True and concrete
Was reflecting after last night’s post whether it is useful for me to describe RFK Jr. as a “menace”.
But by Wiktionary’s definition the language is not an exaggeration:
menace (noun) A perceived threat or danger
I wish not to exaggerate or euphemize when I write here. Twenty years ago David Foster Wallace described to a graduating class at Kenyon College how unimaginably hard it is to remind ourselves what is real, to see clearly what is in front of us. But this was also so long ago; before social media, before smartphones, before the collapse of journalism made it even less possible to create and sustain and live within a shared reality with our neighbors.*
Committing to see what is true can mean holding many truths at once, as we reflect on the failure of our money, our canvassing, our phone calls, our door knocking to prevent TFP’s return to the presidency:
The same Constitution we praise as visionary was itself a desperate second draft of a country, foisted on an unsuspecting public, crafted in a boiler room of conflicting interests and emotions, and held together by the collective charisma of George Washington and a handful of guys who simply refused to shut up. We are a country that spent decades trying to preserve slavery as a means of preserving peace, and only pried it, reluctantly, from our body politic after the inevitable war made it impossible to ignore. We have made sacrifices of thousands of people, of states, of nations to satiate the appetite for empire. We have created systems of apartheid and oppression, and we have sanctified the atrocities those systems have spawned. And yet, we are also on the other side of every one of our failures, demanding equity and equality, invoking our better angels, demanding the radical imagination of a nation made more perfect.
—Kaitlyn Bird
Things may get very bad indeed in the next few years. Perhaps for many years beyond that.
Sherilyn Ifill wrote this week about each of us needing to build a personal curriculum of local service, as she reflected on the things each of us—any of us—can “do”.
I encourage you to show your children and grandchildren real things – nature, animals, how things are built, how to cook from scratch. Teach them cursive writing, so that they have a signature all their own. Take them to live concerts and theater. Go on field trips. Infuse their lives with memories of things that are true and concrete.
“This is water.”
“This is water.”
One thing
Tonight I read, reflected, wrote, and rested. Tonight it was enough.
All of the @#$%ing things
Night 10: Sent money to support vaccinations in Nigeria
Night 9: Sent money to a friend in need
Night 8: Gave gifts and spoke words of appreciation aloud
Night 7: Contributed to a California-focused nonprofit newsroom
Night 6: Made homemade donuts for my team
Night 5: Opted into a paid Buttondown tier
Night 4: Reviewed my local election results
Night 3: Deactivated my X account
Night 2: Contributed to my local nonprofit newsroom
Night 1: Started by starting
*Wallace died by suicide in 2008, so reading the speech today hits different.
Words, sorts, and thinks by Chris Ereneta, from Oakland, California. Thoughtful feedback and questions are welcomed at that.often@gmail.com