(Disclaimer: This post is in reference to politics. Sorry not sorry. Read or ignore. Feel free to talk with me about it when you see me if you love or hate anything I say.)
It’s times like this that force us to use all our skills to hang in. Some people check out, some get obsessed and hypervigilant, and most are acting from some combination of the two. This purpose of this post is to offer some guidance for these crazy days. You’ve probably already read a lot of stuff like this already. Take what you can or want and leave the rest of course.
Be strict about your media diet:
My suggestion is that you stay away from any sources of news that are dependent on clicks and need money. This means even being a bit careful with emails from the likes of the ACLU or Indivisible. If they are looking for donations they are going to be trying to hook your interest and for an already activated nervous system, that might not be helpful. Where do you get news to stay informed and active then? Read number 2.
2. There are some amazing newsletters being written that you can subscribe to for free. These are people whose goal is not to monetize and grow their business but to write and inform. You CAN be a paid member but you don’t have to be. These newsletters can all be found on Substack or you can subscribe directly. The several I’m going to suggest work to provide information within a context of being grounded, kind, and non-sensationalizing. They provide information, opportunities for action (so you’ll still get information about what Indivisible and the ACLU and other organizations are doing and how you can participate), guidance, and reminders for paying attention to reader’s mental health, nervous systems, and self-care.
The main suggestions I have are as follows:
Jay Kuo’s newsletter The Status Kuo: https://statuskuo.substack.com/
Jay provides a “deep dive each weekday into important political and legal topics, broken down in plain English and easily digestible morsels. We created a community here of folks committed to protecting the rule of law, our civil institutions, and the future of our democracy. Readers here want to be informed and remain active in defending our freedoms, rights, and cherished system of governance.”
Robert Hubbell’s newsletter Today’s Edition: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/
Robert’s newsletter “started in February 2017 as my effort (as a father and husband) to provide hope and perspective to my family after the unexpected results of the 2016 election. Over time, my family email was shared among friends and became of community of like-minded citizens devoted to preserving American democracy.” His career was in law.
Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter: Letters From An American: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
Heather is (a Mainer) and “a professor of American history. This is a chronicle of today’s political landscape, but because you can’t get a grip on today’s politics without an outline of America’s Constitution, and laws, and the economy, and social customs, this newsletter explores what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American.” She puts current events in a historical context which can be illuminating.
Last but NOT least!:
Jessica Craven’s: Chop Wood, Carry Water: https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
This one is SO important. Jessica’s newsletter is “is dedicated to saving democracy, addressing the climate crisis, preserving our freedoms, electing better lawmakers, and, in general, creating a better country—one simple action at a time. As the author, I’m essentially a bundler. Not of donations, but of easy things each of us can do to make a difference. I do these things, too—because I want my kid to grow up in a democracy AND because doing them makes me feel less anxious. My motto? Hope is an action.” She provides scripts for making calls to Congress (and you can even email the scripts or leave them after hours in a voicemail if you don’t feel up to talking to an alive human)…and she provides opportunities for other actions as well.
There are lots of other amazing newsletters: Josh Marshall of Talking Points, Joyce Vance of Civil Discourse, Simon Rosenberg of the Hopium Chronicles. These are smart fucking people who are doing the reading and studying for us because most of us don’t understand so much of it or get totally overwhelmed. Using them to provide this information is important because we CANNOT all understand what’s going on or tolerate reading all the documents, litigation, etc that it would take to be informed. Get help with that! From smart, kind people!
3. DON’T DO SCROLLING.
Please. If you’re feeling freaked out, scrolling will put you in a situation where you are hoping the next post you see will either make you feel a bit better or prove that everything is exploding and you can just go back to bed forever. This is not helpful. Scrolling is too addictive and too hard to limit our exposure. That’s why these newsletters are so good. They are contained. Read them, make your calls, show up at your Congressperson’s office, go to your protest, and do all your other things that have nothing to do with politics. Snuggle your dog, cook your lasagne, remember that we are still alive and that is a blessing and an opportunity to find connection, love, help, and chocolate.
Ok, we’ve gone over the logistics. This is my own experience as I see it right now. I have spent the last couple of weeks moving toward and away from a deep feeling of fear. I have used different strategies to try to get a sense of what will be safe and what won’t be safe. This is normal and human but no one can predict the future so no answers I’ve gotten are totally satisfactory. I’m taking action and that makes me feel better. When I’m in a group of people taking action I remember that I am not alone and that we are powerful. I’m taking care of my body, exercising, eating grounding food, eating cake, and making sure to play sometimes.
But underneath it all is an awareness that I cannot guarantee anything. That no one can. This isn’t just true now, it’s always true. But intense moments like this can help hold us to this truth. They are opportunities for us to work with this lack of ground, solidity, certainty.
As Pema Chodron wrote in her book, When Things Fall Apart:
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
When we think that something is going to bring us pleasure, we don’t know what’s really going to happen. When we think something is going to give us misery, we don’t know. Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. We try to do what we think is going to help. But we don’t know.
We never know if we’re going to fall flat or sit up tall. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a great adventure.
The way we work with this is to continually notice the stories our minds are telling us about some idea of certainty, and come back to our body, to our breath, to the safety we can find right now. Over and over again.
I’m going to end by sharing a video from AOC. She’s brilliant, calming and energizing, full of chutzpah and gives us some clear action steps.
As she says, Don’t Give Them Your Fear! They Feed on Fear! They are like the WIZARD in OZ. They seem so scary and they are just a trembling man behind a curtain and WE OUTNUMBER THEM!
Love,
Rachel