Be As Courageous As You Can
the best decisions I made this month
I’ve always been a fan of January. I like that it seems never-ending. I like having things slow down before the year picks up pace and suddenly it’s August. I like a reprieve from social events, and being seen, and being on the move. Also, I like the cold. I prefer winter wardrobes to summer. I enjoy running in the winter dusk at 4:45pm. People love to tell me it’s because I’m Canadian, and maybe that’s true! Who knows. That said…
Even I think this January proved interminable. Interminable is a weak word. This is not a time for weak words. This January has been a collapse. Of the planet. Of laws. Of democratic norms. Of human rights.
That we’ve been warned about all of this, does not make the reality any easier. I think of how the fact I knew my mother was dying for years, and because of her dementia watched her disappear before me, did not, in fact, in any way prepare me for her actual death.
But I refuse to be bleak. To be bleak is to be useless. And we are not useless. We have the most agency of anyone in history. A truth that is not disconnected from what’s happening! Consider using that agency to schedule a few minutes into each day to call your representatives and convey some strong language their way. And then consider conveying to the people in your life who most need to hear it that you are on their side. Personally, I’m a fan of the voice memo. I also spent some time brushing up on how to be useful if ICE shows up.
Also, as we talked about back in November, now’s a good time to make sure you have hard copies of all your documents.
Now, because life is for the living, here are the most useful and enjoyable things I read, watched, and otherwise consumed this month.