Oh! I sent that poem out in the thank you card to people after my brother died. I think it confused people, but he'd struggled, and I liked to think of his passage as being like that poem, "straightening up, I saw the blue sky and sails."
I got to meet Milosz once, very late in his life, and he was quite deaf. I handed him my copy of this little book of letters he and Thomas Merton had exchanged, and he was surprised to see it, and happy to sign it. It all happened in the gestural language we use with our elders who can't really hear anymore, in a noisy room.
My grumbly fatalism feels uplifted. In a similar way, in fact, that it always is by the Lord of the Rings story in general. Even when things seem hopeless, you keep walking to make it better, and at some point are reminded that the stars are out there above it all. Thank you 🧡 Time to find a Tolkienesque forest to walk into and breathe under for a while.
A nice tree-covered slope to frolic under for awhile sounds good about now. I hear there are still a few of them left without No Trespassing signs, if you know where to look....
Frolicking sounds lovely. (I spent the entire morning looking obsolete words up in the Oxford English Dictionary and am now thinking frolicking, hm, what kind of rich history and future might that have?) Frolicking on a tree-covered slope even lovelier.
That's a great poem by Milosz. I met him at a party at Rutgers once, and had no idea of his greatness. A nice humble fellow. I am also a fan of the animated Tolkien films. The Return of the King is a bit lacking after the wildness of Bakshi, but there are nice touches, like Aragorn. Thanks for the Solnit piece, she is one of our best writers, and to use a bit of pop psych talk... despair is a noun, like a pit... but it's also a verb. We don't have to do it. What's the opposite of despair, the way fear is the opposite of love? I don't think it's hope. I think it's to persevere. Which we've taken as "to survive" but that's not what it means. It means, "to persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement." Which to me, embodies the long game.
And as much as I love a hiking trail... grizzlies need to be left alone. I will write a public comment.
Thanks again for writing what you do. And I look forward to hearing you at the event tomorrow.
I don't think we had much choice in females to identity with -- Arwen wasn't actually a character, just mentioned a couple of times! Though Eowyn was badass enough to want to identify with anyway.
I had to go look up her name (Goldberry) but I remember thinking that Tom Bombadil's wife had this aura I found very appealing. I understand why they left that whole storyline out of the movies but it harked back to something older and earthier.
Lol, well that's true enough. Arwen was a pretty central character in my memory, as was Galadriel. (But my dad read all the books, including The Simarilion, so I may have things confused. I kind of wanted to be an Ent too. But I was no Arwen or Galadrial, they were tall and beautiful in my mind. I at least had a chance at being the pesky one who sneaks off with the men.
Oh! I totally forgot about her! I should get to know her better. Dad must have skipped over her about while fawning about Arwen and Galadriel and singing Tom's songs.
ha--yes! I actually took an english lit class on Tolkien (so fun) and ended up having to write about Merry--and found that there is a late medieval miracle play about St. Meriadoc who becomes a knight of the King of Rohan, in Normandy or there about, which also crossed into Cornwall. I bet Tolkien knew about it and used it as inspiration. ;)
Thanks for linking the Solnit piece; I’m eager to read things like that right now. Relatedly, there’s an On Being interview with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, in which she discusses an alternative to hope: possibility. Kind of Murphy’s Law, but we often connote that pop-sci concept negatively, when it can actually have a neutral orientation. Her point is that hope relies on faith and is somewhat one-dimensional, whereas possibility is about curiosity, exploration, and resilience, but kinda different too. Anyways. The long view is trickier than the short one, but oh so necessary.
I'm still not sure I'm all in on the idea of hope, which sounds a little too complacent in most contexts. I like possibility, though. I like visualizing outcomes and then just doing what seems necessary to make them happen. I don't know. I just don't want to be miserable all the time, heh.
I keep going back to the part of Austin Channing Brown's I'm Still Here in which she writes about hope - hope as an active verb, one that you must work towards.
Charlotte, this is fantastic. Thank you for sharing it. I just ordered Austin's book as a result. I was JUST talking about the long game aspect of change last night in a Little Shell presentation I gave over zoom so that element was already much on my mind. I appreciate this very much. 🙏🏽
I have that one, I just haven't read it yet. As soon as I finish the book I'm almost finished reading, I'm going to read it next. I love Adrienne Maree Brown!
Oh, and in case you're wondering, this is the one I'm hoping to finish in the next couple days:
I love that Bishop Hersey's book is now out of stock - if everyone who reads it is moved even a little bit, I feel like we might make a movement. Maybe. The church is a hard place to be hopeful in, even if you believe, like I do, that following Jesus means liberation for all of us, regardless of what we believe.
I'm with you on the no PNT, the bears are in trouble now, and it's going to get a whole lot worse for them pretty darn soon. I'm sure you've noticed as I have that Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and their bosses at Wildlife Services have gone trigger happy this past season. Apparently, FWP's go to solution for human caused bear conflict is shoot the bear (no reasonable explanation needed). When the Montana legislature reconvenes this coming January, the Northern Rockies nut jobs like Brown, Fielder, Tschida will be itching to figure out some way to delist the grizzlies. Granted the bears are currently protected by the Feds, but that's not going to stop them from trying. These are the same guys that legislatively murdered all those Yellowstone wolves last hunting season. I think another problem the bears will face is Senator Tester's Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act. The whole collaboration ruse will give away more bear habitat than it will gain. A much better idea is the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Act which preserves all current roadless areas, wildlife corridors and wilderness study areas. There's no slicing and dicing like the BCSA proposes and the bears and other wildlife will be safer for it.
Here's a link to the Grizzly Times website if any of your readers are interested.
These are difficult times in Montana for wildlife, no doubt about it. FWP's answer to any wildlife conflict seems to death and that sucks. I got to vote against Tschida this election and I hope plenty others did too. He's awful.
Miigwech also for the Grizzly Times link. They do good work.
Thank you so much for the Solnit article. Maybe the long view is the protest perspective in a way, the one outside of consumerist history and news cycles, the one those in it must take in order to make it through.
What a beautiful landscape and your lucid narration makes it twice as magical combined with Tolkiens dreamland, almost makes me forget the horrors of real life. Aren’t we all crafting characters out of ourselves, self mythicising our identities from liquid to solid to liquid again, like the life cycles of water. You make me dream with this one. I’m curious if there are any indigenous ceremonies that are celebrated to honour the cycles of water/nature/seasons amongst your people?
Something about the poem "Gift" gave me pause to read it slowly, pondering each line as I read it to myself. I am so thankful for that, for it being a gift unto itself to read it in such manner.
Beautiful post, Chris. Always my pleasure to drop in and read.
Great piece. I’d like to think us Ojibwe are Aragorn-like beings too, he was always one of the best characters. I work in killer whale research and conservation and at most times I constantly struggle to find hope for change that will cause great improvement and recovery to our WA population, but my stubbornness seems to keep me on the path. Truly hope that humans will vote and lobby in favor of our grizzly relatives, though selfishness will undoubtedly rule out. Perhaps I’ll still be surprised.
Tess, thank you, I hope so too. The story of those Southern Resident whales – assuming that's who you mean – is so frustrating and sad. Thank you for working with and advocating for them!
It as a true revelation for me when I realised most of the national parks of the world are just another example of colonialism; A clever little bait and switch way to prevent land stewardship and displace entire nations of people.
Also, to the point about noticing what has changed - I spent the last 18 months revising a manuscript I first wrote in 2008. It follows a cast of queer characters and captures much of my experience as a queer elder millennial. The revision process was EYE OPENING for how far we've come and the level of homophobia I used to tolerate in my early twenties, that any queer kid today would be appalled by. So yes, we have a long way to go for queer and trans liberation, and also, in just my lifetime I've been granted more human rights and protections than most of my queer ancestors could have imagined in 1985, the year I was born.
Utah Phillips: a good friend of my favorite singer Kate Wolf. A quote from him and a song that reminds me oh Utah and you.
In April, 1986, Kate was diagnosed with leukemia. After chemotherapy, she went into full remission, started work on a retrospective album, and scheduled another tour. The disease returned in the fall, however, and we lost her on December 10. Her long time friend and touring partner, Utah Phillips covered the remaining shows she’d booked, including one in Placerville Mary and I had tickets for.
He led the crowd in singing her songs and said something I’ve never forgotten. “At the end of her life, Kate told me she knew why she’d gotten cancer. She took in people’s pain, the pain of living. It was the source of her art, but she realized too late that she never learned to let it go.” Phillips warned everyone to beware of clinging to grief and reminded us of the threads of hope and joy we also find in her music.
Oh! I sent that poem out in the thank you card to people after my brother died. I think it confused people, but he'd struggled, and I liked to think of his passage as being like that poem, "straightening up, I saw the blue sky and sails."
I got to meet Milosz once, very late in his life, and he was quite deaf. I handed him my copy of this little book of letters he and Thomas Merton had exchanged, and he was surprised to see it, and happy to sign it. It all happened in the gestural language we use with our elders who can't really hear anymore, in a noisy room.
I love this.
This is so lovely.
What a beautiful story 💓
My grumbly fatalism feels uplifted. In a similar way, in fact, that it always is by the Lord of the Rings story in general. Even when things seem hopeless, you keep walking to make it better, and at some point are reminded that the stars are out there above it all. Thank you 🧡 Time to find a Tolkienesque forest to walk into and breathe under for a while.
A nice tree-covered slope to frolic under for awhile sounds good about now. I hear there are still a few of them left without No Trespassing signs, if you know where to look....
Frolicking sounds lovely. (I spent the entire morning looking obsolete words up in the Oxford English Dictionary and am now thinking frolicking, hm, what kind of rich history and future might that have?) Frolicking on a tree-covered slope even lovelier.
Haha, the world could use a lot more frolicking out there in the trees, fields and streams...
Yes, it could!
That's a great poem by Milosz. I met him at a party at Rutgers once, and had no idea of his greatness. A nice humble fellow. I am also a fan of the animated Tolkien films. The Return of the King is a bit lacking after the wildness of Bakshi, but there are nice touches, like Aragorn. Thanks for the Solnit piece, she is one of our best writers, and to use a bit of pop psych talk... despair is a noun, like a pit... but it's also a verb. We don't have to do it. What's the opposite of despair, the way fear is the opposite of love? I don't think it's hope. I think it's to persevere. Which we've taken as "to survive" but that's not what it means. It means, "to persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement." Which to me, embodies the long game.
And as much as I love a hiking trail... grizzlies need to be left alone. I will write a public comment.
Thanks again for writing what you do. And I look forward to hearing you at the event tomorrow.
Thank you, Thomas.
I wanted to be Eowyn, but assuredly I am more hobbit like. And even then not as brave.
I don't think we had much choice in females to identity with -- Arwen wasn't actually a character, just mentioned a couple of times! Though Eowyn was badass enough to want to identify with anyway.
I had to go look up her name (Goldberry) but I remember thinking that Tom Bombadil's wife had this aura I found very appealing. I understand why they left that whole storyline out of the movies but it harked back to something older and earthier.
Lol, well that's true enough. Arwen was a pretty central character in my memory, as was Galadriel. (But my dad read all the books, including The Simarilion, so I may have things confused. I kind of wanted to be an Ent too. But I was no Arwen or Galadrial, they were tall and beautiful in my mind. I at least had a chance at being the pesky one who sneaks off with the men.
Arwen and Aragorn’s story is mostly in the Appendices I think? Your dad probably read those, too. I really want to read these books again now!
Possible! He had hand drawn his own maps and often he would fill in things that may have been in the appendixes.
That sounds so cool!
same!
Where's the love for Goldberry?
Oh! I totally forgot about her! I should get to know her better. Dad must have skipped over her about while fawning about Arwen and Galadriel and singing Tom's songs.
With all the flowers in water bowls at her feet 🥰
Oh, ha, wrote my Goldberry comment before seeing this one.
You got there without encouragement, though. You win!
For me the worst part of the Peter Jackson movie was taking out Goldberry and Tom Bombadil (and the Ents. Ugh.)
And your name is almost even "Rohan" so you know, perfect!
ha--yes! I actually took an english lit class on Tolkien (so fun) and ended up having to write about Merry--and found that there is a late medieval miracle play about St. Meriadoc who becomes a knight of the King of Rohan, in Normandy or there about, which also crossed into Cornwall. I bet Tolkien knew about it and used it as inspiration. ;)
Thanks for linking the Solnit piece; I’m eager to read things like that right now. Relatedly, there’s an On Being interview with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, in which she discusses an alternative to hope: possibility. Kind of Murphy’s Law, but we often connote that pop-sci concept negatively, when it can actually have a neutral orientation. Her point is that hope relies on faith and is somewhat one-dimensional, whereas possibility is about curiosity, exploration, and resilience, but kinda different too. Anyways. The long view is trickier than the short one, but oh so necessary.
I'm still not sure I'm all in on the idea of hope, which sounds a little too complacent in most contexts. I like possibility, though. I like visualizing outcomes and then just doing what seems necessary to make them happen. I don't know. I just don't want to be miserable all the time, heh.
I keep going back to the part of Austin Channing Brown's I'm Still Here in which she writes about hope - hope as an active verb, one that you must work towards.
Below is an excerpt:
https://onbeing.org/blog/austin-channing-brown-standing-in-the-shadow-of-hope/
Charlotte, this is fantastic. Thank you for sharing it. I just ordered Austin's book as a result. I was JUST talking about the long game aspect of change last night in a Little Shell presentation I gave over zoom so that element was already much on my mind. I appreciate this very much. 🙏🏽
oooh, try adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy -- it's fun to read and mind-altering in a good way.
https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
I have that one, I just haven't read it yet. As soon as I finish the book I'm almost finished reading, I'm going to read it next. I love Adrienne Maree Brown!
Oh, and in case you're wondering, this is the one I'm hoping to finish in the next couple days:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/catching-the-light-joy-harjo/18399195?ean=9780300257038
And I read this one on my trip to Boise and it's really been riding my brain hard ever since:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/rest-is-resistance-a-manifesto-tricia-hersey/18255493?ean=9780316365215
I love that Bishop Hersey's book is now out of stock - if everyone who reads it is moved even a little bit, I feel like we might make a movement. Maybe. The church is a hard place to be hopeful in, even if you believe, like I do, that following Jesus means liberation for all of us, regardless of what we believe.
Chris,
I'm with you on the no PNT, the bears are in trouble now, and it's going to get a whole lot worse for them pretty darn soon. I'm sure you've noticed as I have that Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and their bosses at Wildlife Services have gone trigger happy this past season. Apparently, FWP's go to solution for human caused bear conflict is shoot the bear (no reasonable explanation needed). When the Montana legislature reconvenes this coming January, the Northern Rockies nut jobs like Brown, Fielder, Tschida will be itching to figure out some way to delist the grizzlies. Granted the bears are currently protected by the Feds, but that's not going to stop them from trying. These are the same guys that legislatively murdered all those Yellowstone wolves last hunting season. I think another problem the bears will face is Senator Tester's Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act. The whole collaboration ruse will give away more bear habitat than it will gain. A much better idea is the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Act which preserves all current roadless areas, wildlife corridors and wilderness study areas. There's no slicing and dicing like the BCSA proposes and the bears and other wildlife will be safer for it.
Here's a link to the Grizzly Times website if any of your readers are interested.
https://www.grizzlytimes.org/myths-and-native-voices
These are difficult times in Montana for wildlife, no doubt about it. FWP's answer to any wildlife conflict seems to death and that sucks. I got to vote against Tschida this election and I hope plenty others did too. He's awful.
Miigwech also for the Grizzly Times link. They do good work.
I love that you you
I loved those films as a kid! And that poem is a beauty.
It really is.
Thank you so much for the Solnit article. Maybe the long view is the protest perspective in a way, the one outside of consumerist history and news cycles, the one those in it must take in order to make it through.
I think it absolutely is.
What a beautiful landscape and your lucid narration makes it twice as magical combined with Tolkiens dreamland, almost makes me forget the horrors of real life. Aren’t we all crafting characters out of ourselves, self mythicising our identities from liquid to solid to liquid again, like the life cycles of water. You make me dream with this one. I’m curious if there are any indigenous ceremonies that are celebrated to honour the cycles of water/nature/seasons amongst your people?
I'm sure there are, but in my upstream swim back to learning such things I've yet to encounter them.
Hi Chris,
Yes, every day is a gift. What a beautiful poem and one that can be held close to the heart.
Love your buffalo cap.
Sincerely,
Melissa
Thank you, Melissa.
Something about the poem "Gift" gave me pause to read it slowly, pondering each line as I read it to myself. I am so thankful for that, for it being a gift unto itself to read it in such manner.
Beautiful post, Chris. Always my pleasure to drop in and read.
Great piece. I’d like to think us Ojibwe are Aragorn-like beings too, he was always one of the best characters. I work in killer whale research and conservation and at most times I constantly struggle to find hope for change that will cause great improvement and recovery to our WA population, but my stubbornness seems to keep me on the path. Truly hope that humans will vote and lobby in favor of our grizzly relatives, though selfishness will undoubtedly rule out. Perhaps I’ll still be surprised.
Tess, thank you, I hope so too. The story of those Southern Resident whales – assuming that's who you mean – is so frustrating and sad. Thank you for working with and advocating for them!
Yep that’s who I work with! Every day is pretty depressing doing what I do but hopefully it’ll be worth it. If not then at least I tried!
I re-read Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark on a regular basis. She is one of our absolute best, indeed.
I intend to get back to it very soon myself.
It as a true revelation for me when I realised most of the national parks of the world are just another example of colonialism; A clever little bait and switch way to prevent land stewardship and displace entire nations of people.
Also, to the point about noticing what has changed - I spent the last 18 months revising a manuscript I first wrote in 2008. It follows a cast of queer characters and captures much of my experience as a queer elder millennial. The revision process was EYE OPENING for how far we've come and the level of homophobia I used to tolerate in my early twenties, that any queer kid today would be appalled by. So yes, we have a long way to go for queer and trans liberation, and also, in just my lifetime I've been granted more human rights and protections than most of my queer ancestors could have imagined in 1985, the year I was born.
Thank you for this. It's good to remind ourselves sometimes, isn't it? ✊🏽
Damn but you can write….you make us feel.
Utah Phillips: a good friend of my favorite singer Kate Wolf. A quote from him and a song that reminds me oh Utah and you.
In April, 1986, Kate was diagnosed with leukemia. After chemotherapy, she went into full remission, started work on a retrospective album, and scheduled another tour. The disease returned in the fall, however, and we lost her on December 10. Her long time friend and touring partner, Utah Phillips covered the remaining shows she’d booked, including one in Placerville Mary and I had tickets for.
He led the crowd in singing her songs and said something I’ve never forgotten. “At the end of her life, Kate told me she knew why she’d gotten cancer. She took in people’s pain, the pain of living. It was the source of her art, but she realized too late that she never learned to let it go.” Phillips warned everyone to beware of clinging to grief and reminded us of the threads of hope and joy we also find in her music.
https://youtu.be/C4tcMtg50UY
Thank you, Mary. And what a wonderful song and story!