- 31 Oct, 2025 *
i wrote what follows in the immediate wake of the 2024 election... i knew i would need a coping strategy... this was it... i am pleased to report that i have acted on most of it... and it has helped... there is more that i can do... there is more i will do...
in the wake of the election, which is an unmitigated disaster from my point of view, i have decided that i need a coping/resistance strategy... i believe it necessary to ground myself in a vision of the world as i āwish to see itāā¦ though i would have vastly preferred to be dealing with a Harris/Walz administration, i would still have needed this strategy, because as arguably better as they would have been, they still represent the business as usual that continues to destroy the planetā¦ ā¦
- 31 Oct, 2025 *
i wrote what follows in the immediate wake of the 2024 election... i knew i would need a coping strategy... this was it... i am pleased to report that i have acted on most of it... and it has helped... there is more that i can do... there is more i will do...
in the wake of the election, which is an unmitigated disaster from my point of view, i have decided that i need a coping/resistance strategy... i believe it necessary to ground myself in a vision of the world as i āwish to see itāā¦ though i would have vastly preferred to be dealing with a Harris/Walz administration, i would still have needed this strategy, because as arguably better as they would have been, they still represent the business as usual that continues to destroy the planetā¦ that we have a Trump/Vance administration means we are likely to have to resist the move to authoritarian government and its efforts to demoralize us and destroy our hope, on top of all the other festering problemsā¦
so, i am developing my āSilver Linings Playbookāā¦ if you are familiar with the movie or the book, you will know that a silver linings playbook is a strategy for coping with stress brought on by what you canāt, or struggle to controlā¦ we look for the silver lining in the storm clouds of any difficult situationā¦
i begin with a manifestoā¦
the fundamental problem in the world is western style patriarchal-corporate-capitalism (pcc)ā¦ the world view generated by pcc is one of endless resource exploitation of anything and everythingā¦ oppression and violence are its main toolsā¦ whether democrats or republicans lead the United States government is irrelevantā¦ as long as pcc dominates the world view, the world is in troubleā¦
i commit to full presence to the current momentā¦
- i refuse to have my joy stolen from meā¦
- i refuse to be silencedā¦
- i refuse to loose faith in the capacity of people to be loving, kind and compassionateā¦
- i intend to ābe the change i wish to seeā...
- i believe in power with, not power overā¦ i believe in communityā¦
the strategies i am deployingā¦
i have developed a gratitude practiceā¦ in the morning of each new day i ask and answer two questionsā¦
- what happened yesterday that i am grateful for?ā¦
- what am i looking forward to today?..
having a gratitude practice has been documented by research as a mood and positive outlook boosterā¦ its effects can be profoundā¦ i began this practice shortly after the election and i am certain it has been helping me maintain a positive frame of mind sinceā¦ i am also certain it has positively impacted people around meā¦
i have decided to watch little or no television newsā¦ i will read the news insteadā¦1
i believe that TV news presentation suffers from a need to attract viewersā¦ the most effective way to do that is to show them a train wreckā¦ through the lens of TV news, all the world is a train wreck and there are teams locked in mortal combatā¦ this furthers the pcc agendaā¦
i have begun rereading a group of books that have inspired me to think differently about the moment we are inā¦ this includesā¦
- Reclaiming the Sacred, Jeff Golden
- The Gift, Lewis Hyde
- Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein
- All About Love, bell hooks
- Feminist Theory: Margins to Center, bell hooks
- The Matter with Things, Iain McGilchrist
- Caliban and the Witch, Sylvia Federici
- Small Is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher, especially the chapter/essay Buddhist Economics
these books together diagnose the problems we face, as well as provide me with a vision for resistance, change, and grounded happinessā¦
among the strategies and goals these books are helping me establish areā¦
- achieving a clear-eyed assessment of the ways in which i support pcc and the development of disengagement strategies
- developing a gift economy approach to exchange with my family, friends and community
- the above mentioned gratitude practice
- reconnection with the sacredness of the cosmosā¦
- being the change i want to see
- strengthening my community ties
about being the change i want to seeā¦
immediately after the election i felt significant fear about my trans-feminine explorations, which i have been openly pursuing for more that a yearā¦ i believed i would have to tone it downā¦ that the political climate would lead to the repression of my trans-feminine identityā¦ i left my dresses, especially my midi and maxi dresses in the closetā¦ i didnāt abandon feminine presentation altogether, but i was ratcheting it backā¦ i imagined i would have to take my most feminine clothing and accessories to the clothing donation boxesā¦
then i realizedā¦ being the change i want to see begins with being my trans-feminine selfā¦ it is an expression of my opposition to the patriarchyā¦ moreover, i am so much happier with myself as a trans-feminine presenceā¦ i cannot but believe that this increased happiness radiates out in all kinds of ways, making me more capable of kindness, love and compassionā¦ it makes the space for me to ask the person at the checkout counter how their day has been, which more often than not, elicits a smile of appreciation and more than the standard āiām fineā reply to āhow are youāā¦ it makes the space for me to thank them for helping me with my purchasesā¦ it makes it possible to shift the relationship i have with the people who provide service to me, moving from someone paid to provide this service to me (and therefore receptive of all the thanks they need through a paycheck) to a human being worthy of connection and kindnessā¦ this is a fundamental key to changing our relationships across patriarchy and capitalismā¦
about pursuing a gift economyā¦
another way of shifting relationships to the world that is towards the world we believe should be is to change the nature of our economic interaction with one another wherever possibleā¦ i have been reading Lewis Hydeās The Gift... in it, he talks about the difference between the relationships produced by commercial transactions and those produced in gift transactionsā¦ in a gift transaction, the relationship between giver and receiver is central... the gift transaction is intended to produce obligations that extend over timeā¦ commercial transactions end with the satisfactory exchange of the commodity for payment, even if, as in the previous paragraph, we engage in an exchange that expands the connection between server and servedā¦
one of the ideas i have about being the change in transactions i want to see involves stones we have been collecting from the beaches of Block Island for as long as we have been going thereā¦ in a gift economy, i would consider the stones as gifts from the oceanā¦ i would treat them as precious, even sacred objects, and i would understand that if i take them home and put them up on a shelf, or in a basket, i am stopping the gift and turning it into capital of a sortā¦ in a fully completed gift cycle i would bring the stone home and enjoy it for some period of time, perhaps until the next time i visited the island, when i would return it to the ocean, giving thanksā¦ or, i would move it forwardā¦ perhaps to someone i know who would treasure it as much as i doā¦
i want to, at minimum, have people i know and love over for food, drink and conversationā¦ i am thinking monthly potluck suppersā¦ i want to regularly attend community events others organizeā¦
about disengaging with pccā¦
i want, as much as possible, to disengage from capitalism,ā¦ materialism and commercialismā¦ short of societal collapse, these isms wonāt disappear in my lifetime, but i can behave in a way that doesnāt center them... instead i center the people i deal with and their happiness... i keep my engagement with it local as much as possibleā¦ i pursue a gift oriented economy as much as possibleā¦
in dealing with difficult times, the important thing is to remain true to ourselves and true to what we believe in... to give ourselves a solid foundation in daily practice for being the resistance that creates new possibilities...
an important reason to do this is that Trumpist shock and awe proceeds in ever more egregious steps, but if you are continuously and breathlessly absorbing the shocks, you will loose the ability to be shockedā¦ we need to preserve our ability to be shockedā¦ā©