First things first
If you aren’t sure, see where your senators stand on Kavanaugh.
Even if they already oppose him, like mine do, and even if they are not up for reelection, call them and urge them to keep fighting. Make the call. I know it can feel daunting. (Scarier than having not one but two justices who have been credibly accused of assault having lifetime appointments to our on the highest court, though?) There are free tools — here is one from the ACLU; I used ResistBot — that will literally dial YOUR phone so all you have to do is answer it, wait while the robots route you to your senators’ office, and then read the provided script to a staffer whose job is to a) listen and b) move on to the next call as quickly as possible.
Ask others to do the same, and while you’re at it, make sure everyone is registered to vote this November. Here’s a neat peer pressure app.
And speaking of pressure
I stood at the kitchen counter Tuesday night, curse-thanking the Instant Pot for beeping while it blinked the word BURN. My phone sat off to the side playing news stories from the day. I stirred with my left hand, trying to salvage dinner, while I used my right to pause the podcast app, rewind, and listen to Anita Hill’s words again:
My family was threatened, along with me. My friends were threatened," she says. "Anybody who dared support me were also threatened with loss of life, loss of jobs. You lose privacy."
But, she says, "for me, what it does come down to is that I felt that I had an obligation to come forward."
She says she doesn't regret it.
"Yes, it is true that it's redefined my life in many ways," Hill says, "but in the end, I still have the power to define who I am and what my life stands for."
Is there a better sum-up of this year, of this season?
Everywhere I turn I see friends moving painfully into this power.
Some are furious or desperately hurt and seeking catharsis. Lighting matches, leaving relationships and jobs and structures, walking through fire toward the clearing they need.
Some are calmer, resolute, and on good, sunny days, clear-eyed and clear-headed. They’re — we’re — redefining self-care to be intersectional, boring, and collective. Navigating healthcare.gov and seeking small business mentorship. Being in our bodies and being brave enough to ask for help. Battling our artistic demons.
Most of us seem to be pendulum-swinging between those two states. Feeling maxed out and depleted and (per Jennifer Pozner) “just minutes away from bursting into tears or screaming bloody murder.” Ragey.
But also: Creating. Mobilizing. Putting pen to paper, applying for things outside our comfort zones, shedding the shoulds, using process of elimination to open up space to take on new identities or build new things. We’ve been sketching for years; now we are erasing past strokes and shading in contours that will define what our lives stand for.
Consider: The Allied Media Conference is taking “a chrysalis year.”
Imagine: you gather people for 20 years, you grow to 1,000+ attendees, and then you do the deep reflection required to issue the following statement:
We have been deeply considering this question: how do we want to grow? Is it more like an oak tree, like mushrooms, like moss? We have said that the AMC is about critical connections, not critical mass. Is it possible to have both?
We know we have a responsibility to grow with intention rather than to simply let growth happen. We have a responsibility to make the AMC ever-more accessible, liberating, and transformative.
We have a responsibility to work at a pace that is humane and that allows for spacious thinking.
Exhibit B: Maria Hadden
The Executive Director of a national nonprofit and founding member of the Participatory Budgeting Project decided she isn’t busy enough. So she’s running for alderwoman (for those who aren’t familiar, that’s the title for City Council folks in Chicago) and challenging a 27-year incumbent. I don’t live in her district but several friends do, and seeing them so energized is the best.
You can hear her tell her story on this week’s Pod Save the People. Starting around the 39:10 mark, Maria talks about how she and her neighbors bought homes in 2007 from a developer who then fled the country and left them in shambles after the housing bubble burst. They had no choice but to start organizing, and that led Maria toward participatory budgeting and, ultimately, to her current race to become Chicago’s first queer black alderwoman. I think she’s going to win.
(Thinking it doesn’t make it true. Donations go here.)
I had more for tonight.
A birthday ode to my sister. A thank you to the author of this piece. Other things that will have to wait. It’s time for some dreaming.
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P.S. Last week I wrote a bit about compost. If you’re in Chicago and interested in composting but have the budget and don’t want to go a totally DIY route, two different friends sent me information about compost collection services. Heidi uses and endorses The Urban Canopy’s Compost Club. She pays $15/month and calls it “easy peasy!” Kristi sent me links to Collective Resource, WasteNot, and other services, which she heard about via an eight-week course she took last year at the nature museum. Thanks, friends!
P.P.S. Anita Hill photo from Feb. 2018 by Gage Skidmore (Wikipedia); illustration by Ellen O’Grady (who once shared this wisdom with me); others from my old Flickr archives.