Take a summer ‘Trump-cation’

Turn off news alerts, think of good deeds

Summertime presents a much needed opportunity to get away from things, symbolically if not physically, and restore perspective — especially when it comes to President Donald Trump. We need to regain the ability to separate what is merely annoying (the hair? the hand motions? the verbal tics?) from what represents a real and present danger to humane values and American democracy.

Deny the troll in chief and his “libtard”-baiting followers the pleasure of seeing your head explode over each symbolic outrage — which might be the thing they love the most. Free some energy for the vital work of articulating what Trump resisters are for, not merely who, or what, they are against.

You can start by re-exerting control over your news and social media intake. Even if you’re a news and politics junkie, you can designate periods of the day when you’ll plunge into your media sites. The rest of the time? Focus on work. Talk to your family. Go for a run. Vacations are ideal times to kick-start the process.

I recently changed the browser settings on my home computer so I would no longer be assaulted by news alerts forcing their way onto my screen to breathlessly announce that the president or one of his henchmen just did this or just said that. If I am watching a game or corresponding with a friend, no, I don’t need to know exactly now that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator had a soundproof phone booth installed in his office. The news will still be there when it’s time for your media consumption. We want to stay informed, and, yes, as citizens in a democracy it’s our duty. But we can do it in healthy, sustainable ways.

Second, reserve your thunder for abuses and outrages that are truly momentous. If Trump plays his strange handshake games with another country’s prime minister, quickly roll your eyes and move on. When he asserts that he is above all laws or that certain groups of people are subhuman, then it’s time for some constructively channeled outrage.

Third, remind yourself and others that there is still good in the world, even in Washington. For many conscientious citizens today, it feels as if we are living in a dystopian-future movie or novel. So much that’s happening feels massively wrong, too bad to be true. There is, as former Vice President Joe Biden aptly puts it, a “sick feeling” in our guts.

Yet everyday heroes are still out there doing good things, standing up for what’s right and those who are vulnerable to the toxic tide. Find some comfort and inspiration in them. Be one of them.

In the closing scene of the fourth and final “Hunger Games” movie, a warscarred Katniss coos to her upset baby: “I have nightmares, too . ... I'll tell you how I survive (them). I make a list in my head ... of all the good things I’ve seen someone do. Every little thing I can remember.”

Good advice — and a well of calming perspective to draw from next time you are tempted to play into the hands of a Trump troll.

Sometimes it seems there’s no relief: Trump telling lies, Trump alienating allies, Trump praising Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, Trump trashing the FBI, Trump acting like he’s king, Trump, Trump, Trump. Enough of Donald Trump! He wants to dominate your media and your every thought. You shouldn’t let him.

So take a break, take a breath, take a “Trump-cation” this summer. Not because you are giving up. Not because you are allowing the dangerous craziness to become normalized. But because you know you need to conserve your energy and keep your proverbial powder dry for the big moments of reckoning ahead.