Hello friends, how are you holding up? Can I give you a hug?
The world is burning, literally, and figuratively, but we can’t give in to despair. The shock and awe strategy we’ve been living through this last month is disorienting, infuriating and disheartening, but that’s the point. The people leading this assault on science and democracy want us to feel overwhelmed. They want us to give up. Let’s not.
There are a lot of things you can do. Call your representatives in Congress. Here’s how. It really can make a difference. Gather with your community and look at ways to support one another.
There are a lot of things we can do to make our voices heard, but at this moment it’s crucially important that we keep going and do not let the darkness overtake us. It’s ok, in fact, perhaps more essential than ever, to seek and experience joy.
I recently came upon a wonderful articulation of this idea from Ed Abbey, via the imitable Maria Popova.
“It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.
So… ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.“
Yes, let’s outlive the bastards, shall we? And while it’s true that “The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself,” let’s take a moment to relish the things worth saving while we’re doing the work to help right that fabled arc.