Today’s installment will be short because I’ve lost a few days to an ultimately successful (whew) colonoscopy. I now feel almost as accomplished as I did the day I defended my dissertation. And definitely as spent.
This was a re-do from last year’s failure. At the time, I wrote about both that experience and my adventures with Lilo in this very funny (if I do say so) post:
I am colonoscopy-years-old and still can't assert any kind of authority
Taylor Swift, who is 33, sings, ”I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser.”
Speaking of Lilo, he’s still not well behaved, and he has been exceptionally annoying as I have laid around in listless hunger. I caught only the last 10 seconds of what was a lengthy rampage on my bed:
OK, enough colons:
As we have discussed before, I get easily overwhelmed. And if that’s you, too, you’re not living your best life these days. Probably because a bunch of terrible people are purposefully trying to overwhelm you, or to “flood the zone with sh*t,” in the words of Human Bedsore Steve Bannon. It might be a mercy that they are dismantling both the Justice Department and all the ethics watchdogs because these folks would almost certainly be driven to madness trying to keep up with all the law-breaking and corruption. At least this way some of them might be able to enjoy a nice beach vacation before the entire economy collapses.
One of my favorite books is Anne LaMott’s Bird by Bird. It’s about writing, but also life itself. The title comes from an episode in her childhood when her brother had a school project to (draw or write about?) types of birds. He procrastinated because he was overwhelmed. So their father told him to just focus on one bird at a time. Just cover one bird. Finish that bird. Then move on to the next bird.
In other words, break down whatever is daunting to you into bite size bits. Just bite off what you can chew. Then take another bite. Don’t stuff an entire pie into your pie hole.
Well, right now, we’ve got a pretty massive pie to eat, and it’s not a yummy kind either. You know, just save democracy or whatever.
So here’s my version of Bird by Bird. I tell myself I just have to do ONE THING every day (some days, I might do more) to push back on this sh*t storm. That’s ALL I have to do. Just ONE THING. And I’m posting it on social media every day to keep myself accountable and to exchange ideas with others. Feel free to join me! Use #OneThing on whatever social media platform you use.
And please, don’t be bashful. I am usually squeamish about proclaiming my good deeds. That was something I always found distasteful about missionary life. But in this case, it’s actually important to do so because we need to build and sustain a mass movement. And to do that, we need to spread courage, motivation, and inspiration as effectively as anti-vaxxers spread measles. So shout it from the rooftops, please.
Notice that the obvious “big ticket items”—defend democracy and advance justice—are not the only things on my list. There are quieter, more every day things that actually feed into and break down those larger goals.
Reaching out to a friend more directly affected by this chaos and uncertainty IS defending democracy.
Or just reaching out to any friend. Inviting someone over for dinner (NOT spending hours cleaning your house). Mailing a card to someone you love and appreciate. We will all need strong relationships over the next few years.
Connecting with others who are like-minded is building and strengthening the community needed to advance justice.
Writing a silly poem or making a meme that helps you and others laugh amidst the grief. We have to find joy if we’re going to endure.
Volunteering in your community focuses your mind and heart on love and grace rather than anger and fear.
Writing a letter to someone doing hard things that you aren’t in the position to do (like Bishop Budde or the Ukrainian Ambassador to the US) encourages and supports them.
If you have extra money, make a donation to an organization or candidate you believe in.
Write or call your elected officials. Not only when they are screwing up, but when they are doing well. Keep the lines of communication open. They need to hear from you.
And—take care of yourself. Take a daily assessment of how you feel physically, emotionally, spiritually. There’s a saying amongst runners, “Resting is training.” To stay in the game over the long term, you have to take yourself out of the game on occasion.
Our friend
has her own list of Daily Things that may also help you.
In other words, if you can’t go to a protest, volunteer for a campaign, or do something “dramatic,” you can still meaningfully contribute to democracy’s survival by safeguarding and strengthening the society that undergirds it. And—I hate to be dark but—the society that may survive it.
No matter what happens, we’re going to need each other. We’re going to need to help and sacrifice for each other. We’re going to need to make each other laugh and let each other cry. We’re going to need friends.
Of course, you can indeed participate in more direct democracy-defending things. I’ve felt strengthened and connected by every protest I’ve attended so far. I’m looking forward to volunteering for the Spanberger campaign this year. There are protests and organizing going on all over the country every single day. Check out www.mobilize.us to find activities. If you’ve never been to a protest, I promise you’re in for a treat! At the very least, you’ll 100% feel less alone.
“I doubt this is doing any good,” I often hear myself or others say. But hear me out—The exact results are not the point. You don’t control the results. Just in normal times, if you only did things with an obvious, significant pay off, you wouldn’t do a whole lot. Most of the time, we do things without full appreciation of their impact. All of the time, we do things without knowing their full impact.
Our whole lives on this earth run on faith. We don’t know why we’re really here or what it all means or where it’s all going. We only know we arrive here on the wings of what came before. We thrive here by the work of what happens elsewhere. We eat the fruit of other people’s effort, people long ago or far away.
And, yes, we reap the whirlwind of their sins and failures, too. Sadly, the whole world will reap the whirlwind of what Americans have chosen for many years to come.
We don’t know when and where the full journey of ourselves will end. We can’t measure the full sum of our lives. We don’t know what our labor’s final product will be. We don’t decide that.
But we choose to do something TODAY, right now, in our little spheres. We do what we can TODAY. And that’s all we can do.
So just do One Thing. Make it a Good Thing. Then find enough faith to let it go. Watch it float on the breeze beyond your line of sight.
Then wake up and do it again tomorrow.
Thank you for the encouragement. I attended my first protest today and will be stuffing envelopes next week to help get Susan Crawford elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And I sometimes email Ron Johnson to ask that he grow a pair, although he’s pretty much a lost cause. Keep up the great writing, Holly!
So glad to hear your procedure went much better. They are absolutely torture, the prep is a killer, although admittedly I do like the nighty nighty sleep I get during those few minutes of peace while under and waiting up drunkish without the hangover. I thanked the workers at the VA today for hanging in there, they're under cuts and budget f*ckery along with the rest of the government. Co-vid affected them severely. They're nervous. I go to a large hospital here and they're operating on the bare minimum staff wise. I digress, these folks have shown up and are doing there job with care as they have always done. Peace out, get a good nights sleep and take care.