“When we respond to a situation in a way that promotes healing and transformation, we are expressing power.” – Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone in the 2022 revised edition of Active Hope.
Before that, in 2000 — that’s 25 years ago now, if you want to feel time blasting right on by — YES! journal published an interview with Macy, and there’s wisdom to be found in that too. Although the magazine date is Spring 2000, the conversation happened right after the Seattle WTO protests, as in, the following day. Please, read that interview and if you were not alive or awake for 1999, go learn about the WTO protests, then come back.
So much of what Macy said in that interview holds up in this moment where we find ourselves today, on the cusp of two dramatically different types of presidents:
We don’t need to look much further than those who sold out their own family members in the last election because they were afraid.
There’s no way around it: if someone voted in a particular way because they were worried that eggs cost too much, they voted for candidates who hate the stranger, hate the immigrant, hate the trans folk, hate the queers, hate women, hate hate hate.
Maybe those voters, too, are fascists; maybe they would reject that label. But the truth is, they didn’t care enough to vote another way. They didn’t care. They allowed themselves to be governed by fear, to be devoured by fear . . . and to hell with everything and everyone else.
During and following disasters, there are often two narratives. Not everyone hears both. There are those who latch on to the frequently exaggerated tales of lawlessness and looting. These stories can make it seem as if isolated incidents of theft — whether motivated by survival or greed — are as much or more of a problem than the original disaster itself.
Those who cling to these stories are those who let themselves be governed by fear.
Because they can’t get past whatever hurt them, they refuse to see what good exists. They refuse to reject the groundless belief that someone is always on the verge of taking what (they believe) is theirs.
A friend in the Los Angeles area offered her place for anyone fleeing the fires. She raised money and collected donations like baby formula and diapers — the practical stuff that people need right away. Following Hurricane Katrina, I knew people who traveled from Connecticut to New Orleans to assist with relief efforts. I can give dozens of examples from just those I know personally who have helped during these giant disasters, ones more, and in between. During the pre-vaccine Covid pandemic, I knew people getting and delivering groceries to the elderly, distributing masks, making sure neighbors had what they needed, creating social outdoor distanced gatherings, and so much more. That’s not even getting into work done by organizations or by people I have never met. I can’t give in to lazy despair because I have example after example of people in my community stepping the hell up as needed. You would get bored if I gave an itemized list.
Although I would argue that the T$&!p presidency, parts one and two, qualify as a disaster, we do not have to wait for disasters to choose how to respond to the situations we find ourselves in.
There is a regular bus rider who gives a little farewell speech every time he exits after traveling for what can’t be more than half a mile. Usually, he turns to tell all passengers to “have a blessed day.” Recently, he broke from his usual bit to remind people, and I can only paraphrase this: there are going to be people who are going to try to get your down and ruin your day; don’t let them. What he said was a bit sassier than that, and sadly, I did not write it down. You get the point.
Another local I see here and there was telling me a month or so ago about his new coat, which he was wearing. It was nice, thick, warm, and clean. Got it just before the first real cold snap of the season. He told me how he’d been talking to a stranger about how he’d been going through a tough time, and this stranger literally took his coat off and gave it to him. He was astonished by it, still, and says to me, “You know what that was? That was God.”
I knew what he meant by that.
We can choose to be people who are grateful and people who are willing to give, whether that gift is a coat or a kind word to a bus full of strangers.
That 2000 interview with Joanna Macy ends with her saying: “People are sick and tired of being pitted against each other when there’s already so much suffering and the Earth itself is under assault. They’re ready to reconnect and honor the life we share. That is the great adventure of our time. And it’s happening.”
We can choose how to respond to whatever chaos and horror is unleashed over the next four years. We can commit to strengthening our communities, taking direct actions that make a difference, and acting as if we understand and believe the commandment to love the stranger. We can choose to share the eggs we have.
