Ah, the tragedy of any in-joke. If not everyone is in on the joke, eventually it stops being a joke.

I’m going to go a different direction and argue that the RS232 has always been the most androgynous and third-sex of the connectors because:

• the female connector is most frequently the one that’s a cable
• the male connector is most frequently directly connected to an appliance
• the male has the pin prongs, but is almost always recessed.
• the female connector has the the prong holes, but almost always juts out.

Who’s connecting to who? Who’s the top and who’s the bottom? Who wears the pants? No one knows.

I used to get very anxious and stressed out about this. I started reading a book that reframed my mindset on the issue. Now I don’t get nearly as stressed or anxious as I used to.

Being stressed and anxious about the issue is coming from a mindset that we could still prevent it, and wanting to do something to “stop” it from happening.

So maybe try thinking about it like this instead:

1. Humanity will not end with Climate Change. It will become different, and worse. But it will not end society.

2. Animals and nature will not end with Climate Change. They will become different, and worse. But it will not end all other forms of life.

3. Climate change is not something to stop. It is already here. The world you used to know is already gone. Accept that you live in a different world, and that’s ok.

4. Mitigation is still a good thing, we should still be actively trying to mitigate what we can. But it won’t make things the way they used to be.

5. Start preparing and planning your life around these changes. It will help you feel more empowered, and help you accept our new reality.

My recommendation is to read “How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos”. Reading that book in some ways felt like going through the five stages of grief. But in the end I felt like I came out feeling healthier, and more capable of helping mitigation efforts because I didn’t feel paralyzed by fear anymore.