Great lines: “ : The late-stage capitalism and the blind eyes turned to the harm caused in pursuit of more and better and now. The greed and the violence and the isolation and the despair and the apathy and the overwhelm. The me-first and not-my-problem and nothing-we-can-do and they-had-it-coming and waste-of-time and bad-news-burnout and that’s-just-how-those-people-are and it’s-just-a-dusty-shithole-anyway, what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me I’m-not-political mentality. The phobias and isms. The never-ending need to Other. The chasm between unthinkably wealthy and can-barely-afford-groceries. The billionaires and their stans. The supremacists and their justifications. The fragility and toxicity. The obstinate ignorance. The belligerent entitlement. The empathy-as-performance. The virtue-as-concealment. The exhaustion, the exhaustion, the weight of the whole world.”
Yet again you manage to write as though you are INSIDE my head. I have been feeling all of that hyphenated hand-wringing you mentioned. And also feeling like I want to help in some small way though I'm never really sure how or where to start. Thanks for showing me the way.
I love my one-line-a-day journal. Pas Maria teaches me wisdom. I also started using intentions this year. Best of luck with yours. Beautiful writing as always.
I literally look up stuff I wrote in my one-liner years later. I'm on my third one, so that's like 13 years of one line memories. It's the best! Good luck with your intentions as we turn this corner.
What a lovely, thought-provoking piece of writing! I like your approach to the new year ritual. I don't even bother making resolutions anymore because they feel like performance art even to myself. It's silly. But trying to live an aspirational motto a bit every day sounds not only doable, if consistently practiced, but soul satisfying. Thanks for sharing Hannah Graves! Love her and shared her with my daughter! Here's to being more feral and ungovernable in the next year!
Amazing. You are, as you have been since the day you strode into Ofoto and my jaw dropped at your beauty and presence, a safe harbor AND a bog witch to me. You're... a bog harbor?! No, but definitely both. Goddamn, Lo, this is so good, and it makes me hate this day and time of year less. ILYVVM. XO
Don't make things worse is hard in this world. It's a mantra Robyn and I have tried to live by for a long time. It's often paralyzing because everything is so connected and you feel like you have to be a fortuneteller to actually know what action will make things worse. At the end of the day we end up settling with, "what's the least bad option" because not making things worse feels impossible. And then when we take action, after hyper-evaluating all of the consequences, we discover there were still negative side effects we hadn't considered to the rain forests in South America or the children of Gaza.
I was struck when reading The Overstory this year. In it there was a woman who loved trees, dedicated her live to them, when asked what we could do to protect and save them, the only solution she could think of was suicide--our existence is harmful. Another character in the story said that if you were going to chop down a tree, whatever you made of it should be better than the tree you destroyed (a very high bar if you value trees properly). Since then I've still tried to stick to this mantra of trying to not make things worse, but it might have to be looked at as a net sum of results, as opposed to an absolute avoidance of negative consequences.
And I'm pretty sure people think we're crazy for the amount of time and energy we spend on considering our actions. Sometimes we probably appear to grow as slow as trees themselves to others.
A huge Thank You/Obrigado for your gift of being able to verbalize (write-alize?) such huge things in such an understandable and meaningful manner. Your writing is always inspiring, or tantalizing, or thought-provoking, and I thank you. Boas entradas!
Brilliant and amazing and I’m with you and thank you for these words that touched deeply
As I sit here in Portugal looking at another year passing filled with life’s challenges and moments of wonder and uncertainty and then beauty and moments where you just sit take deep breathes and try to make sense of it all yet knowing that this is life
For me there won’t be any lists or new things I must do or what I will / must achieve in the coming year
I can’t change the world even though I wish I could
but I will live with intention I will do what I can do to be the best in my corner to be a collectively conscious member in the communities I live in and pay it forward as best I can
Good rant. (I had to look up the word "stans"). What kills me is the ongoing Gaza disaster while the whole world looks on, powerless (or indifferent). And our world "leaders" let it happen. Biden continues sending arms to the unhinged, maniacal Bibi. And what about the Israeli hostages? It's been 14 months now, Bibi does nothing to find or liberate them.
Iran imprisons and tortures women who defy the hijab. Putin. Bashar al-Assad. America. The Taliban. Femicide: the killing of women and girls because they are women and girls. Pornography for all. Yes, we feel your pain and anguish. Here's my favorite quote:
The civilized classes and nations are swept away by the grand rush for contemptible wealth.
Never was the world worldlier, never was it emptier of love and goodness.
I’ve been thinking about what my next steps could be. Last year we worked hard to get the Minnesota legislature to pass Medical Aid In Dying. It didn’t pass and now there is no chance for the next two years. We also worked hard to get the Harris/Walz ticket elected. We door knocked, sent 200 post cards, sent money. I’m open to what is calling me locally or nationally to get involved in…..
Great lines: “ : The late-stage capitalism and the blind eyes turned to the harm caused in pursuit of more and better and now. The greed and the violence and the isolation and the despair and the apathy and the overwhelm. The me-first and not-my-problem and nothing-we-can-do and they-had-it-coming and waste-of-time and bad-news-burnout and that’s-just-how-those-people-are and it’s-just-a-dusty-shithole-anyway, what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me I’m-not-political mentality. The phobias and isms. The never-ending need to Other. The chasm between unthinkably wealthy and can-barely-afford-groceries. The billionaires and their stans. The supremacists and their justifications. The fragility and toxicity. The obstinate ignorance. The belligerent entitlement. The empathy-as-performance. The virtue-as-concealment. The exhaustion, the exhaustion, the weight of the whole world.”
Thanks, Jane!
Yet again you manage to write as though you are INSIDE my head. I have been feeling all of that hyphenated hand-wringing you mentioned. And also feeling like I want to help in some small way though I'm never really sure how or where to start. Thanks for showing me the way.
Apart from your valuable reflections I do appreciate your provoking images also.
Thank you!
Really appreciated this read as I set my own gentle intentions for 2025. Thanks.
I love my one-line-a-day journal. Pas Maria teaches me wisdom. I also started using intentions this year. Best of luck with yours. Beautiful writing as always.
I literally look up stuff I wrote in my one-liner years later. I'm on my third one, so that's like 13 years of one line memories. It's the best! Good luck with your intentions as we turn this corner.
What a lovely, thought-provoking piece of writing! I like your approach to the new year ritual. I don't even bother making resolutions anymore because they feel like performance art even to myself. It's silly. But trying to live an aspirational motto a bit every day sounds not only doable, if consistently practiced, but soul satisfying. Thanks for sharing Hannah Graves! Love her and shared her with my daughter! Here's to being more feral and ungovernable in the next year!
always a great read.
Amazing. You are, as you have been since the day you strode into Ofoto and my jaw dropped at your beauty and presence, a safe harbor AND a bog witch to me. You're... a bog harbor?! No, but definitely both. Goddamn, Lo, this is so good, and it makes me hate this day and time of year less. ILYVVM. XO
ILYVVM!
Don't make things worse is hard in this world. It's a mantra Robyn and I have tried to live by for a long time. It's often paralyzing because everything is so connected and you feel like you have to be a fortuneteller to actually know what action will make things worse. At the end of the day we end up settling with, "what's the least bad option" because not making things worse feels impossible. And then when we take action, after hyper-evaluating all of the consequences, we discover there were still negative side effects we hadn't considered to the rain forests in South America or the children of Gaza.
I was struck when reading The Overstory this year. In it there was a woman who loved trees, dedicated her live to them, when asked what we could do to protect and save them, the only solution she could think of was suicide--our existence is harmful. Another character in the story said that if you were going to chop down a tree, whatever you made of it should be better than the tree you destroyed (a very high bar if you value trees properly). Since then I've still tried to stick to this mantra of trying to not make things worse, but it might have to be looked at as a net sum of results, as opposed to an absolute avoidance of negative consequences.
And I'm pretty sure people think we're crazy for the amount of time and energy we spend on considering our actions. Sometimes we probably appear to grow as slow as trees themselves to others.
Well worth sharing.
A huge Thank You/Obrigado for your gift of being able to verbalize (write-alize?) such huge things in such an understandable and meaningful manner. Your writing is always inspiring, or tantalizing, or thought-provoking, and I thank you. Boas entradas!
Brilliant and amazing and I’m with you and thank you for these words that touched deeply
As I sit here in Portugal looking at another year passing filled with life’s challenges and moments of wonder and uncertainty and then beauty and moments where you just sit take deep breathes and try to make sense of it all yet knowing that this is life
For me there won’t be any lists or new things I must do or what I will / must achieve in the coming year
I can’t change the world even though I wish I could
but I will live with intention I will do what I can do to be the best in my corner to be a collectively conscious member in the communities I live in and pay it forward as best I can
Good rant. (I had to look up the word "stans"). What kills me is the ongoing Gaza disaster while the whole world looks on, powerless (or indifferent). And our world "leaders" let it happen. Biden continues sending arms to the unhinged, maniacal Bibi. And what about the Israeli hostages? It's been 14 months now, Bibi does nothing to find or liberate them.
Iran imprisons and tortures women who defy the hijab. Putin. Bashar al-Assad. America. The Taliban. Femicide: the killing of women and girls because they are women and girls. Pornography for all. Yes, we feel your pain and anguish. Here's my favorite quote:
The civilized classes and nations are swept away by the grand rush for contemptible wealth.
Never was the world worldlier, never was it emptier of love and goodness.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I’ve been thinking about what my next steps could be. Last year we worked hard to get the Minnesota legislature to pass Medical Aid In Dying. It didn’t pass and now there is no chance for the next two years. We also worked hard to get the Harris/Walz ticket elected. We door knocked, sent 200 post cards, sent money. I’m open to what is calling me locally or nationally to get involved in…..