Chop Wood, Carry Water 11/21

"After the victory."

Art by Nina Yagual via Amplifier

Hi, all, and happy Tuesday.

It continues to be wild out there. Hope you’re holding fast amidst the gale.

One of my subscribers, Dave Conant of Missouri, left this excellent comment on my post yesterday:

When I was learning to be a line cook, a chef gave me the great advice that "when the tickets keep coming in, keep cooking.”

If you’ve worked in a restaurant—and I have, many times—you’ll know exactly what this means. Even if you haven’t, I suspect you get the gist. (We’ve all seen the Bear, right?)

The tickets keep coming in, folks. They won’t stop. It’s overwhelming, exhausting, and it’s likely it’ll become more so. But there’s no getting “off of the line,” as it were, so the above advice is perfect for the job we face:

Keep cooking.

Keep going, in other words, when what is being asked of us seems impossible. Bear the end goal always in mind, but make the task at hand the chief focus. One. Ticket. At. A. Time. Keep going.

Chop parsley. Carry plates. A fitting metaphor for a week about food.

Finally, if you need some inspiration from others in the fight, I have a gift for you, courtesy of my friend Marty Perlmutter, who sent it my way just this morning. It’s a guest post by Marci Shore in

Timothy Snyder

’s newsletter “Thinking About.” Read it. You’ll thank me. It’s short, potent, and sublime. Shore was at the Maidan in 2013-14 and has just completed a book about the Ukrainian Revolution.

I’ll leave you with this quote from it:

Today Ukrainians do not speak about “after the war;” they speak about “after the victory”—пiсля перемоги (pislya peremohy). “Peremoha”— Polish theater director Krzysztof Czyżewski suggested—should become part of a new universal vocabulary. The prefix pere indicates a crossing and moha means “I can.” Peremoha—“victory”—literally expresses a going beyond what one is able to do.

Magnificent.

Peremoha, my friends. We will go beyond what we are able to do. We must. And what an honor to be in that, of all fights, with you.

Happy Thanksgiving—or whatever version of it you celebrate. I love you for being here with me. You are helping to save my child’s—and all of our children’s—future, and I thank you for it.

When I’m asked what I’m grateful for this week you will be at the top of my list.

And you will stay there, even “after the victory.”

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You’re helping to save democracy! You’re amazing.

Now take a break.

Talk Monday.

Jess