Dancing in the Streets

Still thinking about Martha Graham’s advice to “keep the channel open.” Here’s what sailed in last night as an antidote to my own sliver of despair threatening to grow. No expectations that this will actually make an impact, go viral and get people dancing in the streets. But hey, who knows? And so I posted it on Facebook and re-post it here and urge you to share it with your community. If nothing else, perhaps it speaks to that sense of private aloneness we all feel at times like this and reminds us that we are far from alone.

Friends, take a moment with me here and please read this whole post. 

 

When the worst happened in November of 2016, like everyone I knew, I was devastated. Stunned, in shock, shaken to my core that everything I believed in and stood for and felt was evolving was thrown to the ground in the country of my birth and my life. In the way that we do, I carried that oppressive weight on my shoulders as if it were only my burden to bear, my sorrow to shoulder. Even as I knew that wasn’t true, it felt abstract that others shared the feeling and there we all were feeling so alone, walking around in a daze as if it was just us who felt shattered and ravaged and helpless and hopeless. 

 

That all changed when I took to the streets in the Women’s March in January of 2017. There we were!! All together! The ones who actually cared about Democracy and justice and inclusion and kindness. We marched together and sang together and carried our creative homemade signs and I could feel our spirit and hope and people-power rise up. Of course, there was still much horror to endure in the four years that followed, but that kick-start of togetherness helped see us through it, all the way to the sweet victory in November 2020. 

 

Now here we are again and though I’ve done reasonably well holding the hounds of hopelessness at bay, still I sift through the 40 text messages and 50 e-mails each day swinging me between hope—SURGING! — and despair—PACKING IT UP.  Like so many of us, the polls are using me as a punching bag and it’s exhausting, dispiriting and for the first time, I’m beginning to feel the fear leaking in. 

 

And so I beseech us all to consider this idea— LET’S TAKE TO THE STREETS!! Massive turnouts in every major city (and yes, rural towns) in the U.S.— heck, the WORLD, gathering the weekend before Election Day not to re-act, but to pro-act. HERE WE ARE! There’s more of us than the polls will ever admit and we are here to stand for everything that is true and beautiful and just. A giant collective roar before the vote that will energize us all and let the world know in no uncertain terms that we will defeat a babbling psychopath through the sheer force of our love and determination and through the still-living ideal of a fair election in a country re-dedicated to Democracy. 

 

You March Organizers, come out of the woodwork—time is running out! Or why wait for someone to organize it? Let’s all just pick a time and a place and inundate our Social Media in the places we live and tell everyone who resonates with the idea of gathering collectively before the election to refuse our solitary fears and turn the tide with our physical presence and get the energy moving. In nothing else, to remind each other we are not alone and we will see this through together. 

 

Please share with EVERYONE you know and though it seems impossible that this little Facebook piece could ever go viral, let’s try the impossible. And then we can tell our grandchildren about it. Who’s in?