How to survive the "pressure of the real"

Also: There is no unifying story for Passover this year [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  April 28, 2024 We’re handing over the pen this week to best-selling [author]( and long-time Cog contributor, Steve Almond. — Cloe Axelson Dear Cog reader, Last week, I was driving with my youngest child to his Dungeons & Dragons play group. I had the radio tuned to NPR, which — in the space of perhaps 10 minutes — offered reports on the war in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis in Europe and the epidemic of homelessness here in the United States. My son was ostensibly reading a book. But like all children, he was also listening to what the adult world was telling him. And for a moment, I pondered what it must feel like for him to absorb all these sad and frankly terrifying stories. This is not a criticism of NPR. These stories merit coverage; there’s no way to mobilize the public to push for solutions if the media pretends these crises don’t exist. But it’s also true that most of us feel overwhelmed, and occasionally helpless. The poet Wallace Stevens wrote about this dynamic, way back in 1942, in the essay “[The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words]( He referred to this unending stream of news reports as “the pressure of the real,” and how, as a poet, absorbing this pressure, day after day, can sap our hopeful energies and demolish our imagination. As a [writing teacher]( I’ve seen how easily the “pressure of the real” can crush my students. After every calamity, a certain number will tell me they see no point in writing, given how broken the world around them is. I often feel the same way. As I tune in to WBUR, or read essays on Cognoscenti, I’m caught in what the cultural historian Neil Postman calls a “[great loop of impotence]( There’s all this horrible news out there; I have no idea what to do about any of it. So what is a citizen of good faith to do? That’s the question I’ve been mulling with increasing urgency for the past decade. [Read more here]( for my recommendations. Steve Almond Cognoscenti contributor Editor's Note: Cloe here again. The world was awfully [real]( for my WBUR colleagues and I this week, but we go on. Cog is hosting an [an event on May 30 at CitySpace](. It’s all about “what makes Boston home” and we have some terrific guests lined up: Anita Diamant (author of many titles, including “[The Red Tent]( Ana Sortun (chef and partner at [Oleana]( Sarma, Sofra Bakery), Dr. Jim O’Connell ([Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program]( and the subject of Tracy Kidder’s latest book, “[Rough Sleepers]( and Catherine T. Morris (founder of [BAMSFest]( director at The Boston Foundation). Here’s a link to [get your tickets](. 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