These days are not normal. The days creep closer until Donald Trump becomes the President. The days continue to pass that I - and many others - look around like "What? This is really happening?"
I thought I would share with you how I, personally, am resisting accepting this as normal. I don't care that it's happening in America and I live in Canada - that means nothing to me. Half my family is American. A good number of dear friends are American. America is my country's closest sibling, who lives right next door. If they're in trouble, so are we.
So:
- Leah McElrath is the first place I go when I'm wondering what's new.
- Then I check in with the following: Summer Brennan, Sarah Kendzior, Ijeoma Oluo, Lauren Duca and Kate Harding. There are more folks too but most of them I found by following those people.
- I've been listening to The 451 Podcast. I do think it's pretty funny that in 2017, the resistance ...has a podcast. Of course it does. But that doesn't make it any less important.
- I forgive myself for not being perfect. For needing rest. For needing time away from seeing it all unfold. For still going about my daily life instead of packing up my car and driving to Washington to join the Women's March.
- I talk about it out loud as much as I'm able to, in real life, with the people around me. This is not normal. This is not OK. And it's all too easy to accept it as normal, simply by wanting to blend in, to not stick out as different from the people around you. That's how Naziism took hold in Germany in the 30s. People wanted to be "good", but to resist you have to risk looking foolish, different. So do that, in whatever amount you're able to. That's what it means to resist.
How about you, how do you resist? What are you able to do?