The wasp in my office
An extended metaphor. I'm so sorry.
There is a wasp in my home office.
I think.
I heard it buzz in my TV room the other night, and thought it was a fly. I didn’t see it, but it seemed plausible. We occasionally get flies in the house because 1) our green waste bin attracts flies, 2) said green waste bin is stored next to our garage, and 3) certain members of my household are less diligent than others about closing the door to said garage.
The next day, however, I walked into my office and SAW the buzzing thing, and it was no fly. I think it was a wasp. It was bee-like in nature, but with a large butt area and those weird dangling back legs that make it look more like a grasshopper or a small airborne kangaroo or something (I don’t know the animal kingdom very well). But it quickly disappeared into a recess somewhere, unlike a fly, which would continue buzzing about and ramming into the window until I smacked it or let it out the door.
This of course became cause for concern. I spend roughly 8 hours a day in the office, doing my job, paying bills, watching videos about John Entwistle—in other words: important work.
If the wasp/grasshopper/kangaroo is one of the kinds that can sting, it could theoretically sneak up and sting me as I am focused on work, budgeting, or the isolated bass part from “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” But maybe it won’t. Maybe it will just make itself known and I can capture it and let it outside. Or maybe it will just die.
But I don’t know any of this. I’ve got a Schrödinger’s Wasp that is simultaneously going to hurt me and leave me alone.
The reasonable response is to accept that I can’t control this. And that the likelihood of me facing any harm is low. But I’m anxious. Because of the unknown.
You can probably tell where I’m going with this.
The next four years are going to be a shit show. They could be deadly. They could be annoying. They could be something in between, or both. Our nation elected a wasp, and it will appoint other wasps to cabinet positions and probably Supreme Court seats. This wasp is more prepared than last time it was in office.
But so are we.
I’m not banging the drum of “just have hope, we’ll be OK.” One’s capacity for “hope” at this point is almost certainly correlated to one’s level of privilege. Us white men can afford a lot of hope. Others, not so much. But: we are doomed if we continue on with none.
I’ve been dabbling in Stoic philosophy texts for the last couple of years, and have read up on Buddhist mindfulness for a while, too. Both often refer to (forgive me for GROSSLY underrepresenting two very big and honorable traditions) the concept that we cannot control everything, so we should focus our energy on that which we can control.
We cannot un-elect the wasp at this point. We cannot keep him from barging ahead with bad ideas supported by other bad wasps. But we can start with taking care of ourselves. Put on a turtleneck to minimize the risk of wasp stings. Make sure your family does the same. Reach out to your neighbors and see if they have been plagued by wasps, too. Listen to people who have been hurt by wasps before and help them (in the way they want help, not the way you think you should). Get engaged with your local beekeeping society (?) and see if you can help your community. Do what you can to influence the bee-eater party (I Googled some things) to have a strong candidate to run against future wasps.
I’m obviously stretching this metaphor—and your patience—very, very thin, but hopefully you get the point. We’ll do nothing to sit here being anxious for four years. We can’t possibly fix everything, but we have to fix something. Both Jimmy Carter and my late godmother, the coolest nun I ever knew, encouraged a kind of focused charity: Pick one cause or community to support and support the heck out of it. If we all do that, we can make more progress than if we sit around swatting at the air.
XO,
Grant
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P.S. Here are a few organizations I have personally found helpful in order to focus on driving progress and caring for community:
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
- Rainbow Railroad
- The Movement for Black Lives
- Sister Song
- Sogorea Te’ Land Trust (SF Bay Area)
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Visit grantshellen.com for more from and/or about me.