Last night my contemplative writing teacher gave us the prompt “Where the Light Gets In.” The phrase comes originally, I believe, from the Leonard Cohen song, Anthem. Miriam provided some very nice additional ideas about colors and shades, and going towards the radiance.
I wasn’t feeling it. I wrote:
The cracks, right? Where the light gets in. Well, shit’s cracking. Melting. Water overflowing. Tempers overheating. Intentions misfiring into negative impacts. Most of us are still trying to be on our best behavior as best we can, most of the time. But it feels like people are close to the edge of giving up on that. Giving up on trust. On the social contract, if that’s really a thing.
And it also feels like it’s no longer clear what “best behavior” means. Going about my business? Pitching in with the cohousing blood drive, because I care about my neighbors, when so many more dire needs are calling? I am going to invite a bunch of people to the next One Million Rising gathering, even though I’ll be out of town for it. At a meditation retreat, and visiting family. These things still matter, though part of me feels like no, we need to all stop what we’re doing right now and take to the streets.
The streets, the statehouses, the detention centers, the oil rigs, the pipelines, the borders, the mega AI centers, the picket lines, the schools, the reservations, the preserves, the fires. Plugging whatever cracks we can, or amplifying the light that is supposed to be pouring through them, and maybe it is if we squint just right, if we listen well enough maybe there’s a song seeping in. Maybe the sky being orange from the fires for weeks at a time is a kind of dawn? A dawning of “this shit is real?”
But why does it take actual deaths by famine before people stop sending weapons to genocidal autocrats? And even now, will enough do so?
How can my life be so good, when the world is coming apart? I get to harvest vegetables my neighbors planted, feed the chickens, collect eggs, hold babies, make art, write, heal, grow, love, play, sing, swim, meditate, cook, pray, be.
This fruit fly that landed on my hand for a moment and then flew off, tickling my skin, doesn’t know Alaska is melting.
So, here’s the invitation. Please join me in One Million Rising. If you’re in Madison and available 8/27 7-8:30pm, you can register here for this local, in-person gathering to learn more and join this fast-growing movement to resist and defeat the attack on our democracy, our Constitution, our economy, and our civil society.
If you’re already doing plenty, you’ll get to see how your actions are part of the larger movement.
If you aren’t in Madison or available on 8/27 you can still join Indivisible’s One Million Rising here. They are building on the success of the No Kings marches to mobilize people to take strategic action before the regime locks in even more power, based on academic research on successful pro-democracy movements historically and internationally. It’s going to take large numbers of us all taking action, pressuring the key institutions and sources of power that enable an authoritarian to cement their power.
One Million Rising has launched with a series of three trainings.
Link to the first training. July 16th was primarily an overview of their strategic approach. Over 54,000 people have watched the recording so far! Not yet a million, but very impressive.
Link to the second training. July 30th reviewed the strategic approach, situation and goals, and then focused on training people to hos their own gathering to invite more people in.
The third training is today, August 13th, at 8 pm ET. If you register to attend on Mobilize you should receive the recording even if you can’t make it.
“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
–Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Let’s “ring the bells that still can ring.” Let’s not obey in advance. Let’s be One Million Rising.