Hello friends. It’s been a while, about a year and a half roughly. In late summer of 2023, life took an unexpected turn. Since then, my focus has been on healing, recalibrating and learning a new normal. That story is for another day. For now, I’ll just quote James Taylor’s explicit lyric: “Shower the people you love with love.” Given my circumstances, writing has been put on the back burner, perhaps permanently. However, the madness of our days has inspired me to pick up again.
It is hard to know where and how to jump in. Every day is like a dizzying game of whack-a-mole, with breaking atrocities and egregious injustices popping up faster than we can process them. And each is more outrageous than the one before it. In short, the United States has been taken over by a crime syndicate comprised of a sociopathic cadre of oligarchs, lead by a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist. Within mere days, this convicted felon and adjudicated rapist will be sworn in as President of the United States. The rule of law no longer exists in this country, at least not for some people. Meanwhile, the throes of climate change intensify and accelerate. I believe that we the people are on our own, at least at this current point in time.
Given the relentless chaos, the haunting uncertainties and the existential challenges ahead, I have created a survival plan. In order to best meet the moment, my feeling is that I need to show up as the best version of myself or at least try to. We all have our own approach to dealing with our collective situation, and my survival plan may be very different than someone else’s. Still, I’m sharing my plan in the hopes that others may be inclined to share theirs. Here’s what I’ve got:
Nurture and Protect Community. I’m blessed to have a beautiful community of family and friends. It’s crucial that we take care of each other. For me, this means making time and checking in to see how folks are doing. It also means creating a space to share concerns, explore potential contingencies and inventory strengths. We circle the wagons with great care and unflinching resolve.
Fortify at a local level. As government on the federal level devolves into a dangerous clown show, I still have some hope for our ability to make a positive impact closer to home. In many respects, it may be our best protection from the oligarchic attack on our civil liberties and day-to-day survival. I have recently signed up to volunteer for a candidate running for office at the county level. I’m also committed to advocating for policies that protect trans people in my state. A friend of mine is offering her services to an organization that is helping undocumented people shore up for the mass deportations that are coming. Another friend is battling a Christian movement that is attempting to insert itself into her son’s school district. We can’t do the whole battle in its entirety. But we can each pick up a sword.
Training the Body. In combination with talk therapy, physical training has been vital in my healing. As the mystic poet Rumi said, “Pain is the cure for pain.” This has certainly been true for me. I’ve found that the more I can endure physically, the more I can endure mentally and emotionally. This past year, with the help of a fantastic trainer, I’ve been taking on increasingly difficult workouts, challenging myself to be curious about the discomfort and to push my mind to go beyond it. While I don’t know that others need to go to such an extreme (although I highly recommend it), I do feel that exercise is essential to well-being. And well-being is essential to the resistance.
Training the Mind. I believe this goes hand in hand with training the body, although I would say, at least for me, that training the mind is infinitely more difficult. I’m trying to always keep a spacious view, to temper my reactions, especially to negative situations, and to focus on the things that are within my control. For someone with an overly caffeinated, tripped-out monkey mind such as mine, this is a lot of work. There is a reason they call it “practice.” It helps to read the Stoic philosophers. I’ve also gotten a lot of inspiration from “Be Water My Friend, The Teachings of Bruce Lee” by Shannon Lee.
Discipline with Social Media. Social media is not good for my mental health. It’s a shitty quagmire that, for the most part, saturates me with anger, horror and doom. As such, I have to be very judicious in my usage and to step away frequently. I need my energies for more productive utility. That said, there is still some value in limited consumption. Many trustworthy activists and reliable thought leaders share on these sites. It is also still a relatively reliable source for news IF I am very discerning of the sources. When it comes to social media, my survival plan says to “proceed with caution.”
These are surreal times. Feeling overwhelmed and disoriented is a reasonable response. But I have to remember this is exactly what they want- for us to be bewildered and compliant. I have to remind myself not to cave to despair and exhaustion. When all else fails, what I try to do is Center Love Over Fear. Singer/Songwriter Whitney Mongé wrote a sublime tune entitled “What Would Love Do Now?” Since seeing her perform it last September, those words have become a mantra for me. In my darkest moments- when I’m most full of fear and most unsure of what to do- I ask myself that very question: “What would love do now?” This question has become my North Star. Ultimately, love is what we are. And it is our greatest superpower, regardless of whatever is raging around us.
