Chop Wood, Carry Water 11/13

Graphic by Creative Wannabe via Amplifier

Hi, all. Happy Wednesday.

I questioned for a few days last week whether I could ever again start this newsletter with those words. To say “happy” anything seemed deliberately delusional at best, and at worst insulting to the many who are poised to suffer under a Trump regime.

But as I sit here this morning, dog under my chair, a squirrel scolding away in a tree nearby, the sun neither too not nor too cold, I am remembering a conversation Mike and I had after I returned from North Carolina last week. We had begun to touch on some of the many things our country was about to lose—freedoms, climate progress, tolerance, justice, a functioning public educational system—and somehow, perhaps in an act of emotional self preservation, we’d pivoted to what we would not, however, lose, no matter what.

The number one answer? Love. Partnered with that? Joy.

Fascists can take many things. They can break many more. But there are things they can neither steal nor destroy—unless we let them. And these are, without question, the most important things we possess.

Fascists cannot take our place in our families.

They cannot take our friendships.

They cannot take our empathy.

They can not take our ability to experience beauty, nor to create it. They can’t take away our sense of wonder. They can’t rob us of compassion. They can’t take laughter—in fact they can’t get anywhere close to it; humor, to fascists, is like garlic to vampires.

Fascists can’t take away community, although they surely will try. They can’t take our pleasure in gardening, or drinking good tea, or listening to music, or making great art, or visiting the dog park, or walking with a friend.

They can’t take most of what makes life worth living. They can’t, in fact, get anywhere near the “human essentials,” for the place those essentials come from is a place where fascism starves.

So while we still grieve, and are only just coming out of shock, and are being forced back into a resistance stance we thought we’d long moved beyond, we must not forgo opportunities to find joy. To achieve connection. To feel love. We must, instead, chase them, nurture them, grow them, increase them.

For it is in the spaces fascists can’t enter that we can begin to build the structure of something entirely new, something stronger and more fascist-proof.

Something made of love.

Will we succeed?

Only if we try. Nothing is guaranteed, but it is in the trying that we’ll keep our humanity, grow our hope, and find new strengths.

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I know I’ve already given you links to a couple of events happening later today, but here’s one more, from NOPE. I’ll be speaking at it briefly.

The election results have left us all feeling shock and dismay. Join NOPE on Zoom this Wednesday, November 13 at 7 PM EST to reflect and find mutual support. We’ll review what we know – and don’t yet know – about the results.  We will celebrate the work and energy of every NOPE supporter who volunteered or donated to support Democrats across the country. Jessica Craven, activist and author of the popular and practical Substack blog Chop Wood, Carry Water, will help us gain perspective. And we will assure you that NOPE will carry on. We may not know exactly what that looks like yet, but we are committed to staying in the fight for our democracy. This meeting will feature no fundraising and no calls to action – just a chance for solidarity.  Please sign up here.

Hope to see some of you there.

More soon.

Jess