Dear friends and readers,
Someone recently asked me if I’ve ever lost passion in my activism after feeling like I wasn’t affecting many people. The answer is of course. Definitely. It’s almost a rite of passage to feel drained and lose a sense of meaning in the work because, well, activists are meaning-makers. They strive to make life meaningful through creation, negotiating with the ugliness of life while witnessing the extraordinary beauty that sprouts out of ordinary places.
Creating a better world is as frustrating and beautiful and personal as creating poetry. Nothing has forced me to recognize my harmful patterns more than my activism.
Like any creator, there are periods of rest and periods of creation. What makes a good activist is the willingness to keep doing the work even if they aren’t sure about the meaning they’re creating. The good activist learns to trust in goodness and beauty.
I know this is strange because we tend to emphasize the intellectual part of being an activist. It’s all about giving a hot take and calling out the bad shit that’s going on. It’s almost like we give ourselves points for recognizing symptoms of the world that we need to fix.
These days, I’ve been more at peace with my life than I ever have, and it’s because I’ve accepted the ugly parts of the world while continuing to invest in goodness and beauty, through my art and through my activism. I’ve stopped expecting a certain outcome. I understand that greed, hierarchies, and disconnection (what’s behind all of the crises we face) may never be fully eradicated, but I can invite selflessness, anarchy, and connection into my life and foster them in my community.
It’s a unique balance between this attitude of no expectations with the strategic planning necessary for system change. The former is personal while the latter is collaborative. They both exist in my life without contradicting each other because they’re necessarily fluid and adaptable.
What are you being intentional about recently? What patterns are you unraveling? How is your activism teaching you about yourself?