Little Fires Everywhere

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, I have remained a hopeful person. Being in the company of exuberant children, inspiring teachers, and uplifting artists is a constant affirmation that human beings are evolving toward the promise of our best selves. I find solace and comfort from those who, as my friend Aaron Kierbel so eloquently said it, choose a “grounded, defiant optimism that refuses cynicism while acknowledging how difficult and broken things are, engage in an active practice of rejecting despair and insisting on meaning, beauty and possibility anyway.” I draw joy and courage marching with the millions who have taken to the streets, reading about the morally sound and courageous artists who refuse to perform at the Kennedy Center, and even hearing about a few Republicans, who having enabled the destruction of all that a true American citizen and decent human being holds dear, are finally jumping ship. 

 

And yet. Every morning I wake up and wonder, “Why is he still here?” Every day, another little (or big) fire is set, purposefully lit to distract us and keep us from putting out the roaring inferno. Only four days into the New Year and we have already invaded another country and captured a leader. Just as there is a glimmer of hope that the Epstein files will do their work, (remember the Muller Report? And two impeachments? And 42 felony convictions? Such a long list thinking THIS will finally get him out and then the football is snatched away again), we have to turn away for a moment. and attend to the next outrage. The Venezuela invasion, the next ICE attack, defacing the White House, the audacity of putting his name on a building dedicated to truth and beauty, the fantasy of a Nobel Peace Prize (!!!!!!!), the … well, take your pick, the list is long. Little fires everywhere is the purposeful strategy and it seems to be working to keep us all distracted and impotent to effect needed change. 

 

I am heartened by the intelligence and heartfelt stories in so many Facebook posts and books I read, but the irony is not lost on me that posting on social media and buying books from Amazon (I still go to local bookstores and then Powell’s online if needed), helps support the Billionaires Club. Everywhere we turn, we’re inextricably ensnared in the poisonous narratives of White Supremacy, the Patriarchy, and Unchecked Capitalism.

 

I can find some solace in the healing stories and practices that have always lived side by side with the toxic ones and against all odds, seem to be gaining power. That “crisis calls on us to grow larger souls,” that it is “darkest before the dawn,” that David (or more likely, Delilah) will defeat Goliath, helps shore me up when the news rains down too heavily on my head. Yet still I awake like all of us each morning with the unacceptable fact that he and his hench-people are still here, granted the power to wreak havoc and destruction. These half-humans who awake with one thought in their addled brains and armored hearts: “Who can I hurt today?”

 

Before returning to choosing “a defiant optimism and refusing cynicism,” I just needed to say out loud these thoughts from the path of momentary despair. Sometimes that’s part of the process of exorcism. Back to the task at hand, in company with all you beautiful souls working both to put out the fires and prepare the ground for the garden of our true inheritance. Hands in!