One big black hole
By Mary Kay Roth
As the clouds rolled into Lincoln Friday and a weird gloom settled over the March afternoon, I started thinking about the topic of our group blog.
Because there’s a darkness in this Trumpian world that fails to brighten even my brightest spring pansies and daffodils. An unpredictable, disoriented sense of drowning in a sea of mean and cruel.
I write to legislators, call congress folk, attend a rally or two. But I get the distinct feeling my protestations are falling into one big black hole.
So, when I consider my greatest struggles right now, it’s not very complicated. I have absolutely no clue what to do.
Some of my neighbors and friends recently formed a group called The Collab, attempting to identify local responses to the national mayhem – a way to tackle advocacy and action in our own community. We’ve only had one meeting so far, not yet grounded in exactly where we’re headed. But curiously, it’s already growing. Practically everyone I tell about the group – wants to be part of it.
We all want to be part of something right now. We don’t want to be powerless. But we can’t find a direction. Any direction.
Anne LaMott , a columnist I love, believes people all around us are looking for their North Star. “We have never lived in a country where men behave like this … My friends and I are looking around for hope, answers and maybe a prophet or two. We peek around like worried children. The author Barry Lopez wrote: ‘We’re all searching for the boats we forget to build.’”
She suggests we savor all that still works, the beauty all around us, small moments. “We are hitting bottom, where there’s nothing left to do but to give in to what you can’t control. It’s time for trust and surrender. The clenched muscles let go since there’s nothing left to clutch. The letting go gives a taste of peace, long overdue, and that’s when the shift occurs, maybe not at first in the scary situation, but internally.”
I felt that shift, ever so slightly, when I attended a funeral last week for a very good man. He didn’t just believe in compassion, he acted upon it. Responded. Followed through. His family, friends, recounted how – even in the throes of cancer – time after time, he paid attention to the actions he could take. No matter how small.
Ever since, I’ve been thinking about compassion at a time when it’s the most difficult, at a time our country’s leaders have none.
I’m wondering if you start small, very small, even if it feels inadequate in this lost cosmos of helpless and hopeless.
Frankly, I don’t know where else to begin.
Seeking Rest….
By Marilyn Moore
I’m in a spiritual formation group that is meeting weekly during Lent. In our first meeting last week, we were asked the question, “What does your soul long for?”
My response…rest. I am so tired. In every way, I’m tired.
I’m physically exhausted. My husband was hospitalized and then in rehab for 30 days in December. Since then, he’s had a steady stream of medical appointments and home health care providers. It’s all good; he’s stable, getting stronger, and soon the medical calendar will be back to normal. But the process has been tiring for both of us. So much to manage, so many details to attend to, so much to learn, and all in the dreariest time of year. I am worn out.
And I’m not sleeping well, at least, not every night. I fall asleep easily, but the dreaded “wide awake at 2 a.m.” has returned, when my brain won’t stop considering every possible question from the day/week/month/year before, or the day/week/month/year yet to come. Or I sleep past that 2 a.m. time, but awaken early, and can’t fall back asleep…those pesky questions just waited a few hours. So many questions, most around the political turmoil in which we find ourselves. And my brain…doesn’t know what to do. It ping pongs among a dozen or more possibilities, skeptical of all, confident of none, and landing on a plan not at all.
That’s a new reality for me. When the “2 a.m.’s” would awaken me when I was working, I could usually figure out a next step, what I could do first thing in the morning. I knew it might not work, it might not be complete, it might need further thought…but I could figure out a next step, and fall back asleep. That escapes me now. My brain simply cannot grasp the immensity of the confusion in which we’re living, and grabbing at anything, anything at all, seems like a futile gesture. So the neurons in my brain just keep pinging, and my brain doesn’t stop. It needs rest.
Most troubling, though, is that my soul needs rest. I’ve written before about the thin places, the times or experiences or places where it seems the veil between earth and heaven is so thin that one can touch the other. That’s a soul at peace…and it’s not mine. Not now. That veil feels absolutely impenetrable. The assaults on the dignity and human needs of those who live on the margins. The utter disregard for contracts already made with farmers, researchers, patients, nonprofits. The insults hurled at federal workers. The casual and intentional cruelty shown to immigrants. The disdain for the values and words of the Constitution. All are a body slam to my soul. My soul, bristling, quivering, on edge…needs rest.
I often say that I write to figure out what I think, and putting this in writing has helped bring clarity to why I need rest. I’m not going to conclude, however, with a statement of what next, what I’ll do…because I don’t know. All the usual responses – time in nature, time with friends, doing what good I can where I can, speaking out and speaking up, baking bread – seem remarkably weak. I just know that I long for rest. And I suspect I am not alone.
Scary people, scary ideas
By JoAnne Young
What am I struggling with? Pick one? How about two out a of sea of darkness: Stephen Miller. The SAVE Act.
Stephen Miller seems to have avoided the national media’s frenzied reporting on
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I believe the more attention we give to these people, the more light we shine, exposes them. What is the old Washington Post motto? Democracy dies in darkness.
Miller needs more exposure. He is said to be one of Trump’s most influential
Loyalists. He is deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security advisor, which puts him in in a powerful position, He is known for his fervent anti-immigration beliefs and policies that target children and adults who are undocumented, as well as those with legal status.
He was behind the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target immigrants
for deportation, and in Trump’s last term, the family separation policy. Look him up if you’re not familiar. The most recent profile I can find was in “The
Atlantic” in 2018, Stephen Miller, Trump’s Right-Hand Troll, and a book review
this month in “The Nation,” The Loyalist, The cruel world according to Stephen
Miller.
I would like to see more frequent reporting in the national media on who he is and
what he is up to.
I’m also struggling with the very idea of the SAVE Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which is up again for consideration by the House and Senate. I acted this past week to shore up my ability to vote if the SAVE Act passes Congress this year. It was described by NPR as one that would dramatically depress voter participation by requiring proof-of-citizenship documents that millions of Americans either don’t have or to which they don’t have easy access.
We need more voter participation. Not less.
The bill also would require that your documentation, for example a birth
certificate, match your current ID. That could cause problems for up to an
estimated 69 million women who changed their names after they married. I
went to the UNL Passport Office last week to renew my expired passport,
including putting my maiden name as my middle name. I’m taking no chances, and
hoping this effort is enough.
While the introducer of the bill says states could come up with processes to accept
additional documentation when voters have discrepancies on their documents, a
Brennan Center for Justice spokesman said: “Every incentive (of the bill) is for officials to not interpret this law broadly and favorably for voters.”
Why do I worry? A female speaker at the 2020 Republican National Convention,
Abby Johnson, advocated for head-of-household voting that would permit only the
head of a household to cast a ballot. She believes that in a “Godly household the
husband would get the final say ... would be the de facto decision maker.”
I’ve talked to other married women who changed their names at marriage and
know I am not alone in my concerns and anger at a bill that could suppress
women’s and other American’s votes.
Shining lights on this mayhem gives us opportunity to act.
Follow us on Facebook at 5 Women Mayhem. Share our blog.