Great Escape
Why We All Need (and Seek) Psychological Escape
The latest issue of Medium magazine: the act of getting away from it all
Rather late in the third week of April, I realized I’d gone too far. I’d been, you could say, in a kind of rehab, recovering from a life that was pegged to the news, obsessed by the news, distracted at all hours by the always very bad news.
This all started, as it did for many of us, on June 16, 2015.
That’s when a reality television star and real estate magnate announced his candidacy for the office of the President of the United States with the opening words “Wow. Whoa.”
In that infamous speech, he dog-whistled to racists with the claim that Mexicans were bringing drugs, crime, and rape across our borders. He talked about the leader of the free world as a brand in need of a makeover. He took down Obamacare. It was a pivotal moment for the country. For the highest office in the land. And for all of us. It’s when we all realized we could not look away.
During the run-up to the election, and in the year that followed, I had a professional responsibility to pay attention to everything Trump did, day in and day out. But it wasn’t just us journalists; it was everyone. The future president’s Twitter…
