Monday Morning Quote
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Monday Morning Quotes
Monday Morning Quotes
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Since 1998 I've been sending out these reflections first thing each
week--one or more quotes plus my thoughts about the intersections and
contradictions. They're archived here back to 2002, and a new one is
posted every Monday morning. Dialogue is still welcome . . .
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Quote #1249 - #CareYetNotCare
03 Aug, 2026
CARE YET NOT CARE
"Is it possible to learn
How to care and yet not care?
Since love has two faces
Hope and despair"
Joni Mitchell
"The Moon at the Window"
"You don't have to care about everything around you. Some things are best left ignored."
Scary Mommy
www.scarymommy.com
"No one had told me what a heady stimulant not caring was."
Emma Sloley
THE ISLAND OF LAST THINGS
My ears are ringing,
actually sizzling,
like eggs are frying inside my head,
non-stop. Days on end.
It may be a side effect from medication
or it may be a reaction to the state of the world
or my world.
Or it may be all of it.
I'm trying to figure that out.
I've learned how to say "no" externally,
although it took many years
and many feeble and half-hearted attempts.
But I have not yet learned how to say it internally
(or have been unwilling to
since caring is such a huge part of who I am,
how I work, how I act, how I write, and on).
But it is killing me
especially now, as I get older.
And right now I can't hear.
You know, the perpetual noise in my head.
So is it possible to find a way
to deeply care
and yet not care?
To let go of carrying how things could be?
(I wrote a song about it so many years ago,
"I'm the keeper of your ideal self ...")
Is it possible to not take on the travails and troubles
of those I love, those I teach, those I collaborate with?
Is it possible to just let be
while still deeply caring for them?
I just finished a song for one of the shows I'm working on
(the title came from Randi Vaughan and June Rachelson Ospa):
"Let Her Be Herself."
I need to hear that.
Can I let her be herself?
Even if her world is crumbling around her?
If I can't change it, if it's not my job to try,
what good is my carrying it?
I am still, after all the years and all the "no"s
carrying too much weight.
Is it the same with 47 and
this whole damned administration?
Can I completely separate from the external news
and yet still care--empathize with--
those who are suffering far more than me
from the current policies and procedures?
Can I still take action--must always take action--
but not carry it on me and in me
all the time?
I have to try.
The buzzing in my ears is saying it over and over
inside my head:
"You have to try to care
and yet not care."
Shellen Lubin
August 3, 2026
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