we got here.

Thankfully, we’re all in this together. Right? Gotta hunker down; gotta go shut things down so we can move forward to better days ahead. Only, this isn’t COVID. Or shit, maybe it is.

Now’s a good time to ask this: “How you doin’?” (Said like Joey from Friends, naturally.)

How are you coping?

I don’t know about you, but during COVID days, I would turn to alcohol to appease my anxiety. Didn’t matter what kind. As long as it was wet, right? However, since then, I’ve gotten a bit more specific. And that’s a good thing because this moment we’re in now calls for something stronger. Like Bourbon. After visiting Kentucky last June, it has become my stiff drink of choice. But, reading (scrolling) in the NY Times last night, I found:

“Mr. Trudeau has promised that Canada is prepared to respond with tariffs on U.S. imports. It would initially target 30 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of products, including Kentucky bourbon…”

Of course, our bourbon industry took a hit in 2018 due to tariffs, recovered in 2021 when those tariffs were lifted, and now here we are again. I mean, is a Prohibition-Redux next? Will there be a run on bourbon with folks stealing aged oak barrels in the night? How will we cope?

In all seriousness, Brown-Forman has closed a cooperage and also laid off 12% of its workforce. Kentucky relies on bourbon way more than I do. There are going to be ripple effects that will reach us, too…go ahead on and check your Econ notes.

This all feels so very serious.

So very dark.

So reminiscent.

Did I ever tell you my grandpa was born in Kentucky in 1899. He told me dad, and my dad told me, that he would never go back.

“Never go back”….

Hmmm.

At this ungodly hour, it feels like we are going back in some ways. 1930s depression. 1970s oil embargo. 1960s Cuban missile crises.

How far back are we going to go??

Things sure are great. Again.

I’ll ask again, “How are you coping?”

Some of us are out in the streets protesting, some of us are pulling on our suspenders, rocking back on our heels and shouting, “Now that’s how you get ‘er done.” And some of us are scrolling, and scrolling and scrolling. But I bet most of us are really starting to look over our shoulders. Of course, some of us never stopped.

Anyone else starting to feel like that scene in Titanic where the orchestra just.keeps.playing while the big ship is sinking? I am.

Is it too early for an Old Fashioned?