A breather: Take some inspiration

LSR has been hitting you hard with dire news. If you had been on a vacation overseas for a week, the U.S.A. would have looked like this when you flew over on your way home.

LSR again enlisted AI's "help" in making a drawing

We need a breather! Let us pause for some inspiration. 

First, an essay. Anne Lamott shared this after the Dobbs decision, and before that, she wrote similarly about the impending war on Iraq. Her words remain no less relevant today.

We’re all doomed. Resistance is futile.

Oh wait, never mind. What I meant to say was, Could somebody please send me the operating instructions?

Oh wait, never mind. Our marching orders are all over the Internet, with links on how to donate to the cause of women’s reproductive rights, how to aid and abet abortions on the grassroots level, links to where the marches and rallies will be, how to help keep control of the House and Senate.

In the meantime, filled with rage, fear and despair, I remembered a piece I wrote for Salon twenty years ago, on the brink of war on Iraq, so I dug it out, and have retooled it here for the current nightmare. It was called Hard Rain: 

Everyone has had a hard time with life lately; not with all of it, just the waking hours. Being awake is the one real fly in the ointment -- but it is also when solutions come to us. So many precious friends died or got horribly sick this year, so many schoolchildren died in shootings, the world burned. One out of seven women in my county is getting breast cancer -- I can't even wrap my mind around that -- and our animals died, but on top of it all, like a dental X-ray apron, is the depression of life with this freak show of Trump’s Supreme Court.

"It's all hopeless," a friend muttered, which I kind of like in a person, and which I almost believe to be true: Nearly every time I remind myself of Friday’s ruling, I think of the old New Yorker cartoon of the two prisoners chained high above the walls of a prison cell, one saying to the other, "Okay, here's my plan." But it’s not hopeless, not by a long shot. Resistance is not futile. I think it's only one of the hardest things we’ve ever done, and I'll take that over futile any day.

My friend, who is usually a crabby optimist like me, is terrorized. He’s worried about Russian nuclear bombs, the permafrost, and life as we now know it under an endless, paranoid misogynistic right-wing conspiracy. He also sometimes talks about life in shelters, and caves. Now, this would not work for me. Shelters would be bad enough -- a dinner party is a real stretch for me -- but I don't even remotely have the right personality for cave dwelling. I need privacy and silence most of the time. Also, I hate stalactites. It's like Damocles goes cave-camping. (Luckily, I am old and will not live long enough to see that.)

In the days since Roe v Wade was overturned, I have stepped up my do-good efforts, a dependable counterforce to the dread. I went to demonstrations, sent money to Planned Parenthood and UNICEF, and signed petitions. (Always always always, when you don’t know what to do, help take care of the poor.) I prayed like a mother, an auntie, a grandmother. And I bought some flowers to plant, which is a form of prayer.

God only knows how this will all shake down. But in any case, us left wing religious people should try to stay on Her good side. It's not hard. God has extremely low standards. Pray, take care of people, be actively grateful for your blessings, give away your money -- you're cool. You're in. Nice room in heaven, near the dessert table, flossing no longer required -- which is what will make it heaven for me. Oh, and Jesus.

During the build up to the war on Iraq, I rented the movie "Independence Day." I wanted to see what it takes to mount an effective resistance against an alien takeover. This is what the current SCOTUS feels like to me. And according to the movie, it turns out that we have everything we already need. We have a great cause, protecting the lives, health and equality of women. We'll get a break or two in the next few months if we work like hell to hold onto the Senate and House, And we caught one alien -- Clarence Thomas. He handed over the insanity codes when he announced his conviction that overturning Roe v Wade is just the beginning; he took the lid off the stew pot so we could all peek in at how the aliens think. It was a big catch, and I started to feel hope again, that because we had all these things in place -- a cause, impending breaks, a big catch -- now all we needed was to get back to work. Maybe goodness would prevail, maybe not, but probably, and as Molly Ivins wrote years ago, freedom fighters don't always win, but they are always right."

John Lennon said, "Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it's not the end.” And I do believe this; I just do. I believe that love is sovereign here, and goodness. I just do. So we push back our sleeves, and fight back: left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. And I believe we can do it, Cinderelli, Cinderelli. I just do.

Next, an essay by Dan Piraro and his Bizarro, usually on the comix pages but touching and needful in these days: How to Worry Less About the World.

It’s a politically scary time on planet Earth. But it’s important to note that this is neither the first, nor the scariest time our species has experienced, by a long shot.

You could fill a volume the size of the Manhattan phonebook (trust me, they were huge and the type was tiny) with a list of the catastrophes humans have caused and/or endured in our brief time here, but I won’t attempt to cite them. Just know that there have been a lot, drop that knowledge into a box, and leave it on the back porch of your mind for the moment.

Whether you believe in other dimensions or not, it is a fact that the one our entire universe inhabits exists on the “tension of opposites”: light and dark, hot and cold, pleasure and pain, life and death. Our planet orbits around the sun because of the tension between motion and gravity, as all celestial bodies do, etcetera, ad infinitum. Get rid of your least favorite half of any of those opposites listed above—or any others—and you remove the other half, too. Each exists in tension with and as a result of the other.

Put that in a box on the back porch for now, too.

***

Now let’s talk about “bad” people: They lie, they dominate, they cheat, they trick you into believing in them and a host of other falsehoods, then they betray you. We call them “con men”—short for “confidence” men—because they gain our confidence before cheating us. Damn, that hurts. When authority figures who have power over our lives do this, it can be dangerous, damaging, and even deadly. It is understandable if you to want to rid the world of these kinds of people.

Now consider this: People of this sort and the calamities they engender are a major driving force of our evolution. You could even say they are the reason our species has been successful, innovative, and progressive.

I thought that sounded crazy at first too, but give me a couple more paragraphs and you may see the logic.

I recently came across this concept in a book by Lewis Hyde called Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. He uses the history of mythology to make his point, but we’ll skip that and cut to the basic concept, which is simple: Every animal on earth is a predator or prey, and many are both. The game of predator and prey is one of advancing intelligence: Predators must outsmart their prey, prey gets outsmarted and loses some members of its ranks, but it makes them smarter as they learn to avoid the ruse. The predators then must get smarter once again and develop new tricks, and the cycle repeats. It is a function of “survival of the fittest” that doesn’t get mentioned much—not only the fastest and strongest survive, but the smartest.

Leaving wild animals behind for the moment, we see that this pattern is most obvious in human culture because we are so much more intellectually gifted than the average beast of the field; our tricks and deceptions are more complex than those in the wild, and materialize ever more rapidly. And as a result, our responses must be more rapid and complex, too.

Quick aside: This is not a review of that book and is by no means all Hyde has to say on the topic. I only mean to call attention to the fact that this cat-and-mouse game is a major and natural part of how our species drives itself forward. Terrible people and horrible things are not the end of the world, they are a means to a better world.

***

Think about how much you learn when you are comfortable and happy as compared to hungry, victimized, or desperate. There’s no competition. We learn as a result of discomfort, not contentment. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

Now let’s focus on the United States. Anyone of any political stripe can list things terribly wrong and gloriously right about the U.S. Each side attempts to force its view on the other and fine-tune the government to its preferences. But the other side objects and obstructs, resulting in, at best, a compromise. When compromise stops, so does progress in either direction. The U.S. is currently in this kind of stalemate, but it isn’t the first time.

Here’s where the role of contentment comes in. The Great Depression of the 1930s was horrific, lasted for more than a decade, and only a tiny percentage of Americans who were tremendously rich were content. The rest were living on a knife’s edge. This society-wide discomfort led to great change in the form of a government that stopped doting exclusively on the wealthy and powerful and began to care for a much wider section of the public, which led to the contentment of a much larger percentage of the people. Americans could have made these changes sooner and avoided the Great Depression entirely, but they weren’t uncomfortable enough to demand it. It took a dozen years of a national tragedy to inspire this kind of change. But once it did, it led to more than half a century of prosperity and innovation.

(Going back much further, the U.S. and its radically progressive, liberal philosophy of democracy and equality before the law exists as a result of the abuses of the British monarchy: King George III was the trickster responsible for inspiring our Founding Fathers to birth our nation.)

***

So here we are, about a hundred years after the Great Depression, on the verge of national calamity yet again. We are facing challenges most Americans have not seen in their lifetimes, and most of us are anywhere from anxious to terrified. So how can we see this upheaval not as the end of the world, but as the necessary discomfort of creating a better one?

There is an ancient Asian parable that may help:

A poor farmer’s only financial asset is a horse. One day, it runs away. His neighbor hears the news and offers his condolences. “What bad luck,” he says. The farmer replies, “Is it?”

The next day the horse returns with four other horses. “What great luck!” his neighbor says. “Is it?” the farmer replies.

The next day the farmer’s son is riding one of the horses, falls off and breaks his leg. The neighbor and the farmer repeat the call and response. “Terrible luck!” “Is it?”

The next day the army comes marching through, looking for young men to conscript. They reject the farmer’s son because his leg is broken. Once again, bad luck turns to good.

This pattern can go on indefinitely in a world of opposites in tension, and it has, for as long as we have existed.

When we fear political dark clouds on the horizon, we can take a quick peek at those boxes we put on the back porch of our minds and remind ourselves that whatever challenges arise, our kind has successfully endured worse, and that in a universe fundamentally made up of opposites in tension, we’re going to experience some tension from time to time.

Not knowing what the future will bring can be either unsettling or reason for hope. The choice is ours.

Next, find hope in the recent elections across the sea. Great Britain, France, and Iran all pivoted left. If they can do it, resilient Americans can do it! This isn't our first shove-pie-in-the-face-of-authoritarianism rodeo!

And take inspiration from strong women of the world:

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity." —Amelia Earhart

 “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it’s right.” — Rosa Parks

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis

“In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” — Margaret Thatcher

"It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union…Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less." –– Susan B. Anthony

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” –– Abigail Adams

Remember, these problems do not prevent you from experiencing and sharing joy in your day-to-day. Push thoughts out of your mind and dive into that that romance novel, dip your feetsies into the cool water, grab those pencils and start drawing, put on your dancing shoes and get to the floor, boop that puppy nose, find awe on a walk through nature, finesse that pie crust into a perfect lattice, snuggle those baby toes.

Do self care. Be sure to eat right, drink fluids, exercise, and get plenty of rest. You know, place your oxygen mask first before assisting others. 

And lastly, because we gotta laugh to keep from crying, enjoy some cartoons and memes. I tried to choose the most lighthearted ones today – not sure I succeeded on that point! I have many more hard-hitting ones for a future post. Anyway, here ya go. 

A real sign outside Flagstaff, AZ

Scott Stantis

Made out of 100% horse shit!

And when you are refreshed...

When you are ready, revisit the ideas on What you can do? and start by doing just one thing. 

"People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of thoughts, words, and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do." –– Dorothy Day

We got this! RESIST!

Thanks to my sister resisters Pagrs, BobBIE!, Karenone, and Ploddy Mule for many of these memes 'n toons. Keep going, sisters!