Ways to Win the Day Right Now
When I drove by the assisted living facility on a cold, lightless February day, a group of residents, some in wheelchairs, some with walkers, were posted on the corner waving homemade signs: "HONK FOR PEACE!"
The word win comes in part from the Old English winnan meaning to strive for, to work at. In other words, to get in the fight and stay in. Not because we're guaranteed victory, but because the cause is worth standing up for - that's winning.
Here are a few battle-tested, but underutilized approaches to winning right now:
Humor
"We cannot have a meaningful revolution without humor," advises bell hooks.
And there's strategic logic to this, unpacked masterfully by Srďja Popović, a co-leader of the student movement that helped take down Slobodan Milošević:
- Humor dissolves fear, and without fear, the powerful can't survive
- Humor makes your movement pretty cool, and people want in on what's cool
And here's the kicker: take on the powerful where they are weakest, and that'll almost always be humor. Think about it: the lousy boss you once had whose only superpower was bullying would despise being cleverly mocked.
Take humor to protest signs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, social media posts. Humor is subversion of the status quo. And as George Orwell wrote, "Every joke is a tiny revolution."
The Opposite Approach
We can't fight fire with fire, nor can we fight chaos with chaos. Or, as Einstein put it, "You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it."
ER doctors and nurses see crisis after crisis. And the patient's health won't be improved by flipping out. What ends crises and saves lives is being steady and grounded, which leads to prioritization and sequencing.
This doesn't mean we can't be overwhelmed, fearful, despairing. Those are normal responses to this moment. Every feeling is allowed, but not every feeling needs to be what powers our efforts.
Part of the work is identifying what gets us in a grounded place: hard workouts or a restrained news diet. Baking bread (nothing like a little kneading to exorcise big feelings) or exiting stage right when a conversation gets highjacked by political doomsday-ing. Whatever gently helps us to "be where our feet are," as athletes say.
Which enables us to take on fear with humor, chaos with steadiness, cruelty with greatheartedness. This might mean we go slower than the frenetic pace emanating from D.C. But as the saying goes, Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
And all of this drives those in power bananas. It's the opposite of what they want: which is people who are afraid, overwhelmed, nasty, and unsparing to each other.
Tap Out Sometimes
In a recent game against Philadelphia, LeBrown James didn't play 100% of the time. Not even close. He only played 68% of the game. But in that time, he brought home 30% of total points scored.
With the ferocity of the news, it can feel like we need to act with an equally relentless ferocity. But remember, the super speedy hare didn't win; the steady tortoise did.
The first weeks of a new administration are usually pretty aggressive; it's an attempt to squeeze all the juice out of the honeymoon period that comes after winning an election before favorables start to head south. This particular velocity is unlikely to be sustained for the next four years.
"Take rest," wrote Ovid, "a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." Rest - from mainlining news, from talking about the latest from D.C., from following the directives on activist listservs - gives us a little distance and perspective.
So when we do get back to the news and the action (a few favorites actions to take here), we aren't flailing from exhaustion, but strategically putting points on the board.
Back outside the assisted living facility, it was like those protesting residents had reached up through the cloud cover and pulled the sun right out. I laid on the horn for a solid 10 seconds; the people ahead of me and behind me did, too.
The odds might not be on our side these days. But there's still a lot of game yet to be played. And we can still win.