7 Things I Know to Be True
WTF, America.
U.S. climate advocates and climate conscious parents have been surrounded on all sides by the message that this election was The. Defining. Climate. Election. of our time and all times. That the stakes were planet-sized and history shaped. That the next four years are our last chance, and that we could not, under any circumstances, afford Trump.
Well. Let’s talk about it. Here are seven things I know to be true.
1.
We are in the belly of the beast. We have descended into the darkest cave. But the ground here is worn smooth by the billion feet of ancestors who have been here before us. Despairing conditions are not unique to us, or to this time and place. There are many who we can learn from—brave communities who can show us the tenacity, the strategies, for carrying on and fighting back. Many of them are here now, in this time and place.
We can know by their continued existence that there are as many ways to survive as there are people to survive for.
2.
We have to digest our feelings. (Not eat our feelings, though do that too if you need to, fuck diet culture.) What I mean is, what comes in must go out. We can and will metabolize our grief and our rage, because if we don’t, it will weigh us down. And we must be light for the flight ahead. If I didn’t let my feelings come so that they could go, the sadness would drown me, the fear would hollow me out, the rage would burn away to despair.
Feel your feelings so you can fight the fascists.
3.
We will cost them. Speaking of the fascists. They have the White House, the Senate, and the Court. But that’s not even 1% of the total government workforce in this country, and everywhere in state legislatures, city governments, universities, governor’s offices, agencies, and more, there are people who got into government to do some good. I know some of them. They will help us protect and make safe progressive places all across America, and they will help us make sure the fascists pay a price for every bit of ground they want to take.
4.
The resistance isn’t big enough. Yet. Look: it’s not enough to post to Instagram. It’s not enough to donate and vote. To paraphrase Anat Shenkar-Osario, we are only going to win the future we want and protect the things we love if we build a movement that is commensurate to the size of the challenges we face, and we have not done that yet.
You—yes, you—need to join up with other people who are taking action (and good news: there are already millions of us). Join a union, attend a rally or march, sign up to attend a meeting or hearing or collective action. Then get your friends to join, too. We need more people, and we need you now. Send me a message if you need help finding something.
5.
Sun thou art, and unto sun shalt thou return. The sun is where it all started—life itself is solar powered. Sunlight and wind are endless, and so seemingly is the growth of the renewable energy economy, emerging all around us so quickly that most people haven’t even caught up to it yet. If we are going to take our lives back from the plutocrats and the authoritarians and restitch our communities together with local models of care, then mutualism will be the thread and renewable energy will be the needle.
“If you’re worried that it’s too late to do anything about climate change and we should all just give up, I have great news for you: that day is not coming in your lifetime. As long as you have breath in your body, you will have work to do.” — Mary Annaïse Heglar
6.
We cannot lose. There will never come a time when the fight against the climate crisis is over, when we will have the luxury of throwing up our hands and saying all is lost. This isn’t a war, or a game, where one side defeats the other. This is a constant and cooperative exercise in harm reduction. There is no aim but the aim of reducing suffering, and every thing we do to prepare for climate disasters, to lift up our neighbors, to stand up for the vulnerable, to mitigate climate pollution, to remember that we are not and have never been separate from all other life on this planet—all of it, all of it, all of it is a win.
“Massive change is happening and it will be inevitably increasingly hard and painful, and many of us will get lost along the way. The only protection against the worst-case scenario is also in community.
We need each other. Either way and always.” — Mia Birdsong, found in Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s What If We Get It Right?
7.
I’m very, very worried for my daughter. And I have a lot more to worry about today than I did yesterday. But so what? The length of my list of worries does not determine how far I will go for her, which is to the very end. The depth of my fear does not determine how deep I will go for her, which is to the bottom and back up again.
Nothing changes about the way I am raising her.
I will still try to give her a strong sense of self worth so that she is resilient in the face of all that will come and knows her own power.
I will still teach her to be kind, so that she finds her place in community with others.
And I will still do all I can to fortify her with bravery. Because bravery is how we put one step in front of the other, and do the next right thing. And the next. And the next.
That’s it from me for now, but drop me a line if you need to talk—and know that you are not alone.
What I’m Reading
What If We Get it Right? by ocean scientist and climate leader Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Field Guide to Edible Wild Edible Plants by Samuel Thayer
What I’m Listening To
Edward Scissorhands (music from the motion picture) by Danny Elfman
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappel Roan
Thank you, Jessica. What is important to realize, and wonder about, is that Trump also won the POPULAR vote! I'm dumbfounded by this. It tells me that we didn't get the message right as a country. Somehow, people missed the importance of this election despite the hype and noise. HOW? HOW, did folks like you and me, folks I talked to door-to-door who -- to my face, agreed with all I said -- NOT get it? I think we've all been played by the media, the billionaires, the banks and oil conglomerates, somehow. I just don't get it; but I won't hate my neighbors, or my fellow man/woman, they are every bit as much as me in deep s&*t. I think the time is near when Blue and Red must work together to change the system we're living in. I'm not a conspiracist, but something is wrong in the system and it must be fixed.