Do You Have Existential Invulnerability?
When the unimaginable becomes real. Plus, BTS of the 'Colbert Show,' butter yellow explained, and 'White Lotus' Thai in NYC.
When I was a teenager, I loved watching Grey’s Anatomy. The medical drama tinkered on the edge of relatability and unimaginable tragedy. There was a strange enjoyment in watching human suffering I only now realize was because I didn’t believe it could happen to me. Then, one sunny June day when I was 22, a scene from Grey’s Anatomy played out in real life. After trailing an ambulance carrying my mom to the hospital, and seeing her rushed by me incubated in her nightgown on a stretcher, I sat in the emergency room, a whir of commotion around me, in complete disbelief. I remember thinking it felt like a scene from a movie.
When the wildfires hit L.A. last January, a meme circulated Instagram with the warning that climate change is a distant problem until it’s in your own backyard. I’m afraid of our climate future, but it’s hard to feel the sense of urgency when it’s not posing an immediate emergency in m…