Some friends last night were complaining about all the outrageous things that this administration is doing that feel like an accelerating slide toward fascism.
“I just want to just hide and play with my phone and pretend it isn’t happening,” one friend said.
“That’s how they win,” I argued.
“Yeah, but how do you stay engaged when there is just a constant assault on everything good all the time?” they asked.
“You do one thing, one small act of resistance,” I said.
I thought some more about it this morning.
We live in a time where there are daily, seemingly minute-by-minute attacks on our rights, our future, our communities. It feels so overwhelming and makes you want to just crawl under the covers for the next three years.
Which is of course what the despots want you to do. They want you to feel like you are helpless, that you don’t have a voice, that you can not effect change.
To counteract that, you need to do SOMETHING. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to solve all the problems of the world. But it should be something real — not just clicking or “liking” something.
It might be just cleaning up a neglected alley, helping an elderly neighbor with an errand, contributing a few bucks to a cause you believe in. The point isn’t to fix anything, the point is to assert your place in this world as someone who is a helper, not just a passive consumer.
The reality is that you can’t change the world, but you can change yourself. You can keep your heart attuned to the suffering of others, you can keep your eyes alert for opportunities to help, you can keep your brain actively scheming ways to subvert the system.
This morning I’m going to check in on a relative who was in a car accident. I baked a loaf of bread that I’m going to deliver to a sick friend.
It’s getting dark outside, be the light.