“I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once and cannot add up the sum.”

guilt about the way we feel

There are obviously ways of acting that aren’t allowable, but any emotion you and I might happen to feel, no matter how in or out of sync it is with the rest of the world, that’s a legitimate emotion.

they seem somehow out of tune with what we should be feeling right now

People talk about the way they hear birds sing in formerly busy city streets, but it is also true that people are hearing their own emotions sing out—sometimes shriek out—when they might once have been drowned out by the noise of the world, might have been lost alongside the hum of assumed predictability we used to have as white noise as we went through our busy days.

What is my pain or dislocation in the face of those who have had death and destruction tear through their worlds?

as if our own emotions aren’t allowed to be ours right now—they need to be compared to others, measured for appropriateness, and held out to public approval.

I feel guilty for giving into anxiety right now when so much in my life is still stable

I feel guilty about being sad right now because there are so many others who are so much worse off

I feel guilty about being happy right now, because so many are sad