What's Worth Our Attention Right Now

Years ago, my mother took a nail, hammered it into the kitchen wall, and hung the prayer.

"Grant me the serenity," it started in dark calligraphy, "to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

And so I exited childhood having memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, a requisite for history class; the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, a requisite to hold your own at middle school parties; and this Serenity Prayer, as good a requisite as any for level-headedness in this moment.

Staying on top of the headlines blasting out of D.C. is drinking from a firehose. Our heads and hearts weren't designed for a relentless spray of news, news, news.

We could abstain entirely. And for some, that's just the ticket. But what about for those among us who want to be aware of the world without being swallowed whole by it?

I've been thinking that a useful place to start is focusing in on the things we can change, the things we have some influence over. And when it comes to Congress, that's the two U.S. Senators and one U.S. House member who represent us.

This trio is our most direct voice in the policymaking process. They are beholden to we, the voters; they need to keep enough of us happy enough to get reelected. So we have a bit of leverage with them.

And this right here, wonderful reader, is the sweet spot where we can feed two hungers.

• We can nourish our hunger for news (without overwhelm) by focusing down what we consume to coverage of our three politicians.
• And the more we understand about what our politicians are thinking/feeling/doing, the more we can frame an ask they could say yes to – which nourishes our hunger to be impactful in a time when many of us feel powerless.

Let's hover over that last bullet point for a moment. One way to nail a job interview is to show up with an understanding of the organization's mission, where it sits relative to its peers, market forces shaping decision making. In other words, we show up with an understanding of the reality the organization is operating in. And when people sense we get their reality, they are more inclined to take our opinion seriously.

It's the same with politicians. When we know about...

• Their priorities
• What powers they do and don't have to actualize those priorities
• Where they stand in their party
• What district factors shape their decision making (an election in '26, major industries in their district struggling, etc)

...we can shape an ask to them in a way that aligns with their priorities, is within their power, and helps their district. We don't come off as pie in the sky; our ask is squarely rooted in their reality.

Put plainly: we are meeting the politician where they are, which is the first step to bringing them to where we want them to be.

More on the nuts and bolts of making that ask here.

My mother nailed the Serenity Prayer into the kitchen wall sometime during the Gulf War, then kept it up through crummy elections, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, so much broken that she could spend lifetimes trying to fix.

I never asked, but I'd guess the reason she put it in the kitchen where she could see it as she steamed up broccoli, balanced the checkbook, taught me my right from my left, was to remind her to focus on what was within her power, and bless the rest for someone else.

"Sweetheart," she'd say, "this is hard, isn't it? Don't give an ounce of time to stuff you can't change. Mustering the courage to change the stuff we can change is work enough."