Singular Movement
We stand in the very chilly U-shaped entrance to Portland's City Hall on a glorious Sunday afternoon. Mingle and complain loudly about the current state of our country's President Elect. People unite in strife. Folks hunker over babies in strollers, lean down to pet the dogs snuggled in coats, shoot selfies with the woman clutching a sign about her pussy, and we chant.
We're a collective. Gaining momentum and positivity. Cherish the hope and reverence, the candor and structure of solution. And we ask, without words:
Where do we go from here?
What's possible in light of a shift in power?
How will the next 100 days unfold?
Who can we count on to support and unite us?
When will we have a resolution of the revolution?
Why isn't there a Rule Breakers Club?
We could have a secret handshake, invite others to the table, make molehills out of mountains, raise the level of justice, redirect truth, and be inclusive, for all.
Chanting with 600 like-minded friends gets me pumped! Were you there? Did you hear the many stories of women who take care of their mothers with Alzheimers and Dementia? Or the elderly lady who said she'd had an abortion in her late teens? She told everyone she knew, so they wouldn't have a similar horrific experience. Her boyfriend, turned husband-to-be, decided to become a physician because of the life-threatening episode. And the person who struggles with hormonal treatments and drives five hours to get to the Portland clinic. I honor their intimacy in the great crowd. Lean towards their suffering and loss.
Have we connected with enough people in circumstances we didn't understand until today? Did we lie awake last night with our fears parading around the bed and accept that fate?
Listen.
Take a side.
Talk it out.
Don't accept Patience, for without action, things take much longer to accomplish.
Act, in spite of the trepidation or consternation or hopelessness.
For each step, as glacial as it seems, is acknowledgment. It triggers momentum, starts the new ideas flowing, instigates conversation, creates awareness, opens opportunity where it may not have been seen or felt before.
The crack lets in the light.
Seeing and hearing brings it forth.
and then, you can't un-know it
Others won't ignore it. Even if they fight it.
It penetrates, permeates, incorporates, becomes entwined, forever joined.
Did the door shut or the windows open?
There is always a way, we simply have to accept that it exists
like faith, the sun, gravity.
Spread the word!