This, Joyce; what Bill Bryson said: “So at various periods over the last 3.8 billion years you have abhorred oxygen and then doted on it, grown fins and limbs and jaunty sails, laid eggs, flicked the air with a forked tongue, been sleek, been furry, lived underground, lived in trees, been as big as a deer and as small as a mouse, and a million things more.”
This is what we need to return to as a species. To remember our Relatives going far back through time - all the ancestors, human and non human; and take our smaller place as part of it. If we are eternal then surely these are too - always alive, though the veil separates us - but not completely. We can still 'talk' to and listen to each other, and ask for Guidance from the Living - including the Elements - and all those who went before us. No matter what befalls, this is my lifeline and Bryson reminds us that it is always available.
Glad you liked the Bryson quote … gave me comfort. This weekend, several hundred people turned out for an “emergency townhall” and it made me think that one thing all of us can do is build community … which is more challenging than it sounds but could make all the difference. Thanks again for sharing your views on these strange times. hugs.
thanks, Joyce. You're part of mine. Just unsubbed from some substacks - felt great. But never this one. I think it's a process of narrowing down the overload of too many choices and too much conflicting information out there, and supporting each other. It's not easy to build community but absolutely necessary in these times, and worth the effort, I believe.
Thanks and I agree … Substack has more than enough treasures … we have to take what we want/need/can and leave the rest. I’m honored to be among your keepers. ;-)
Joyce, you know I am apolitical because I don't think the arena of party politics is going to change anything when, as you've noted, oligarchs have been running the show for at least a century, probably two, in the USA. I believe it is important to look at the long view of history of the USA, starting way back in the Pilgrim era. and all the European colonizers and marauders. When was this country 'great?' Every time we approached 'greatness,' we hurt someone and something else, usually the Natural world and First Peoples. So the problem is much deeper than today's current shit-show Federation Wrestling arena with these poseurs. Keep that in mind. the Coup is the culmination of a long process - nothing new really. Now they are just blatant because, as you noted in your last post, the dominoes are finished being set up - and it's just one push away, and not even a hard one. So you're right about the urgency. But it helps to come at it with an understanding of how we've all been played, whatever each of us does or decides to do (or NOT do.)
So what can we do? Even if it is too little, too late?
1. Turn off ALL mainstream news - from Maddow to supposed 'rebel' flipflopper Tucker Carlson. The covid narrative should've taught us all about that. All are oligarch owned and run. The so called liberal OR conservative 'channels' spew the EXACT same garbage narrative, word for word. So look to the independents. Turn off the 'news.' Find worthy journalistic news and legal sources that aren't owned by plutocrats like Rupert Murdoch and whose biggest holders aren't Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, and Morgan Stanley et al. Unplug from the needless and constant fear and hate porn. Decide for yourself which one or two issues to take on. Find like minded people for THOSE issues - there are so many issues needing action and attention; it seems logical to go with both your passions and where your talents and gifts lie (or experience - such as being great with research and numbers, or community organizing.)
2. Act locally within your own community or where you have the greatest chance of building community and focus groups That is where we can change things and support each other. DIVEST from any banks contributing to the destruction of earth or warmongering, weaponry, AI weaponry, jailing political prisoners, ETC. Also divest from all unnecessary devices. and turn your cell phone OFF (and onto Airport) when you are not using it. Get out in Nature. Love it, appreciate it, be present to it, ask It what It needs. It will answer.
4. Fill your sanity well, as you do already, Joyce - with uplifting things, activities, people, spiritual or earth-based practices. Pray in whatever fashion, religious or not and ask for guidance or signs. THEN act from that place of centeredness.
None of this is probably specific to what you want to know. I loved that Borowitz report article, so funny - as good as the Onion (I wonder how that lawsuit is going?) One thing narcissists hate is being laughed at. the other is being ignored. Satire and humor are essential for sanity.
I'm interested in hearing more what you feel compelled to do - what specific issues speak to you, if you were only to choose a few. For me, it's (same as ever) environmental issues and the immigration issue and protecting our neighbors here. I shudder, remembering ICE in our ferry lines, and the sniffer dogs. Still haunted by that, and this time it's already so much worse. That's where my focus is, locally and farther out.
5. Think seven generations out, as First Nations cultures do. Don't let anyone take your love from you.
These may sound worthless and ineffective, but without a mindset of openness, compassion, willingness to learn, how can we ever begin to bridge the great divide in which so many of us are trapped? The problem is in consciousness and 'othering' [
i do get wound up! But your post reminds me I need to catch up and face up to all that has been done in this first 3 weeks, like it or not. I will try to do better with that. You are so brave to face it all head on. Grief has made me weak and vulnerable even more to despair, so i am trying to take care of myself - not an easy or natural thing. Thank you for your work here, and others, too.
BB … I truly loved your response and think each of us just needs to do what we can do and hold on. There are a LOT of people working on this. And, while I probably trust our system more than you do, your views remind me that we have no guarantees. Many hugs.
We are law-abiding in the face of lawlessness, but although we're not patsies who will roll over and play dead best we get smarter about a counter to the takeover going on. There’s a do-or-die feel to things. Either we become cooperative or apocalypse ahead. Maybe Trump even will have saved us by making things awful enough for us to deal with the oligarchy that’s the major threat to doing us in.
This is from the last paragraph of my Substack this week: “With more than half the country that didn’t vote for Trump plus people who supported him being disaffected, where law-abiders are at a disadvantage dealing with someone who has no regard for the law I even wonder about a coup by us. Not a bloody one. Does acting lawfully and losing our country make sense? I’m just asking…”
important questions. A line from an old Bob Dylan song says, "to live outside the law, you must be honest." When the 'laws' protect criminals, it makes little sense to 'cooperate' with them or swear obedience to them - especially with things so corrupted.
I guess we can do that here on substack, and locally, where we do have a little power and ability to listen to and learn from each other. I feel moved to try to help protect and uphold laws that protect the voiceless - whether that is environmental issues or immigrants or basic human/civil rights. When something this huge is affecting us all, globally, we need each other more than ever. Finding common ground and being willing to listen and share differing viewpoints without attacking each other seems an uphill battle but I think we are going to have to get good at it - some of you already are.
I'm apolitical but our local democrat chapter is progressive, so I get their newsletters and do most of their suggested actions. Publishing opinion pieces and letters to the editor or even educational articles are all good ways to garner a little local dialogue and get people thinking, and maybe even feeling a little less powerless.
Joyce, Powerful writing! All so important. There's a meeting today you may have heard about at 1pm. Maybe I'll see you there. The last part of the post, The Borowitz Report title, was a gem.
Jeanine … I don’t know if you were part of the several hundred people there but it was an inspiring turnout. Now we just have to figure out what to do.
This, Joyce; what Bill Bryson said: “So at various periods over the last 3.8 billion years you have abhorred oxygen and then doted on it, grown fins and limbs and jaunty sails, laid eggs, flicked the air with a forked tongue, been sleek, been furry, lived underground, lived in trees, been as big as a deer and as small as a mouse, and a million things more.”
This is what we need to return to as a species. To remember our Relatives going far back through time - all the ancestors, human and non human; and take our smaller place as part of it. If we are eternal then surely these are too - always alive, though the veil separates us - but not completely. We can still 'talk' to and listen to each other, and ask for Guidance from the Living - including the Elements - and all those who went before us. No matter what befalls, this is my lifeline and Bryson reminds us that it is always available.
Glad you liked the Bryson quote … gave me comfort. This weekend, several hundred people turned out for an “emergency townhall” and it made me think that one thing all of us can do is build community … which is more challenging than it sounds but could make all the difference. Thanks again for sharing your views on these strange times. hugs.
thanks, Joyce. You're part of mine. Just unsubbed from some substacks - felt great. But never this one. I think it's a process of narrowing down the overload of too many choices and too much conflicting information out there, and supporting each other. It's not easy to build community but absolutely necessary in these times, and worth the effort, I believe.
Thanks and I agree … Substack has more than enough treasures … we have to take what we want/need/can and leave the rest. I’m honored to be among your keepers. ;-)
Joyce, you know I am apolitical because I don't think the arena of party politics is going to change anything when, as you've noted, oligarchs have been running the show for at least a century, probably two, in the USA. I believe it is important to look at the long view of history of the USA, starting way back in the Pilgrim era. and all the European colonizers and marauders. When was this country 'great?' Every time we approached 'greatness,' we hurt someone and something else, usually the Natural world and First Peoples. So the problem is much deeper than today's current shit-show Federation Wrestling arena with these poseurs. Keep that in mind. the Coup is the culmination of a long process - nothing new really. Now they are just blatant because, as you noted in your last post, the dominoes are finished being set up - and it's just one push away, and not even a hard one. So you're right about the urgency. But it helps to come at it with an understanding of how we've all been played, whatever each of us does or decides to do (or NOT do.)
So what can we do? Even if it is too little, too late?
1. Turn off ALL mainstream news - from Maddow to supposed 'rebel' flipflopper Tucker Carlson. The covid narrative should've taught us all about that. All are oligarch owned and run. The so called liberal OR conservative 'channels' spew the EXACT same garbage narrative, word for word. So look to the independents. Turn off the 'news.' Find worthy journalistic news and legal sources that aren't owned by plutocrats like Rupert Murdoch and whose biggest holders aren't Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, and Morgan Stanley et al. Unplug from the needless and constant fear and hate porn. Decide for yourself which one or two issues to take on. Find like minded people for THOSE issues - there are so many issues needing action and attention; it seems logical to go with both your passions and where your talents and gifts lie (or experience - such as being great with research and numbers, or community organizing.)
2. Act locally within your own community or where you have the greatest chance of building community and focus groups That is where we can change things and support each other. DIVEST from any banks contributing to the destruction of earth or warmongering, weaponry, AI weaponry, jailing political prisoners, ETC. Also divest from all unnecessary devices. and turn your cell phone OFF (and onto Airport) when you are not using it. Get out in Nature. Love it, appreciate it, be present to it, ask It what It needs. It will answer.
4. Fill your sanity well, as you do already, Joyce - with uplifting things, activities, people, spiritual or earth-based practices. Pray in whatever fashion, religious or not and ask for guidance or signs. THEN act from that place of centeredness.
None of this is probably specific to what you want to know. I loved that Borowitz report article, so funny - as good as the Onion (I wonder how that lawsuit is going?) One thing narcissists hate is being laughed at. the other is being ignored. Satire and humor are essential for sanity.
I'm interested in hearing more what you feel compelled to do - what specific issues speak to you, if you were only to choose a few. For me, it's (same as ever) environmental issues and the immigration issue and protecting our neighbors here. I shudder, remembering ICE in our ferry lines, and the sniffer dogs. Still haunted by that, and this time it's already so much worse. That's where my focus is, locally and farther out.
5. Think seven generations out, as First Nations cultures do. Don't let anyone take your love from you.
These may sound worthless and ineffective, but without a mindset of openness, compassion, willingness to learn, how can we ever begin to bridge the great divide in which so many of us are trapped? The problem is in consciousness and 'othering' [
Wow! I love it when you get wound up!
i do get wound up! But your post reminds me I need to catch up and face up to all that has been done in this first 3 weeks, like it or not. I will try to do better with that. You are so brave to face it all head on. Grief has made me weak and vulnerable even more to despair, so i am trying to take care of myself - not an easy or natural thing. Thank you for your work here, and others, too.
BB … I truly loved your response and think each of us just needs to do what we can do and hold on. There are a LOT of people working on this. And, while I probably trust our system more than you do, your views remind me that we have no guarantees. Many hugs.
We are law-abiding in the face of lawlessness, but although we're not patsies who will roll over and play dead best we get smarter about a counter to the takeover going on. There’s a do-or-die feel to things. Either we become cooperative or apocalypse ahead. Maybe Trump even will have saved us by making things awful enough for us to deal with the oligarchy that’s the major threat to doing us in.
This is from the last paragraph of my Substack this week: “With more than half the country that didn’t vote for Trump plus people who supported him being disaffected, where law-abiders are at a disadvantage dealing with someone who has no regard for the law I even wonder about a coup by us. Not a bloody one. Does acting lawfully and losing our country make sense? I’m just asking…”
important questions. A line from an old Bob Dylan song says, "to live outside the law, you must be honest." When the 'laws' protect criminals, it makes little sense to 'cooperate' with them or swear obedience to them - especially with things so corrupted.
Good one. Isn’t it odd there isn’t even conversation about that? If I had power I’d be doing something to hustle up some confabbing about it.
I guess we can do that here on substack, and locally, where we do have a little power and ability to listen to and learn from each other. I feel moved to try to help protect and uphold laws that protect the voiceless - whether that is environmental issues or immigrants or basic human/civil rights. When something this huge is affecting us all, globally, we need each other more than ever. Finding common ground and being willing to listen and share differing viewpoints without attacking each other seems an uphill battle but I think we are going to have to get good at it - some of you already are.
I'm apolitical but our local democrat chapter is progressive, so I get their newsletters and do most of their suggested actions. Publishing opinion pieces and letters to the editor or even educational articles are all good ways to garner a little local dialogue and get people thinking, and maybe even feeling a little less powerless.
A powerful and thought provoking post, I like most can only wait and see how things pan out
I’m not sure that’s a good strategy over all … there are a lot of lives at stake here.
Joyce, Powerful writing! All so important. There's a meeting today you may have heard about at 1pm. Maybe I'll see you there. The last part of the post, The Borowitz Report title, was a gem.
Jeanine … I don’t know if you were part of the several hundred people there but it was an inspiring turnout. Now we just have to figure out what to do.
I don’t know about a meeting.