Issue #40: Love the People Around You
I'm one of the lucky ones.
(And yes, we will be talking about the fallout of the U.S. elections, but only indirectly. This isn't a political newsletter…however, politics shape art, no matter how you slice it.)
I'm lucky to be a white man living in a "blue city" in a blue part of a western state in America, so I suspect I'll be "fine". But my heart grieves for those who won't be.
Nevertheless, our present moment brings me back to a truth I'd already known but forgotten a wee bit in the online chaos leading up to election day: my allegiance is to the people around me whom I know and love.
Obviously that includes my family, and it also includes my friends. But beyond that, it includes my neighborhood, and my city, and the whole surrounding area. (And roughly in order of priority at that.)
Yes, I will take care of my family first and foremost. And I don't think it's immoral in the least to say that. I expect it's true of pretty much everyone—though of course, your found family can be whoever is there for you when you really need them most.
But beyond that: I'm trying to come back to the center of what it is I can do, right here, right now, to bless the people around me in the places I frequent. The national election is over. I don't have any control over what happens next. Washington, D.C. is thousands of miles away. Nobody there even knows I exist, other than as an email address in a bunch of databases.
But there are people who care about me right here in my city of Portland, Oregon. And there are people I care about right back. And my true patriotic duty is to ensure their lives get better in any way that I am able.
I hope this doesn't sound like I'm simply "giving up" in some grand sense. The fight for freedom and equality goes ever on, and I certainly don't wish to become one of those apathetic non-voters who simply shrugs their shoulders and mumbles "whatever" in a man-on-the-street interview.
Here's what I'm saying though: imagine if all the energy, all the money, and all the brainpower that we just put into national elections for like a year we had put into our local communities instead. Bottom-up politics, rather than top-down. I genuinely wonder if that wouldn't have been a whole lot more affective to getting people the help they need, right here, right now.
I know I'm not saying anything new. People for decades have been trying to get folks more involved in local politics. Boards. Committees. Measures. Social clubs. etc. And this is actually one of the real challenges we face today: young people just aren't showing up in many of these settings. The civics-minded folks are aging. Who's going to take their place?
I'm already in my 40s, and I'm tired of feeling like I'm the youngest person in the room at some of these shindigs. I wish I could find a way to talk to more folks in their 20s and early 30s, encouraging them to be active participants—not just passive bystanders—in the life of their city.
But I digress. Let me get to the main point of this newsletter: I know many folks in the U.S., and even around the world (I'm sorry our bizarre antics have so much influence on your countries, I really am), are struggling in the wake of the MAGA Republican win. I'm struggling too. Right now, things seem pretty bleak. But I want to encourage you not to waver in loving the people around you. Love your family. Love your friends. Love the people in the places where you live, where you work, where you shop, where you eat, where you have fun. Love the nature that exists around you. Love the planet which nourishes and sustains you and all living things. In the end, these are the things which really matter to you in your day-to-day life, and I fret that our online obsessions with people and places that often have little-to-no effect on us IRL are taking our focus and our joy away from the tangible, vibrant realities we should be focused on.
“But Jared, the place I live in sucks, and the people I live/work with suck!” I understand, and I'm sorry. As I admitted up top, I'm one of the lucky ones. I know my privilege, and I hope I remember to check it early and often. All I can tell you is, if there's any way I can use my privilege to lift up friends and neighbors and to advocate for positive change in my city and my state, I hope I will discover those ways. And if you have the "spoons" for it, I hope you will too.
Excelsior, my friends!
Jared ✌️
Things which make you think:
Health Guide:
If I were to write an internet health guide, it would start with:
“THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT. YOU ARE INCREDIBLE. THESE COMPANIES ARE BAD AND THEY'RE RUINING EVERYTHING. BUT YOU? YOU'RE WONDERFUL.”
Then the guide would say that it's alright to want to be online, because connection through the internet is good-as-hell. I'd only ask for one thing from the reader: to stop waiting for these companies to get better. Instead, learn enough technical skills so that you're no longer reliant on them.
“You already have all the tools you need, so let's sharpen them!,” the guide would say.