This is a really empathetic, insightful essay. I'm glad you wrote it and I'm glad I read it.

I saw a YouTube video suggesting that in 476 CE, ancient Romans didn't know that Rome "had fallen." That was imposed later as a historical interpretation, though events of the time back up that interpretation. I've thought a lot about that since because the vast majority of people in the US and the West don't seem willing to consciously declare that decline and collapse are here; they won't give it a second thought. Suggesting it's possible to drift through the apocalypse without any recognition of it at all...