What the World Needs Now

Dear friends,

What the world needs now, I mean really, really, really needs now more than ever, is love. Love, sweet love. As the truly evil villains (if only they were merely cartoon villains) thrive on hatred and fear, spreading it like manure everywhere they go, we need to up our Love game so much that it drowns out the hate mongers. If hatred is the juice that fuels authoritarianism, then love is what fuels the resistance. Love has always been the solution to messy situations, and I do believe that Love is what is going to end this current nightmare.

It's been yet another gut-punch week or so.

Hands up if you've been feeling like you've been punched in the guts every time you've peeked at the screen these past few weeks. The cruelty, injustice, and utter depravity has been flung at us, fast and furious for weeks on end, but, for me, this past week felt like a bit too much to handle. How the heck does one even respond to watching everything good be ripped to shreds and replaced with the worst we have to offer as a species? Add to the atrocities coming out of the USA the understanding that, on this side of the border, Prime Minister Carney's new budget is all about boosting the extraction industries that are ravaging the planet rather than seizing this golden opportunity to invest in a green economy and making life more affordable, even I felt defeated by the overwhelm of it all this past week. I mean, what can I possibly say in my letters to politicians that even remotely addresses the assaults on climate, voting rights, reproductive rights, enforced poverty, corruption, fascism, and injustice in all its brutal forms? The best I could come up with this week was to ask the Republican senators if they are "Ballroom Republicans":

Dear Senator __,

I am just wondering if you have joined the ranks of the ‘Ballroom Republicans’ who have seized upon this sham assassination attempt to demand King Trump be allowed his gazillion dollar glitzy ballroom.  I am wondering if you seriously believe that while Trump has unilaterally made life devastatingly unaffordable for most Americans (and the rest of the world who now universally loathe us), he should be allowed to build his ostentatious ballroom. I am wondering if you are more concerned about someone showing up at the WHCA with weapons than you are about the hundreds of children who are murdered in school shootings each year. Are you ready to support his outrageous demands for a gilded ballroom but not support gun control that would save the lives of school children and their teachers?

I mean, so far you have thrown your full support behind every bill, every action to steal from struggling Americans who can barely afford to feed their families, are losing their homes and are dying due to lack of affordable healthcare in order to protect Trump and his filthy rich cronies. You have thrown your full support behind the flagrant grifting of the wannabe dictator and his greedy kin. You have thrown your full support behind his illegal war which is costing us BILLIONS of dollars every day (but we can’t afford healthcare?). So I’m assuming you are also throwing your full support behind building his ridiculous ballroom now that he has desecrated The People’s House by bulldozing the East Wing. So on brand for the Republican Party that panders to the rich and is happy to watch the poor get poorer. You may have noticed from the polls that this is not a winning position and, no matter how hard Trump tries to rig the upcoming election, Americans can see the grift, we can see the corruption, and we refuse to allow it to continue.

So, here’s your regular reminder that you were elected to uphold The Constitution where there are no kings, and no one is above the law.

Jessica

Sending that email felt good, but woefully inadequate. Of course, I'll keep writing them to call them out on their complicity, but lately, I'm trying to focus more on doing my part to build a replacement for these tired old systems of hatred, greed, and oppression.

Make love, not war.

Well, this is a no-brainer. War begets more war. War is not healthy for children and other living things. War sucks. War causes climate change and climate change causes war. War is mass murder. War is just fucking wrong, any way you look at it.

Love, on the other hand, makes everything better. Love is what children and all living things require to thrive. Our love for the planet is what motivates us to challenge those who pillage all the bounties of our beautiful home. Our love for our neighbours make us all feel safer and stronger. Our love for strangers makes us friends while making us better humans.

Over the past few years, we have been at the mercy of the warmongers, watching them commit mass murder with impunity. We protest. We write letters. We make art. We stage boycotts. We sign petitions. We sing songs. But none of this has stopped Putin or Netanyahu or Trump from committing crimes against the innocent civilians whom they deem to be the enemy. I don't know what, if anything, will stop the wars we are all currently funding. While we must continue our efforts to dismantle these ongoing acts of violence, those of us with the means to do so, can also perform conscious acts of loving kindness by donating to organizations such as World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders who bring love in the form of food and care to the victims of war. For every injustice we are witnessing, there are compassionate organizations stepping up to challenge them, and even if we are exhausted, maybe we can support these groups if we are privileged with the financial resources to do so.

Or, perhaps you are able to donate closer to home. Or volunteer. Or help out in one way or another within your community, within your capacity. Lately, as the cruelty has become increasingly unbearable, I've turned to my crocheting to get me through. It's not just the act of playing with colourful yarn that eases my stress, but imbuing each blanket with love, knowing I will be giving them to our local women's shelter alters my chemical state from anxious to peaceful. This is an act that feels meaningful, making a positive impact in my local community, and is both doable and enjoyable. I may not be stopping wars with my crochet hook, but I am hopefully improving the lives of some women in my community who are escaping intimate partner violence, and that's gotta be good for something.

Practice saying "I love you".

There are so many amazing quotes from the brilliant author Robin Wall Kimmerer, but this nugget from Braiding Sweetgrass is one of my favourites: "Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift." And, of course she's right. Looking out my window, walking down the street, driving along the coast, I can see that Mother Nature offers us an abundance of gifts to please our senses. It seems like the polite thing to do is to notice these gifts and express our gratitude.

Because I firmly believe that what the world needs more than anything right now is our love, I've taken to quietly telling each of nature's gifts that I love them. The Garry oak, the camas flower, the raven, the junco, the eagle, the hummingbird, the hawk, the heron, the ladybug, the flowering clover, the moss and lichen, the delicate blossom that's pushed its way through concrete, the lilac and dogwood both in full bloom... Just the act of noticing these wonderful gifts and saying "I love you" feels so much better in my body than the gripping fear and anger inspired by the barrage of bad news. And when I'm feeling better in my body, and taking in the gifts of nature, I can remember that beauty still exists and is worth fighting for. When I feel better in my body I feel better equipped to step back into action. We're here for the long haul, and we need to do whatever it takes to maintain our stamina. For me, sharing my love with the natural world and thanking Nature for her gifts gives me the juice required to keep fighting the forces of malice. Whether you're willing to be seen in public whispering "I love you" to your local flora and fauna, or you prefer just thinking these thoughts, I hope you can feel love in your heart for the beauty around you and that it brings you calm and kindness and fortitude.

So much grief. So much love. So much breaking apart. So much to rebuild.

Yeah - we are living through some seriously heartbreaking times. For most of us who are paying attention it feels impossible not to grieve at the loss of life, the loss of rights, the cruelty and chaos wrought by the worst of humankind. We are living through a time when we must decide if we will allow ourselves to be crushed by our grief or use it to empower us into action. It is clear that we will not win this good vs evil battle by fighting with their weapons of hatred, fear, violence and theft. We win with love, and every act of resistance is an act of love: love for our neighbours, for our planet, for our rights, for justice. We have seen this love in the form of resistance rising far and wide against those who so desperately cling to the power they are clearly losing. The warmongers and fascists are breaking apart the world we've known, but we are loving it back into wholeness again, and I think we're doing a damned fine job of it.

Sending you all my love,

Jessica (she/her)