Israel and Iran’s Escalation

Briefing|Israel and Iran’s Escalation

Good morning. Here’s the news you need to start your day:

• Middle East: Israel and Iran exchanged a new wave of attacks, striking one another with missiles and drones.

• Military parade: Tanks and troops will make their way through the streets of Washington, D.C., today.

• “No Kings”: Today is also expected to be the broadest day of demonstrations against President Trump’s second term, with protests in all 50 states.

We have more on these stories below. But first, Melissa Kirsch writes about staying centered when the world feels chaotic.

Breathing room

Last week, a friend read my tarot cards. It was a lark — neither of us had much experience with the occult, but it seemed a diverting enough way to spend an evening, to engage with the messiness of our lives in a way that might offer some clarity. We drew the cards, then used the book that came with the tarot deck to interpret them. I made a note of one passage that seemed to invite further consideration: “Practice being present in the here and now. It’s all we have, and it’s a lot.”

I read this two ways. On the one hand, the present moment contains a rich bounty of content. No need to trouble yourself with the past or the future, there’s abundance right here. On the other hand, I hear that understated response we often give these days when asked how we’re handling a particularly stressful moment: “It’s a lot.” In modern parlance, “It’s a lot” says a lot without saying anything specific. It encapsulates a general feeling of being overwhelmed without getting into all the reasons why.

I noticed people saying “It’s a lot” early in the Covid pandemic, a slightly deadpan assertion that captured the experience of feeling swamped by a deluge of information. There’s been an uptick in “It’s a lot” in my conversations and group chats and self-reflection recently. The quantity of news we’re trying to process, and the pace at which that news seems to break, seems to require constant vigilance just to keep up. Refresh, refresh, what’s happening, what’s new. Or there are those who avoid the news altogether — it’s not just a lot, it’s too much, and they’re opting out.