What Now?
Or, how to stay engaged when the Horrors™️ are Horror-ing
It hasn’t even been a week, and things are looking bleak (wow, I guess I’m rhyming now. That’s how you know it’s really bad). Everyone I talk to is scared, angry, nervous, scared, exhausted, flabbergasted, and scared. Did I mention scared?
It’s easy to be too overwhelmed to do anything. That’s actually kind of the point. It makes it easier for them to get away with more shit. A lot easier. It’s hard to know what to focus on when there’s an avalanche of crap occurring daily. The more they can inundate us with horrible nonsense, the more likely we are to move into survival mode (disengaging from the news, narrowing our communities, just focusing on little things that bring us joy).
But if we succumb to that instinct to withdraw, they win, and things get even worse.
If you’re like me, and reading the news breaks your heart while raising your blood pressure, and you’re not sure what to do though you know you should do something, here are some tips:
Stay informed. An uninformed populace is easier to oppress, so find a way to get the news in a matter that doesn’t make you want to bang your head against a table. I personally love the What A Day newsletter from Crooked Media because it gives me The Horrors while also giving me some hee-hee-ha-has. It’s funny, is what I’m saying.
Expand your community, and build some hope. You could do this by, I don’t know, finding a mutual aid organization near you, or joining your local chapter of democratic socialists, or taking an 8-session course on bell hooks’ All About Love.
Side note: I may be biased as the facilitator of the All About Love course/book club/discussion group, but when I tell you that in my 12 years of teaching, the community I’ve found by doing this work has been the most transformative, delightful, and empowering, I’m not lying. Folks that attended this course, who were complete strangers before attending, have celebrated Friendsgiving together, volunteered at different organizations together, and have even traveled together. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Keep learning. The easiest way to foster hope, to create a future that isn’t this, is to learn. Get a library card. Join a book club at your local bookstore. I’ll start curating books that give me hope and guidance to share with y’all, but there are so many great thinkers out there: adrienne maree brown, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Prentiss Hemphill, Dr. Bettina Love, Kyla Schuller, bell hooks, Kaitlin B. Curtice, etc. You could, if you’re a white person who considers themselves a feminist, take this course (shameless plug? only sort of).
Find the joy, but not solo. The more you can lean into joy, into hobbies that include other people or other communities, the better off you’ll be. Resistance work can be draining, but laughter, joy, delight all need to be a part of it. How can you do something joyous regularly that keeps you connected to folks? I take pole dancing classes, because it’s fun and hard and also very silly. You could join a knitting circle, take friends and go to local theatre productions, host regular game nights, make it a point to go to every art walk, or anything else. But don’t isolate.
If you have other ideas, throw them in the comments!
Whatever you do, keep your chin up, find a way to put a smile on your face, and give them hell.