Hey, world. Things are pretty bad right now, huh? As a person who measures stress with her body like a barometer, my body says: yes, they’re bad as hell. It’s not that something “new” is happening that wasn’t happening before. Hate, murder, and violence seem to be among this planet’s inexhaustible natural resources. But many of us feel as though we’re getting to the end of our ropes. And when the rope runs out, what’s there? Desensitization. Retaliation. Despair. The entire plot of Idiocracy becomes real life.

It’s hard to know what to do when black men are getting shot by cops execution style and justice is unlikely to be served, and then protests turn violent and cops are gunned down and killed, too, prompting a former congressman to threaten Obama with war on Twitter. Others struggle even with what to say, or worry about saying the wrong thing. I’m not great with speeches. I care deeply about things, but am not the most politically activated person you’ll ever meet. I’m kind of “armchair woke.” So I find myself wondering, and I think we all do, what can we do? Particularly for the armchair woke among us, or the hardly woke at all. Well, for starters, we can:

*Pay attention. I admit some days I get my news entirely from Facebook, but hey, it’s still news.

*Read things. If a subject is complex and sensitive, you could post online and ask your friends to explain it, or go home and ask your significant other for their two cents. That’s not a bad start. But better yet, you could look up some of the extremely thoughtful scholarship on the topic and get extra plugged in. As someone who doesn’t always have a coherent thought on difficult topics, I rely on smart-heads to help me process.

*Engage in conversation. It can be jarring to be shamed for not talking about a tragedy. You might think: I’ve got other stuff going on that I want to post on Facebook, or I just woke up, or everyone else has already said all the things that can be said. There have been times I’ve said nothing and scrolled timelines on various platforms through nodding my head at other people’s thoughtful words. But ask a gay friend how painful it was not to see their friends posting about the Orlando shooting in the aftermath. Ask your black friends how it hurts to see certain tragedies blow up on social media and the execution of black men go unmentioned among the baby pictures and unfiltered sunsets. Learn that it deepens rifts to see everyone Pray for Paris and say nothing when 300 people are killed by ISIS in Baghdad. (By the way, I said nothing.)

*Donate to victims’ families. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. And the families of fallen officers. No child should lose a parent.

*Attend vigils and peaceful protests.

*Pray. Yes, Facebook friends, I know this isn’t enough. But if you believe in prayer at all, you know it isn’t nothing.

*Read more things. Seriously, there’s a lot to read.

*Vote in national and local elections.

What else, guys? Let’s talk.

Black Lives Matter.