Nov. 6 2024

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Thinking of what to write here feels like winding up for an Aragorn-at the Black Gates type of speech. This is not that. But here I go anyway. I do know that in addition to the grief, i’m filled with an indeniable sense of galvanized hope that we will outlast this and that we will move intentionally towards the world that we want to live in.

Everything I make is rooted in love, unity, shared experience. I believe that perfect days come from the care we give to each other and the trust we have in each other as a community. People have banded together and overcome in the past and we can, and will, again - together, and one foot in front of the other.

NY last month

Politicians do not define us. The system is fundamentally broken. Now before us is this expanse of possibility of what it can become.

I’m reading Hope In The Dark by Rebecca Solnit in an effort to give myself some kind framework for these times. Here’s a quote for today.

“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes–you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and knowable, a alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.”

And crucially:

“Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine act of insurrection.”

I intend to hold onto joy every day!

Thanks for reading.

As always please:

xo Zoe