Don’t you feel like you’re fighting when you’re working with kids? It’s the long game, for sure, but kids who are exposed to thinking and feeling and to facts and diverse perspectives will be better humans. Seems like we always lay it on the kids to save us; maybe they can save themselves.
I wonder how effective fighting is overall, since it’s a reaction against someone else’s action, and usually on their turf and terms.
The quote below reminds me that sometimes there are less soul-draining ways to navigate around obstacles: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
We need a bigger vision to find better questions to ask.
Last year...just about this season...I was gifted a very special gift...Homelessness.
I lived in the back of my car for a month in the Pryor Mountains with the wild horses, stone circles, eagles soaring, and sacred water flowing...flowing...and little old me, wondering..."How the hell did this happen?"
My choice...my voice...my sanity, tested beyond measure. This is the reality for many here in the Flathead Valley. What was once my sanctuary, has become a constant test of survival, one way or another. How to find peace, when behind you, before you, they line up with hunger in their eyes.
Please do not feel sorry for me...that is not why I write...this IS what the fight is all about. I am a grandmother...not a young woman looking for an adventure (I have already done those beautiful things,) this is about every human being having their private home and hearth...having the basic necessities, nothing fancy...safety, security, home.
How we each do this...is personal indeed. Reading all of these posts has made my heart smile. We do not shut up...give up...or lay down.
I dunno, man. I consider myself kind of a nihilist, politically speaking. I am so deeply alienated from the vast majority of shit that any elected official says that I can barely even stomach reading it. Where I've landed personally is just to do the best I can to try to be kinder to people in my immediate orbit. Friends, colleagues, family, strangers on the internet, people I pass on the street. To do my best to convey in all interactions that they matter and are worthy of attention and respect. It's a small thing but small things carry. I sometimes think this can actively help make things better but I often think it's about not making anything worse.
Intellectually, I know the answer isn't "what can YOU do" but "what can WE do"? We're so atomized in this country that "action" is always granulized to the individual which has the effect of making whatever you come up with seem small in comparison to the problem. Almost all major counter-reactionary change has come from mass mobilization and organization. That feels so remote now.
(I say "intellectually" because I've never really participated in organized movements. And I'm pretty introverted and not much of a group-oriented person. So it seems hypocritical for me to preach collective action when I'm not one who really thrives in group-oriented activity.)
What changed me the most was learning and really facing history. When I realized just how much bullshit I'd internalized about the nature of this "country," the only thing I could think to do was to learn more about my local history and write about it. If people can make that local connection between our past and our current problems, I sort of naively hope that can inspire people to question the fiction of what we're taught the US represents. I know better. Education doesn't usually change many people's minds. But it changed mine, so that's what I go off of.
Once again, you've picked up on the subject simmering in many people's minds. I don't have an answer. Someone sent me an article on this from Slate and it was kind of the same old, same old. "Do small things, have hope, fight for the good," etc. Not that that's wrong, it just seems to be where everyone lands and somehow that's not enough anymore, especially when so many efforts toward justice and equity are backsliding so horribly.
I go back to one of my life mottos: "Be like water." Don't remember when I first started thinking about that but it's served me well. Sometimes I feel like it's a cop-out but on the other hand it has also been effective -- in small things. In the larger world I don't know. Maybe if enough of us did it. (What "it" is I'm talking about here I'm not sure. "Be like water" feels too vague to be useful for everyone, as much as I find it helpful.)
The Little Shell succeeded because they PERSISTED for five generations, they succeeded because they were UNAFRAID, they succeeded because they remained UNIFIED and LOYAL (Nehiyaw Pwat) to the CAUSE. They succeeded because of LEADERS like Chief Little Shell and Chief Stone Child.
So, I think what we less reactionary types need is to find YOUNG LEADERS who will PERSIST, UNAFRAID, UNIFIED and LOYAL to the CAUSE of a truly representative democracy. Follow the example of the Little Shell.
I’m grateful to live in Canada and I also know things are not perfect here and we can’t smugly pat ourselves in the back that were not like the States. I can see how things can go south really quickly and I have to be diligent in paying attention. I’ve been thinking about priorities a lot and leaning into the things I feel I can spend my energy on because you’re right we’re inundated with a fire hose of crisis. And as others have mentioned this is a WE problem not an INDIVIDUAL problem and we need to continue pressing that point at every opportunity.
These are my survival techniques--my ways to fight off despair and hope to make positive changes. I can't march, but I can write emails and give money to the causes I believe in. Although, yes the politicians probably get millions of "letters" from people, but at least I can say NO, here and at the voting booth. Donating to groups, however, has resulted in getting at least 5 requests per day through digital and letter mail for more of the same. I'm sure we must be denuding forests just to send all that paper, which I then recycle. And I DON'T need more tote bags or address labels.
We are so overwhelmed with terrible news items that we need to create a little bit of positive joy whenever we can. It's like a journey of a hundred miles begins with the first step: I look for ways to say positive things whenever I can: "Your hair looks beautiful." "What gorgeous children." "You have so much patience." etc. etc. If I can make someone smile each day I feel better, and by making them feel better, I have "won" a small victory. It's important to me, also, to take personal responsibility for my own actions--to understand that my every action has consequences. Most importantly, to understand that any organization that asks me to have faith in what they say, do, or believe is a POWER PLAY. I don't have to have faith in anything or anyone or any "god." Show me. Don't lie to me. Don't pretend you have all the answers. Maybe this isn't much, but it's what I can do.
I think you voiced how tired I'm feeling and how nothing is enough. Self-care as an act of resistance isn't enough, voting isn't enough, calling/writing/demonstrating isn't enough, one million dead from COVID isn't enough, reprehensible acts of gun violence over and over aren't enough. So I buy the chocolate chip cookie, enjoy a glass of wine, pet the cat and read the romance novel. It doesn't feel like hope, let alone resistance, but it alleviates the despair for a moment.
I keep it together by getting up every morning as opposed to pulling the covers over. Then coffee. Then a walk. Then a To Do List. Then a nap. I have escaped the political scene in older age. Read, limit the news, appreciate the gifts of friendship and nature. I have no fight left. Waiting is hard, but a decent strategy. I am not powerful by action, but by contemplation...and then writing about it. Small steps.
I have been emailing our senator, over and over. And you’re right, it’s probably pointless, but he needs to know I don’t support his action/inaction.
The feeling is strong that we’re basically spinning in place, waiting for our so-called “leaders” to take action. I wish I had the solution to how to fight. I’m glad you’re voicing the situation.
"What is your strategy? What are the things that you are willing to fight for, and how do you fight? What does it mean to fight? And most importantly, how do we support each other for the long haul that turning this thing around is going to require? After all, the strategy for how we care for each other is ultimately more important than the strategy for how we fight together, isn’t it?"
These are good questions. No easy answers. I want to know what the hard answers are. Each day, I do what's directly in front of me locally, one-to-one. Local, one-to-one but not alone, one thing at a time, can ripple out in unforeseen ways that encourage those far away. I'm thinking of the Little Shell. For me, the process begins with taking care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually so that I don't fall apart in all those ways. Through what people write in communities like this one, I feel supported and try to be supportive in return. The written word has power to promote action, no matter how small. My art work is something I can do. Someone said that we are not here on earth to be "successful" alone or together but to do what we can for the good of all, against all odds, forever.
You Can Only Fight
Don’t you feel like you’re fighting when you’re working with kids? It’s the long game, for sure, but kids who are exposed to thinking and feeling and to facts and diverse perspectives will be better humans. Seems like we always lay it on the kids to save us; maybe they can save themselves.
I don’t have an answer, but the discussion makes me think about this poem by Clint Smith:
When people say, “we have made it through worse before”
— Clint Smith
all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones
of those who did not make it, those who did not
survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who
did not live to watch the parade roll down the street.
I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms
meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to
convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no
solace in rearranging language to make a different word
tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe
does not bend in a direction that will comfort us.
Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are
people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader,
do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future
to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not
live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies
that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left
standing after the war has ended. Some of us have
become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.
https://readwildness.com/19/smith-people
I wonder how effective fighting is overall, since it’s a reaction against someone else’s action, and usually on their turf and terms.
The quote below reminds me that sometimes there are less soul-draining ways to navigate around obstacles: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
We need a bigger vision to find better questions to ask.
Last year...just about this season...I was gifted a very special gift...Homelessness.
I lived in the back of my car for a month in the Pryor Mountains with the wild horses, stone circles, eagles soaring, and sacred water flowing...flowing...and little old me, wondering..."How the hell did this happen?"
My choice...my voice...my sanity, tested beyond measure. This is the reality for many here in the Flathead Valley. What was once my sanctuary, has become a constant test of survival, one way or another. How to find peace, when behind you, before you, they line up with hunger in their eyes.
Please do not feel sorry for me...that is not why I write...this IS what the fight is all about. I am a grandmother...not a young woman looking for an adventure (I have already done those beautiful things,) this is about every human being having their private home and hearth...having the basic necessities, nothing fancy...safety, security, home.
How we each do this...is personal indeed. Reading all of these posts has made my heart smile. We do not shut up...give up...or lay down.
The horses and nature...taught me that.
Much respect to all...
Ramona Coyote
I dunno, man. I consider myself kind of a nihilist, politically speaking. I am so deeply alienated from the vast majority of shit that any elected official says that I can barely even stomach reading it. Where I've landed personally is just to do the best I can to try to be kinder to people in my immediate orbit. Friends, colleagues, family, strangers on the internet, people I pass on the street. To do my best to convey in all interactions that they matter and are worthy of attention and respect. It's a small thing but small things carry. I sometimes think this can actively help make things better but I often think it's about not making anything worse.
Intellectually, I know the answer isn't "what can YOU do" but "what can WE do"? We're so atomized in this country that "action" is always granulized to the individual which has the effect of making whatever you come up with seem small in comparison to the problem. Almost all major counter-reactionary change has come from mass mobilization and organization. That feels so remote now.
(I say "intellectually" because I've never really participated in organized movements. And I'm pretty introverted and not much of a group-oriented person. So it seems hypocritical for me to preach collective action when I'm not one who really thrives in group-oriented activity.)
What changed me the most was learning and really facing history. When I realized just how much bullshit I'd internalized about the nature of this "country," the only thing I could think to do was to learn more about my local history and write about it. If people can make that local connection between our past and our current problems, I sort of naively hope that can inspire people to question the fiction of what we're taught the US represents. I know better. Education doesn't usually change many people's minds. But it changed mine, so that's what I go off of.
Once again, you've picked up on the subject simmering in many people's minds. I don't have an answer. Someone sent me an article on this from Slate and it was kind of the same old, same old. "Do small things, have hope, fight for the good," etc. Not that that's wrong, it just seems to be where everyone lands and somehow that's not enough anymore, especially when so many efforts toward justice and equity are backsliding so horribly.
I go back to one of my life mottos: "Be like water." Don't remember when I first started thinking about that but it's served me well. Sometimes I feel like it's a cop-out but on the other hand it has also been effective -- in small things. In the larger world I don't know. Maybe if enough of us did it. (What "it" is I'm talking about here I'm not sure. "Be like water" feels too vague to be useful for everyone, as much as I find it helpful.)
The Little Shell succeeded because they PERSISTED for five generations, they succeeded because they were UNAFRAID, they succeeded because they remained UNIFIED and LOYAL (Nehiyaw Pwat) to the CAUSE. They succeeded because of LEADERS like Chief Little Shell and Chief Stone Child.
So, I think what we less reactionary types need is to find YOUNG LEADERS who will PERSIST, UNAFRAID, UNIFIED and LOYAL to the CAUSE of a truly representative democracy. Follow the example of the Little Shell.
I’m grateful to live in Canada and I also know things are not perfect here and we can’t smugly pat ourselves in the back that were not like the States. I can see how things can go south really quickly and I have to be diligent in paying attention. I’ve been thinking about priorities a lot and leaning into the things I feel I can spend my energy on because you’re right we’re inundated with a fire hose of crisis. And as others have mentioned this is a WE problem not an INDIVIDUAL problem and we need to continue pressing that point at every opportunity.
These are my survival techniques--my ways to fight off despair and hope to make positive changes. I can't march, but I can write emails and give money to the causes I believe in. Although, yes the politicians probably get millions of "letters" from people, but at least I can say NO, here and at the voting booth. Donating to groups, however, has resulted in getting at least 5 requests per day through digital and letter mail for more of the same. I'm sure we must be denuding forests just to send all that paper, which I then recycle. And I DON'T need more tote bags or address labels.
We are so overwhelmed with terrible news items that we need to create a little bit of positive joy whenever we can. It's like a journey of a hundred miles begins with the first step: I look for ways to say positive things whenever I can: "Your hair looks beautiful." "What gorgeous children." "You have so much patience." etc. etc. If I can make someone smile each day I feel better, and by making them feel better, I have "won" a small victory. It's important to me, also, to take personal responsibility for my own actions--to understand that my every action has consequences. Most importantly, to understand that any organization that asks me to have faith in what they say, do, or believe is a POWER PLAY. I don't have to have faith in anything or anyone or any "god." Show me. Don't lie to me. Don't pretend you have all the answers. Maybe this isn't much, but it's what I can do.
I think you voiced how tired I'm feeling and how nothing is enough. Self-care as an act of resistance isn't enough, voting isn't enough, calling/writing/demonstrating isn't enough, one million dead from COVID isn't enough, reprehensible acts of gun violence over and over aren't enough. So I buy the chocolate chip cookie, enjoy a glass of wine, pet the cat and read the romance novel. It doesn't feel like hope, let alone resistance, but it alleviates the despair for a moment.
I keep it together by getting up every morning as opposed to pulling the covers over. Then coffee. Then a walk. Then a To Do List. Then a nap. I have escaped the political scene in older age. Read, limit the news, appreciate the gifts of friendship and nature. I have no fight left. Waiting is hard, but a decent strategy. I am not powerful by action, but by contemplation...and then writing about it. Small steps.
I have been emailing our senator, over and over. And you’re right, it’s probably pointless, but he needs to know I don’t support his action/inaction.
The feeling is strong that we’re basically spinning in place, waiting for our so-called “leaders” to take action. I wish I had the solution to how to fight. I’m glad you’re voicing the situation.
Perfect election eve/day of post. I just keep persisting. The world and the people in it are just too beautiful to not fight for.
Tough question. One I'm asking myself, too.
"What is your strategy? What are the things that you are willing to fight for, and how do you fight? What does it mean to fight? And most importantly, how do we support each other for the long haul that turning this thing around is going to require? After all, the strategy for how we care for each other is ultimately more important than the strategy for how we fight together, isn’t it?"
These are good questions. No easy answers. I want to know what the hard answers are. Each day, I do what's directly in front of me locally, one-to-one. Local, one-to-one but not alone, one thing at a time, can ripple out in unforeseen ways that encourage those far away. I'm thinking of the Little Shell. For me, the process begins with taking care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually so that I don't fall apart in all those ways. Through what people write in communities like this one, I feel supported and try to be supportive in return. The written word has power to promote action, no matter how small. My art work is something I can do. Someone said that we are not here on earth to be "successful" alone or together but to do what we can for the good of all, against all odds, forever.