Mony a mickle maks a muckle

Farewell dear Eileen (and the many other wise old women who passed on last week)

Dear friends,

Last week, we sadly lost my beloved mother-in-law whose time had come. May her memory be a blessing. This delightful, creative, humorous, highly educated farm wife from the Scottish Highlands took me under her maternal wing, and taught me so very much when I married her first-born son and moved to the part of rural Scotland she'd called home all her life. Eileen taught me everything from how to make jam and grow flowers, to the best Scots lullabies to soothe my 'greetin' (crying) babies. She also made it her mission to teach me a wide selection of brilliant Scottish phrases such as mony a mickle maks a muckle. Like Yiddish, there are Scottish words and phrases that just don't translate well into English. Many of the Scottish sayings Eileen taught me weren't just colourful, but they were also wise. And some were just goofy. Some were all three.

Eileen was a doting grandmother and my children absolutely adored her. They spent many afternoons at her place, eating forbidden sweets and watching popular TV shows. Once when the kids toddled over to her house after school, she announced that, going forward, before they were allowed to turn on the television, they had to listen to her recite a Scottish poem. Unlike my opposition to her feeding my overly-protected children sweeties, I actually approved of this new house rule. I think it only lasted a few brief weeks, but I am forever grateful that my children were exposed to this beautiful literary part of their Scottish heritage.

While Eileen welcomed me into her family with a loving heart, I have no doubts that my brazen California get-shit-doneness caught her out at times. So saying, she did not think twice about hopping on the bus (organized by our village minister) with me in early 2003 to join the throngs in Glasgow as part of the global peace marches protesting the war against Iraq. I'll never forget singing We Shall Overcome with her at that protest as we did our wee bit to stop that senseless war.

The Scots get it

One of my favourite Scottish sayings that I refer to often is "We're a' Jock Tamson's Bairns" which translates to "We're all equal under the sun" or, "We're all God's children" (I absolutely love that the Scots referred to God as Jock Tamson!). This phrase comes in handy lately when I find myself slipping into my Mrs. Judge-y McJudgeface persona, which is pretty easy to do in these divided times. It helps me to be a little more open-hearted with others.

But the phrase that really rings true for me these days is "Mony a mickle maks a muckle", or as the tea towel says, "Lots of little things add up to big things". I need this constant reminder that all my little actions and your little actions and the little actions happening far and wide are adding up to a mighty force of change. Each of our little actions are absolutely necessary to mak a muckle big shift and protect all that we hold dear.

Some recent examples where mony a mickle making a muckle

A month or so ago, when I found out that Avelo, this little American airline I'd never even heard of, was contracting their services to ICE to deport kidnapped immigrants, I went straight to their Contact Us Page to protest their willing participation in fascism. My California-based sister presented our family's Holocaust story to her local city council and asked them to boycott this traitorous airline. It seems that hundreds (thousand?) of Californians let Avelo know that their complicity in brutality sucks, and now, Avelo has packed their carry on bags and high-tailed it out of California where the good people made it clear that businesses that help disappear people are not welcome.

Jay Kuo gets it too

In his recent newsletter From Joy to Justice , Jay Kuo attributes the release of 252 Venezuelan nationals from the notorious CECOT prison to our collective advocacy. He says, "Notably, this occurred after nonstop pressure from civil rights and immigrants rights groups and sustained protests around the country." He also takes a moment to thank everyone in his Facebook post: "Before I dive in, a special thanks to all of the lawyers, journalists, activists, Congress members and ordinary citizens who did not let this story go and never relented, applying constant pressure upon our government to undo its original illegal renditions. Whatever post-hoc reason the government gives today for its actions, we all know that the 252 men sent to CECOT would still be there were it not for the hard work of so many." So many of us did our wee bit to make a mighty ruckus on behalf of these men we don't even know, and it helped lead to their release from the Salvadoran gulag.

I know so many of us feel so small and so powerless, but each and every one of us has the power to create change. We have what it takes to fight this rising tide of fascism. We have what it takes to build a world based on love. When we work together, we get shit done. The work ahead of us is really fucking hard, really fucking heartbreaking, and really fucking scary, but it needs to be done and we're the ones to do it. Together.

Finding the wins on Facebook and Instagram

For all the horrors being thrown at us right now, I find myself constantly scrolling online, looking for the wins, and, let me tell you, they are everywhere, thanks to all of us. Interspersed with all the cute animal pics (those algorithm elves definitely got my number!), Meta has me on a steady diet of We the People victories. If my feed is to be believed, ICE is being confronted and chased away by concerned citizens everywhere they turn up. If my feed is to be believed, hundreds of concerned citizens are providing care for farm workers, and showing all kinds of loving support to their neighbours who are under attack. If my feed is to be believed, concerned citizens everywhere are organizing like never before and rising up to this moment that is calling on all of us to do our wee bit. I'm here for it. I'm gobbling it all up. I'm ready to believe what my feed is giving me, because I honestly believe that, for the most part, we're all mainly quite decent folk who want a world that is fair and kind to everyone. After all, if the Scots are to be believed, we're a' Jock Tamson's Bairns.

Making a muckle with mony a mickle,

Jessica

In loving memory of my dear mother in law, Eileen Duncan, who taught me so much, generously welcomed me into the bosom of her family, and was indisputably the most doting grandmother a mother could want for her children.