I yelled at some twelve-year-olds today. My job is to see them and love them and guide them, and today, hearing them casually but intensely think through who "told" and got them "in trouble" (when the trouble was a group chat title that made someone's heart heart), I couldn't quite take it and be my normal calm but stern self. I yelled and I called them into my office, and it didn't feel good but it also isn't wrong to let the hurt and anger at how the world is working come out more. I don't think I had put that all together until I read this essay - thinking of the way that everything else has broken through in a heavy way to the work I do every day. Whew. Thanks for offering the essay, and giving us space here to share too.
Something I've noticed in literally every system I've been part of or privy to: when those at the top quit functioning in positive ways, leadership bubbles up from grassroots members and it's usually awesome to behold because it is infectious and the optimistic, energetic community quickly joins in
Every day is a shit show. Somehow our government got away from us over the last decades. Some how our values got corrupted into thinking that me was more important than us. Somehow our gun culture went from yippe eyo kayee to it's OK to militarize the second amendment and turn our backs on murder. Some how technology replaced society. Some how we let the antichrist and his minions slip into power while tech bros and oligarchs watch people starve. Somehow your health became a luxury tax. Garrett, I love your thoughts but we need the "we are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore". Protest is great, but we need national strikes, shut down by workers, and kicking our legislators asses at all levels. DJT, a sociopath, and his minions care naught about you Midwesteners or us Beltway slaves or basically any decent American, regardless of our location or tribulations. It will get worse .....it has to get worse. It's the only way we will shake the Trump miasma. So we find the strength to celebrate our faith, hold our family, friends, neighbors close in care and love. Respectfully, potlucks don't work real well around here. Racism, pocket books, unemployment, thought/gender suppression and uncertainty are what ignite tempers....it's worse than the Battle of Britain....the bombs just keep dropping here in Metro DC.
I am doing my dammdest to generate some holiday cheer but in my 73 years I have never faced an America like this. I wish you and your kin the best but 2026 may be the battle ground that saves the Republic. Merry Christmas in the most humble and urgent way. BG
So many reasons to be mad as hell and not take it any more. Thank you, sincerely, for bringing your rage and urgency to this moment, and also, know that I'm right there with you if there's anything I can do to keep you going.
What you can do for is celebrate this holiday in the true meaning of Christmas with the ones you love. We are keeping gifts to a bare minimum and sending money to charity and non profits who could use a boost. Ask your subscribers to consider this ....an especially needy Christmas. Peace brother
For what it's worth, from a stranger on the internet, I think about it like this: the anger is for the systems that victimize us all in some way. The potluck is for the neighbor who may or may not realize they're a victim, may or may not have the same views as I do about how to fix things, but who is a human, not a system. The potluck is for doing just as you say: finding "the strength to celebrate our faith, hold our family, friends, neighbors close in care and love."
Fight the power, sister. I have found that showing up, just showing up, at someplace that really needs some help works well. If I was younger and not in a 55+ community, I would definitely do potlucks - they were an integral part of my childhood - I have the chubby pictures to prove it and I learned a lot from my neighbors. In Taylor Village our support systems are pretty strong - if not a tad too homogeneous. I hope you have a great Christmas - after all,it's a celebration of hope and forgiveness.
Let me be one of the first to respond to your comments, rather than - my usual - last folks.
I think there is a screen that I put up - TV vs Reality?- between the nightly/ daily/minutebyminute announcements of what is happening in the world verses what is happening in my living room.
It may be age related...I was very "outside of myself" during my 20's and 30's. Involved in war resistance, civil rights, women's rights.
But add forty years to that, and - although I am involved in current struggles- I do not let them come into my kitchen while cooking.
Is there an indivisible divider there? I don't think it is "with age comes wisdom" nonsense. I was involved in planning the first NO KINGS protest. But I see these weekend events as "out there". Not my immediate world.
It seems like whatever you’re doing, there’s probably a lesson there, because you’re definitely still showing up in so many ways for the world and our community without letting all the potential sources of overwhelm take over your life.
I went to a concert by the Soweto Gospel Choir last night, a whirl of nonstop movement, color, and music. Ambassadors for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, they sang and danced African gospel and songs from the South African democratic movement plus Christmas carols and Leonard Cohen. As much as my rational mind tells me that the world I want is being pummeled right now by greed and hate, my heart absorbed the music and feels emboldened to turn away from despair. We will likely continue to have terrible weekends of violence (or, where I live in the PNW, insanely destructive flooding that is absolutely a consequence of climate change) and we will grieve and gnash our teeth because we are humans with empathy and a moral compass oriented to justice. And then I am convinced that we will find the strength from the courage of other fighters before us and essays like Garrett's and music and friends and lefse to hold strong.
oh dang, waterworks
thanks pal
I yelled at some twelve-year-olds today. My job is to see them and love them and guide them, and today, hearing them casually but intensely think through who "told" and got them "in trouble" (when the trouble was a group chat title that made someone's heart heart), I couldn't quite take it and be my normal calm but stern self. I yelled and I called them into my office, and it didn't feel good but it also isn't wrong to let the hurt and anger at how the world is working come out more. I don't think I had put that all together until I read this essay - thinking of the way that everything else has broken through in a heavy way to the work I do every day. Whew. Thanks for offering the essay, and giving us space here to share too.
I think that we're all so many things right now, but one of them is mad!!!
Something I've noticed in literally every system I've been part of or privy to: when those at the top quit functioning in positive ways, leadership bubbles up from grassroots members and it's usually awesome to behold because it is infectious and the optimistic, energetic community quickly joins in
that's a really interesting (and optimistic) reflection Gail)
3 school systems in different communities, 2 congregations and several organizations and institutions.
Every day is a shit show. Somehow our government got away from us over the last decades. Some how our values got corrupted into thinking that me was more important than us. Somehow our gun culture went from yippe eyo kayee to it's OK to militarize the second amendment and turn our backs on murder. Some how technology replaced society. Some how we let the antichrist and his minions slip into power while tech bros and oligarchs watch people starve. Somehow your health became a luxury tax. Garrett, I love your thoughts but we need the "we are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore". Protest is great, but we need national strikes, shut down by workers, and kicking our legislators asses at all levels. DJT, a sociopath, and his minions care naught about you Midwesteners or us Beltway slaves or basically any decent American, regardless of our location or tribulations. It will get worse .....it has to get worse. It's the only way we will shake the Trump miasma. So we find the strength to celebrate our faith, hold our family, friends, neighbors close in care and love. Respectfully, potlucks don't work real well around here. Racism, pocket books, unemployment, thought/gender suppression and uncertainty are what ignite tempers....it's worse than the Battle of Britain....the bombs just keep dropping here in Metro DC.
I am doing my dammdest to generate some holiday cheer but in my 73 years I have never faced an America like this. I wish you and your kin the best but 2026 may be the battle ground that saves the Republic. Merry Christmas in the most humble and urgent way. BG
So many reasons to be mad as hell and not take it any more. Thank you, sincerely, for bringing your rage and urgency to this moment, and also, know that I'm right there with you if there's anything I can do to keep you going.
What you can do for is celebrate this holiday in the true meaning of Christmas with the ones you love. We are keeping gifts to a bare minimum and sending money to charity and non profits who could use a boost. Ask your subscribers to consider this ....an especially needy Christmas. Peace brother
For what it's worth, from a stranger on the internet, I think about it like this: the anger is for the systems that victimize us all in some way. The potluck is for the neighbor who may or may not realize they're a victim, may or may not have the same views as I do about how to fix things, but who is a human, not a system. The potluck is for doing just as you say: finding "the strength to celebrate our faith, hold our family, friends, neighbors close in care and love."
With solidarity.
Fight the power, sister. I have found that showing up, just showing up, at someplace that really needs some help works well. If I was younger and not in a 55+ community, I would definitely do potlucks - they were an integral part of my childhood - I have the chubby pictures to prove it and I learned a lot from my neighbors. In Taylor Village our support systems are pretty strong - if not a tad too homogeneous. I hope you have a great Christmas - after all,it's a celebration of hope and forgiveness.
Let me be one of the first to respond to your comments, rather than - my usual - last folks.
I think there is a screen that I put up - TV vs Reality?- between the nightly/ daily/minutebyminute announcements of what is happening in the world verses what is happening in my living room.
It may be age related...I was very "outside of myself" during my 20's and 30's. Involved in war resistance, civil rights, women's rights.
But add forty years to that, and - although I am involved in current struggles- I do not let them come into my kitchen while cooking.
Is there an indivisible divider there? I don't think it is "with age comes wisdom" nonsense. I was involved in planning the first NO KINGS protest. But I see these weekend events as "out there". Not my immediate world.
Wrong? Maybe....
It seems like whatever you’re doing, there’s probably a lesson there, because you’re definitely still showing up in so many ways for the world and our community without letting all the potential sources of overwhelm take over your life.
"Sources of overwhelm take over your life". Maybe this is what we need to strive for.
I went to a concert by the Soweto Gospel Choir last night, a whirl of nonstop movement, color, and music. Ambassadors for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, they sang and danced African gospel and songs from the South African democratic movement plus Christmas carols and Leonard Cohen. As much as my rational mind tells me that the world I want is being pummeled right now by greed and hate, my heart absorbed the music and feels emboldened to turn away from despair. We will likely continue to have terrible weekends of violence (or, where I live in the PNW, insanely destructive flooding that is absolutely a consequence of climate change) and we will grieve and gnash our teeth because we are humans with empathy and a moral compass oriented to justice. And then I am convinced that we will find the strength from the courage of other fighters before us and essays like Garrett's and music and friends and lefse to hold strong.
Somehow I want to apologize to you. For our collective responsibility? For being unable to stop this? I’m not sure but I’m sorry.