Go Stare at the Ocean
If you follow me on Bluesky (which has really taken off, thanks to the fascists, so consider signing up if you haven’t already), you’ll know that I have been at the ocean in County Clare.
I am staring at the ocean.
If there’s one thing I recommend to you right now, is to take some time, however long you can, to go stare at the ocean. Or the sky. Or a meadow or mountain or river. Or even a swarming city street.
Go stare at something and just stare.
Oh, and also, breathe. If you need to, do something that will help you breathe: yoga, walking, swimming, singing, playing the tuba.
And after you’ve stared for a while, sit down and think about how you’re going to pick yourself back up again. I’m not asking you to pick yourself back up again.
Yet.
Just asking you to make a plan about how you’ll do so.
As Nicholas Grossman explained, authoritarians want you to quit. Figure out how you’ll defy them.
My plan, for example, includes something several other people’s plans do, too: A change in my media diet. I was always planning to change the way I used Xitter after the election; I was deliberately swimming in the toxicity of the site. I may explain why one of these days. But everything — Musk’s juncture with the government, the change in Terms of Service that go into effect tomorrow, the insanity — demand clearer limits on its use, at least for me. I’m also imposing (attempting to self-impose) a budget on my social media time, just like mothers give their children screen time limits. So far, out here by the ocean, I’ve mostly succeeded, though the post-Matt Gaetz insomnia made it tough.
I’ve got a stack of reading that will fill the time — a stack of reading that will help me think about what we can do to fight this. So far, this week, I’ve finished How to Win an Information War, and started Opus, along with a reading list on Viktor Orbán. I’ve been wondering if folks would like to do a periodical book discussion around here?
Trump succeeds when he hijacks attention and rationality. I know that and yet have also succumbed, even while I was trying to persuade others not to be distracted. Figure out what parts of your media diet make you easy to distract. And purge them, to the extent you’re able.
And while you’re changing your media diet, make sure you invest in the outlets that are providing important content, because they’re likely to face new obstacles and even new opportunities. Such as The Onion, buying InfoWars!
I’m also going to try to change the emotions with which I approach this fight. I’m not sure I’m ready to explain that yet — let me go stare at the ocean some more before I try.
But I need to — I think we all need to — target our outrage. There’s plenty to be angry at top Democrats, at each other, for. With some exceptions (like Gaza), most of those things are less important than the reasons to be angry at the fascists.
Make sure you limit your rage and focus it where it belongs. Or better yet, channel that energy.
Something else to consider: first, make a list of those personal habits or new hobbies you’ve been meaning to adopt and lay out some steps to get there. Make sure you have something else to sustain you, for when you can’t stare at the ocean. Do something so often — this week, for me, it is yoga — that makes you feel noticeably stronger. Replace some of the time you’ve been fighting with self care.
And sustain or build your networks. Not just your political networks, the folks with whom you’ve worked to try to elect Kamala Harris or restore reproductive rights. But your other networks, too. Sometimes, after fascists break political networks, it’s the choirs or the knitting clubs where civic discourse can regrow.
The very first thing authoritarians try to break are the networks of civil society, because isolated people are easier to terrify. So make sure yours are as strong as they can be before the wrecking crew comes.
Go stare at the ocean.
Go take the time. Prepare to pick yourself back up again.
I needed this.
Thank you, Marcy.
For breathing, I recommend getting a jar or bottle of bubble solution. (Like the stuff with a bubble wand inside.) It’s more fun than you probably remember and you can multitask while enjoying it: keeping your children and grandchildren entertained.
[Thanks for updating your username to meet the 8-letter minimum. Please be sure to use the same username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. /~Rayne]
This is also great fun in very cold weather because the bubbles freeze instantly.
Reminds me of visiting Niagara Falls in deep winter, when the structures on the Canadian side were covered in a foot of frozen mist.
I didn’t know this! I have to try it!♥️
[Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We have adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is too short and common it will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username.
Please also avoid using emojis as they are not searchable; emoticons are acceptable. /~Rayne]
Beautiful. Necessary. On it. Grabbing my fly rod and waders right now.
Thank you, Marcy & EW crew.
[Welcome back to emptywheel. Please use the same username AND EMAIL ADDRESS each time you comment so that community members get to know you. This is your third email address, triggering auto-moderation. Future email mismatches may not clear moderation. /~Rayne]
“Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
I need to be stronger. More resilient. This experience will toughen me. I hope that the growth I have to undergo will also occur in our body politic and that our nation will also emerge stronger.
My variation on that:
That which does not silence me only makes me louder.
Don’t let the b-stards grind you down – MA
Beautiful post! Would love to start a book discussion. I’m reading “Mending America’s Political Divide” and several books by Steven Hassan.
[Welcome back to emptywheel. SECOND REQUEST: Please use the SAME USERNAME and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. You attempted to publish this comment a fourth username as “KateJJ” triggering auto-moderation; it has been edited yet again to reflect your established username. You have also commented as “Kate” which does not meet the site’s username standard. Please check your browser’s cache and autofill; future comments may not publish if username does not match. /~Rayne]
Attention “Dontremembermyname” —
SECOND NOTICE: I do not have sufficient information to pull up your established username as the fake name you used, email address, or your IP address don’t match anything in comment history.
Your comments will not clear until a username and email address match.
Excellent advice.
I don’t have a ocean handy, but I have a lake to run up to and across the dam.
It’s just about a mile and a half away from my house.
Great trail to and from the lake
I don’t think I’ll be able to stare at anything until I find out which way the military will break.
We are nowhere near there yet. Might get there might not. In the meantime, follow Marcy’s advice as best you can.
Wise words. Also maybe read a book or two on the fall of the Roman Empire maybe. And some Shirer maybe too…
I’m planning to have a little potluck with neighbors who are friends to talk about how we can keep track of what is going on in our neighborhoods as we hear about deportations starting and making plans to do what we have to do. I live in an immigrant heavy community where we will be impacted. I have trans and gay neighbors.
Yesterday on one of our various local radio programs the young host gave such a nice opening about our radio family/community and then played a fantastic few hours of music that felt so embracing. I am looking forward to meeting younger neighbors and hoping to build community with them.
I hope our friends here will share other ideas about how we can build resilience and strength in our relationships to keep people going through this.
Have a great time at the ocean doing yoga and reading, Marcy! I appreciate you.
Thanks so much for sharing that. That’s precisely the best thing we can do these days.
Taken at the Burren in June
https://photos.app.goo.gl/n4NxSiDR5Wb7vxUbA
I really liked this from Lawfare -“the screaming” is Trump and the chaos he brings. This was from a new feature called The Situation and this piece was Staying Sane During the Screaming. I found it really instructive.
[Moderator’s note: First, your comment has been edited to remove copyrighted material exceeds Fair Use. In the future, offer a small excerpt and a link to the original work or a citation.
Second, please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We have adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is too short it will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. /~Rayne]
The essay you attempted to share:
Rayne, I shattered my old kindle screen & of course forgot my password so my email has changed. Thanks for your attention & patience.
Marcy thanks for the perfect for my mood photos
[Welcome back to emptywheel. Please use the same username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. We don’t require a valid/working email address, only that you use the same one each time you comment. If you are going to permanently switch email addresses, please be patient as your comments will trigger auto-moderation until the system “recognizes” you by this new address. /~Rayne]
Marcy,
Wow. Amazing ocean pics. I’ve found that tripling the length of my savasana at end of yoga with music helps immensely for my self care.
Or extend it into a full-on yoga nidra session.
Today I spent 3 hours pruning bushes and bagging and cleaning up what I had done. When the mailman came by, he surprised me and helped me with a bag. My neighbor came over toward the end to help with a bag, but I was too exhausted to talk. She kindly understood and I know we will talk another day.
Last week while getting lab work done, I struck up a conversation with 3 other people there. I learned that one had a small business and I asked for her card. I think I may contact her in the near future. And I had a friendly conversation with the nurse at my doctor’s office. We both decided that we are not giving up on democracy. We’re going to try again next time.
I plan on making a plan, too, for some things I’ve been putting off. I want to find a way to simplify. A less is more approach. Maybe I’ll get back to working on that novel I started writing way back when…
I’m thinking about reading the short novel by Samantha Harvey. She won the Booker Prize this year for Orbital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT6BZ6gyYYY
“Samantha Harvey wins the Booker Prize 2024 with Orbital | The Booker Prize”
Yep. I’ve been using yard work too as a way to cope…
It’s great when one can keep weaving community connection into a fabric that hopefully helps keep democracy viable in our own neighborhoods.
Great stuff, Marcie – I’ve already been taking extra, extra long walks/adventures with my dogs.
One thought hit me – are there any R Senators or Reps that will switch to being a D or are they all compromised or too afraid?
What is being done to see if this can happen?
Has Susan Collins seen enough yet?
It’s possible. It’s one of the things we should always keep in mind: That enough Republicans decide they won’t stand by while Trump destroys their country.
Re your last question . . . no.
But she definitely will need a lot more hand lotion, because all these nominees are going to mean a lot more handwringing on her part.
Can someone please share with Susan that if she is ever really in need of help to just blink out ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ to signal she is not OK.
All Citizens need to start sharing a lot more stories of coping mechanisms and tactics, etc. The other side has successfully deployed weaponized mass scale mis/dis-information systems to significant adverse results to the USA. You have to properly assess the enemy if you are to counter it. Nary a peep out of the US Military who has publicly had cross-hairs directly placed upon their leadership structure. Sorry, I’ll save the rest for a more appropriate post.
The US military is a lot of things but its leadership is not stupid. They are not going to play dueling press releases or whatever with this stuff. Ideally we will never know what they think. They have contingency plans for EVERYTHING, they will have plans for what might come, because they would be the ones ordered to violate military, federal law. Its way too early to start worryjng about things you can have no impact on. To paraphrase Roy Edroso’s paraphrase of Fred Rogers, look for the helpers who aren’t full of shit. Start there.
In the spring, I will be on an island off the coast of Brittany, so I will wait until then to stare at the ocean.
As for books, I am reading an advance edition of forthcoming book by Kenneth Roth on his career fighting autocrats at Human Rights Watch. Practical, clear, a perfect guide for the difficult times ahead. Should be out in early 2025. Highly recommended.
Nice. The carless Île-de-Bréhat off the north coast is lovely.
My favorite island.
A bit overrun by tourists, but still great.
I need to explore Belle Île in southern Brittany (Le Morbihan). Or just get literally blown away by the wind at Ouessante.
Marcy, there’s a live Bluesky Q & A on Twitch tonight at 5pm PST.
“Bluesky’s CTO @pfrazee.com and COO @rose.bsky.team will be doing a live Q&A about Bluesky today at 5pm PT / 8pm ET!
Come hangout: http://www.twitch.tv/blueskysocial”
https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/post/3lawquz3qrs2n
yes to all. i am fortunate to to live in an extremely beautiful Pac NW locale, and have been forcing myself to go for a daily walk along the water this past week even though i just wanted to crash on the couch with the blanket over my head. the walk ends at a beach overlooking a channel. i face the wind, do deep breathing, stretch, and just take in the world. i am still working on self-care going forward but am ramping up going to music, movies, plays. digging my ukulele out and starting over. clearing a path to my piano and (sigh) starting over. going to cultivate some new acquaintances. and evidently – cry. watched a video of a soul singer i’m going to see next week and started sobbing. gonna have to work on getting that out of my system as sitting in my chair sobbing through her show is not my first choice.
onwards…
p.s. at that beach is a group of women who swim nearly every morning. i am not a strong swimmer so won’t be joining them, but have been taking the first baby steps to doing a cold plunge once a week or so. shock the system, but in a good way.
Maybe a little music will help? Here’s a Spotify playlist of Antifascist Resistance Songs: Antifascist Resistance Songs; not quite sure about the link, tho.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/27nCoZq4iyYprdw5wQPOyS?si=1bKkvWAcTrO9LS9qSLPMEw&pi=u-giZ0safZSpOg
The king tides are lively tonight, and rumble the sands and the house with true, humbling power. To stand at the oceans edge, where the water washes over sand and instantly chills ones feet to the bones is all I can stand- and enough for me, to look out to the ends of the earth and wonder what lies beyond.
currently looking out at the full moon setting on the bay. (i’m an early riser). a beaver moon according to the internet. or frost or snow moon. my favorite time of day as i sip my coffee and watch the world awaken.
Going for a bike ride or walk in the park is my therapy. Being outdoors seeing trees and nature always makes me feel better. And I am in full control; I alone control how fast and how far I go. I rode 19 miles yesterday on a nice bike trail along a creek with lots of pretty leaves and a blue sky. Whatever shit happens they can’t take that away from me.
I also recommend hugging your pet. Our cat has been getting lots of hugs and kisses lately. Don’t know what we’d do without him.
This.
For me I got back to bike riding about 6 months ago mostly as an alternative to walking for physical fitness reasons. It does not need to be aerobically aggressive – certainly not all of the time. Nor do you have to be the second coming of Lance Armstrong hunched over in a high tech road racing setup.
Relax. Look around. Bike to from the beach/ocean – if you can without endangering your life like I would have to do. I can do anywhere from 5 to 50 miles (rare and worked up to it over time – remember relax) without getting on to primary roads – keep to the roads less travelled even if it is overdeveloped suburbia.
And based on the type/size of your pet there are relatively safe ways to take them along on the ground (be careful for the pet) or in a carrier. I do not have a dog – at the moment – and am pretty sure my cats would not tolerate the excitement of a bike borne carrier.
I’m fortunate to live 5 minutes from a bike trail. Since the 90s the county has been converting abandoned rails to trails. Dozens of miles to ride. I love it. The winter is my favorite time to ride: no crowds, no bugs, no humidity, no sunburn (low sun angle). The main trail is along a river but there are offshoots to other trails.
The trail I rode on Wednesday is the Pennypack Trail in Philadelphia. You would never know you’re in a city. You’re down along the creek in a valley of trees.
I sometimes think I’d like to take my cat along for a ride.
dark before light … or … ?
[Rayne: moderate before clearing because of link. i forget rules and am old.]
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9495/text/rh
bit of text from link’s commenter:
“Sep 9, 2024H. R. 9495 [Report No. 118-729] A BILL. To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to postpone tax deadlines and reimburse paid late fees for United States nationals who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad, to terminate the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting …”
That’s a really bad bill – they’re going to use that to punish groups they don’t like.
sky borked ? link: https://bsky-users.theo.io/
“Bluesky User Count
Data temporarily unavailable
Please check back in a few minutes”
Pulled out fabric …making a new quilt.. all about focus…
My mom, whom we called Maggie, was a quilter.
I have a ton of fabric, somehow to me it’s not a warm weather thing, and I need motivation to sew. It’s either there or it isn’t.
I sew for others, as gifts, and now I have a couple of people in mind. My mother Peggy taught me. :-)
My sweet departed mother crocheted me a huge afghan for my college graduation. Its the size of a blanket. Acrylic, heavy and very soft. When I use it I imagine she’s giving me a hug.
My Mum knitted although she tended to do it while watching thrillers on TV so I’m not sure how much she focused on it, heh.
My Dad’s thing was woodwork. Especially woodturning. He got really into that after he retired.
On the mantel above the fireplace I have a 30” x 30” piece of artwork that I told my mother I believed was her masterpiece. She made it when she lived on the beach in the Florida Keys. It’s made with various stitches and colors of yarn.
In the foreground are two gulls attracted by a shell on the beach. Next to them is a tall cluster of fluffy sea oats. The beach itself is very diverse, with shadows and patterns of various designs, shapes and colors. The water and sky are equally intriguing, with currents, waves, clouds and reflections
In the background are some palm trees on some land jutting into the water. The magnificent, off-center sun is a mosaic disk of resplendent energy. So I am very fortunate to have the sun and the sea and the beach and the spirit of my mother here with me every day!
I have a seascape, done by the wife of someone he worked with. It’s not the usual style for my family, but I like it – and wish I had a place to hang it.
No oceans nearby metro Kansas City, much to the seafood-loving Kid’s disgust when we moved back here from the SF Bay area. But paying more attention to cooking — soups, smoked pork roast, and anticipating smoking a turkey on the grill in a couple of weeks — has that same kind of stepping back that you are talking about.
I, too, have been limiting my media hours, cutting out more of the repetitious commentary and speculation segments in favor of The Food Network, English Premier League football, and the NWSL playoffs. I’ve also been digging into books that I’ve been meaning to get to, including some sci-fi, excellent history volumes, and scholarly religious pieces as well. One book I need to go get is “Karla’s Choice” by Nick Harkaway, John Le Carre’s son and an author in his own right.
As a pastor who has taught preaching in the past, I would often tell my students “The sermon has to preach to you, before it can preach to your congregation.” That is to say, the “good news” of the sermon has to reach the brokenness in *my* life, before I can proclaim that good news to others. In the last two weeks, this has meant more careful attention both to the pain in my life from the election results as well as to noticing the reactions it has induced in my parishioners. In my current congregation, there are more folks broken up by the election than rejoicing in it; in a previous congregation, it would have been the other way around.
And I am the pastor of those who are rejoicing as much as I am the pastor of those who are grieving. Part of what keeps me on an even keel is to listen to not just the top line joy/sorrow reaction, but to listen to find out the ‘why’ it is that way for each of the folks I am encountering. And I can only do that when I have a grasp of my own ‘why’.
The only scripture speaking to me is from Matthew: …when you see the Abomination of Desolation…stand in the holy place…,
Robert Frost wrote an essay he titled “The Figure a Poem Makes”. In it he says, “No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”
This seems to be the same territory as what you are saying.
I live by the ocean and I may jump in, and attempt the swim to Co. Clare. My daughter lived there for a year, in Salthill. Best trad in the land.
“The sermon has to preach to you, before it can preach to your congregation.”
Love that.
Opps, reply meant for Peterr up above.
Thanks
News of the Gaetz pick had me exploding at my wife last night —totally unnecessarily. (I apologized profusely.) It was just the final straw in a terrible political week during which I was straining to hold it together.
It’s time to decompress for a bit. (My wife deserves a sane husband!) lol
My husband was losing it daily. He’s so disgusted. We are in Canada, but he’s from Italy. He knows about fascists he says, he knows about corruption he says.
Jaysus I say, try being Irish. LOL
We knew it was coming, but RFK Jr. was also just picked to lead HHS. If he is able to execute on some of his more insane ideas, this could easily lead to serious harm to many, many people.
He doesn’t believe vaccines are safe, so we might see the return of preventable childhood diseases that caused severe harm at many thousands of times the frequency of vaccine-associated adverse events. An entire generation of children might grow up with ailments we haven’t seen since the 60’s, and which the rabid anti-vaxxers are not old enough to have ever experienced. (Make Polio Great Again!)
He’s against fluoridation, so an entire generation of children might grow up with unnecessary tooth decay.
He’s against milk pasteurization, without which some number of children would probably sicken and die each year.
Americans are going to discover the hard way that having competent people in charge of government, is much better than putting crazy wackos in charge and letting them make government utterly ineffective. No amount of GOP propaganda is going to protect the health of their kids the way a functioning government did.
The anti-vax contigent was always there, they rose during the covid pandemic, thanks to SM, and the fact that over 70% of people on earth calibrate as gullible.
Regarding, “how to win an information war” (the concept, not the book):
Do not fight on the ground where bots have the advantage.
I’ve been thinking of direct mail, once a month, a postcard-size tri-fold, sent to every barber shop, hair salon, fraternal organization, social club, and possibly bar, etc. Also maybe local newspapers and broadcasters.
As mailed, front side address panel, back side a long quote from an authoritative, thought-provoking source that everyone can, at least provisionally, agree with. For the first one, maybe the Preamble to the Constitution. For another, maybe a good paragraph or two from Adam Smith, or Ben Franklin, or Martin Luther King. And then a couple dozen more, some with quotes from humorists, essayists, or entertainers that almost everyone likes. Things that make people want to open it.
When opened, the three inside panels are a sensible, nonpartisan discussion of the outside quote. Not sure how to use the first panel revealed, which would be on the same side of the paper as the outside panels. Maybe that’s an intro connecting the source quote to the discussion section.
Purpose is to bypass the Internet and social media and give people something substantial to talk about in person. Also, a stream of sensible conversation starters that continues for a long time, one a month for many months. Hopefully something that people look forward to receiving.
This would cost money, but not necessarily that much. Probably could do it for less than 50 cents per mailer, including postage, and total mailing list of maybe a million. So $500,000 per month for 20 months = $10 million. But you don’t need all the money up front. And don’t ask the recipients for donations or to do anything else, except maybe refer them to additional reading. All we want them to do is think and talk. And skip the URL, don’t have a website; leading people to their phones is not helpful. And keep the production values to a minimum, plain text is enough, with minimal graphics, preferably b&w. But nice typesetting, conveying reliability, friendliness, and respect.
This is assuming the USPS still functions more-or-less as it does today.
‘This is assuming the USPS still functions more-or-less as it does today.’
Given Trump’s aversion to the ‘deep state’ and Elmo’s desire to eliminate government ‘waste’, I’m not sure I have confidence in that. I understand that the USPS is set up by the Constitution but Trump isn’t known for respecting that piece of paper.
I am fortunate to be a devoted convertible lover. Nothing like a top down cruise under a full moon or on a backroad highway in the fall to loosen up the grims. Viva la ragtop!
A couple of years ago, I did a funeral for a guy who was president of the local Mustang car club. The number of restored Mustangs — including a large number of ragtops — was stunning. I’ve been a pastor for a long time, and that was the most amazing procession to the cemetery that I’ve even been part of.
Throughout all my inevitable evening musings of the ethics of the problems we face, I find I always return to how we all seem to agree to adhere to the simple lines, lights and signs that indicate the rules of the road- and how they lead us to where we each call home.
Riffing off your last phrase, I can heartily recommend the youtube video of one of Jimmy Buffet’s last songs, “Bubbles Up’ for a mood enhancer. Pure joy & hopium!
I’m from Donegal, just up the road a bit from Clare. :-)
My favorite ocean spot (when I’m there) is Teelin, or Glencolmcille, the beach, and further on the cliffs. Damn I’m homesick just now looking at Marcy’s photos.
But Lake Ontario isn’t far from me, it’s an okay substitute. :-)
Winter’s coming, and while I always have at least one book on the go, there’s a few I’ve lined up for the months ahead. I will reread Anne Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy which I read some years ago, seems prophetic now so I’ll go back to it. Tim Snyder’s On Freedom, and my usual dose of fiction.
Friends and family, I’ve
four adult kids, a source of lively discussions, and love. A partner who is my mast in stormy seas. My life is rich, now, and I thank my lucky stars every night before I drift off to sleep.
No, life has not been without challenges, lots of them.
That is life too.
“For every cup that runneth over, many more are filled with pain”. I never forget that.
I like this advice:
13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
Timothy Snyder’s Lessons…
Thank you Marcy, you’re very wise. :-)
Spouse and I spent a week in Donegal a few years back, our first road trip after shutdowns. We didn’t quite make it to Teelin, I think–we saw the cliffs by boat (even the cliffs here by Kilkee are a bit too much for my vertigo). But we had a wonderful trip.
And I’ve been reading both Appelbaum and Snyder of late. I was thinking Autocracy Inc might be a good first book if we did a book discussion.
My people are from Donegal Town, I was born in Letterkenny, as mom and dad worked at Letterkenny hospital. All our family is in Ireland aside from us who came to Canada. My parents were adventurous lol
If you get to Teelin, or Slieve League, have a meal at the Rusty Mackerel, very good. :-)
wonderful trad music scene in letterkenny!
Oh we did spend time in Letterkenny.
One thing we were trying to do was find the best craft brewers in Ireland, in that case for Kinnegar. It was in Letterkenny where we first discovered that few craft brewers have what the ones in Limerick have: local taprooms.
I’ll pick up Autocracy Inc, thanks for the tip.
Fiction, I somehow stumbled on Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels. Think I’ve read them all now. If you like detective novels set in Scotland, you can’t go wrong lol
Traditional music I miss. Got my daughters into Irish dance when they were youngsters, weekend feisanna was fun for them and I got a nice dose of music at the same time. :-)
Great advice. The whole magga thing has poluted our thinking na d resolve. I like this poem about the sea by e.e.cummings
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
@filmfan75.bsky.social
[Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We have adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is far too short and common it will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. Thanks. /~Rayne]
County Clare looks a lot like Washington’s Pacific Coast. I will need to take your advice and get back out to one of our favorite places. La Push is the homeland of the Quillayute people and an ideal place to watch waves on a wild iron-bound coast.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/First+Beach/@47.9047776,-124.6323077,17z/
A park overlooking Puget Sound is about 20 minutes’ walk from my house, and I walk the dog there regularly on my lunch break.
I’m not near the ocean but have taken to walking to the town library which has a great view of a dam on a major river from the second floor. You know you’ve been consuming too much media when you catch yourself trying to pinch and zoom on a National Geographic print magazine picture.
Consider giving a ham (or whatever) to each of your volunteer EMTs, Volunteer Firefighters. Anyone who helps your neighborhood.
I’ve been trying to clean up my genealogy database, making sure that the references are clean. It’s a never-ending task.
(One of the sites I visit has a weekly “how-many-degrees” list. 13 degrees from Obama – connected but not, in fact, related. This weeks it’s based on Quincy Jones and people he worked with. Surprisingly close to some unlikely people.)
The very best of all therapies is to kiss a grandbaby, if you’re lucky enough to have one. Mine is across an ocean, so I’ll go there soon. If you haven’t one, perhaps you could give find some parents to give a hand to then and now and pretend you do. They’d like that, the baby’d like that, and you would too.
Playing with a happy baby is one of the best things ever.
Before I’ve given this thread the full attention it deserves, I wanted to nod in long enough to recommend a YT channel, 李子柒 Liziqi. She’s a sort of Chinese Martha Stewart without electricity or pretension, and hand-makes virtually everything before your eyes: landscaping, cooking, textiles, gardens, home furnishings, with no commentary but with superb photography. It’s (for me anyway) an immersive experience, and a lovely escape from moment-to-moment concerns. (she has a backstory too, that makes the videos seem to me even more remarkable.) Her channel has give me lots of centering, tranquil moments, as well as a sense of hope for us human beings.
…thanks for the YT tip.
Thank you Marcy. I also needed to hear this. Spent an hour on the shore of Lake Michigan tonight. It was healing.
Lovely post. Thanks. The book suggestion made me recall how much I enjoyed author Q and A’s on Firedoglake, lo these many years ago. I’ve been reading Kai Bird’s “Outlier” bio of Jimmy Carter. What a contrast to our current prez-elect.
Another “upper” of a book is Dahlia Lithwick’s “Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America.”
As a therapist I teach DBT coping skills. There is a DBT for dummies book, and I hear tell that Mika and Joe of morning Joe use DBT. (Dialectical behavior therapy). You suggestions are grounded in the best science. We must regulate our own emotions first. I couldn’t do it for days. But focusing on an ocean, a horizon is opposite to emotion action for both fear and sadness. Fear and sadness give us tunnel vision. An ocean scape or prairie or stars give us the opposite. Expanse. Connecting instead of detaching is opposite to emotion action for sad.
This is super important. Like dealing with a screaming child parent must regulate first and then deal with the child. I am thinking dictators while very powerful are a lot like a screaming child. We need to regulate ourselves first so we can think clearly. We need to use the emotional energy wisely. As energy.
Yep!! Ride on. Stare at ocean. Stars. Feel grass. Breathe. Meditate and connect.
That’s my plan but wow those first few days almost had me. I almost surrendered as I was trained to do by my father. Give up. Give in. The minute we give up we become obedient. And that’s not always wise.
Here’s Willie Nelson & Family’s excellent cover of that George Harrison tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95xfVmz4uy0
Staring at ocean, the sky, the mountains helps put it all back into perspective. “It’s not always gonna be this grey.”
In an unavoidable time of adversity, quiet strength ensures a later success.
Also got Peter Pomerantsev’s How to Win an Information War on deck to read next
Here’s him giving a Ted Talk:https://youtu.be/sgHHRVH0NFo
He recognizes fact checking alone does not suffice.
3 basic principles to reach people who are under the sway of propaganda:
1) break the emotional bond authoritarians have over base from propaganda propaganda, by blanket crude descriptions of their excesses; eg slamming the SS soldiers for grift on backs of ordinary citizens
2) give people facts that they can use to regain their agency and lose dependency on the leader
3) give people a sense of community, an alternate bond; eg a culture war
Ah’m just gonna stay home and clean mah guns.
Periodical book discussion here sounds great!
We’ve been cleaning up our apartment: donating, pitching, rearranging. Clears the mind along with the shelves and drawers.
I need to do that with my apt and my storage place. Problem is having to do it all by myself…
Everyone I know says they are doing these things.
I want to say that I am really feeling the love lately. It seems we have all turned the news down and turned up love between the brothers and sisters. I really think this is going to be where we get our strength. We can hold each other up while we are standing strong. Together we are going to overcome this.
I also think there are going to be some Republicans who will stand up, as Liz Cheney did. Maybe her reception will be better with some of those people than it was for campaign crowds. I heard a lot of blowback on her from our side. And as much as I can’t stand her politics, I do appreciate that she took a lot of personal risk, and may still be at risk from His wrath, in standing for the Constitution and rule of law.
Hope dies last.
We have not made it to the ocean yet, but Tomales Bay and Point Reyes beckon this weekend.
I guess I preloaded my therapeutic ocean gazing back in June when we were on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The vista from Point Neiss across the Little Minch to the Outer Hebrides was perfect.
On the way back to our little “Eco Home” rental surrounded by sheep, we stopped at
Skye Weavers, where a Brit and German couple spin wool on a bicycle-driven loom. Beautiful woolens. More than a few items got shipped back to us after that shop visit.
I hope your ocean gazing on the Isle of Skye included doing so while enjoying some of the local craft adult beverages. Talisker is one of my favorites.
Well, the weather was mostly crap so the fireside evenings overlooking the bay near Dunvegan were definitely whiskey enhanced. Unfortunately, we kind of dropped the ball in arranging distillery tours and found they were all booked up. We did drive by Talisker on our way to get oysters up the road. A ferry ride away in Oban we managed to snag a nice bottle.
I don’t believe there are any bad bottles in Oban.
i spent so much time at Point Reyes when I lived in SF. One of my favorite memories was walking up the [whatever the coast trail is called] for miles and miles, all the time with what appeared to be the same whale swimming off the shore.
I haven’t seen any dolphins this week, though they’re very visible off these shores. Either not the precise place for it or I don’t have the eye.
Noice.
Our most recent hike there was a moderately taxing loop that featured almost every iconic Point Reyes moment: headlands and bluffs, forest meadows, bay laurel and madrone blending into Bishop Pine and redwoods, rock outcroppings, fire-ravaged ridges growing back strong, the beach… Punctuated at the end by a detour extension to avoid what looked like – from a healthy distance – to be lazy but attentive mountain lions patrolling the fire road in the late afternoon (i.e just before crepuscular snack time). We hightailed it back to a junction and ended up limping back to the car after 13.5 miles. Turns out it may just have been bobcats, but we were not convinced.
So you mean those bobcats were… lion?
@ Just Some Guy: almost made me puma pants.
There’s a small cove, roughly at the end of Chimney Rock Road, Elephant Seal Cove, on the SE tip of Pt. Reyes.
I would not have survived this far in life without the healing power of music, and I have leaned heavily on that the last week-and-a-half.
Also, coincidentally I had surgery under general anesthesia on November 5. While I don’t recommend it, I can attest that it has for the time being at least made everything else, even the election, seem less important. It’s great to be alive; just be alive and still as Dr. Wheeler suggests, and draw strength from the unfathomable beauty that surrounds you.
one more late-minute interesting post from a recent X-refugee.
again, Rayne, monitor links, ok with me.
link to Nov.13 5p pdf letter to VP:
https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/letter-to-vp-harris-111324.pdf
link to bsky post:
https://bsky.app/profile/kamalladreams.bsky.social/post/3laus2pqvmk24
link to org:
https://freespeechforpeople.org/about/
Does anybody remember laughter?
I hope we can remember to get some laughs.
And more laughs in 2 years.
Meanwhile check out Hinds a great Spanish female band.
Try the “Ha Ha” game.
Get a group, men and women, six or more, and lie down face-up perpendicular to each other with heads on opposite sexes’ stomach (may need to clear away some furniture).
The first person says “ha.”
The second person says “ha, ha.”
The third persons says “ha, ha, ha.”
And so on, following in order 4x, 5x, 6x as somberly as possible.
It cannot be done. Your stomachs will be aching and tears streaming down your cheeks from so much laughing.
Oh, wait. It’s been 60 years or so since I’ve played that. May not be able to get up off the floor.
Thanks for firing a long-dormant synapse. What fun I had as a boy, playing that game.
Reading is a means of thinking with another person’s mind; it forces you to stretch your own.
Charles Scribner Jr
Walking a mile, if only in your imagination, in another persons’s shoes is the best exercise I can imagine.
I’m also imposing (attempting to self-impose) a budget on my social media time.
I’m calling it digital/political detox, with modest success so far.
“Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . .”
I’d like to offer some encouragement, if I may, based on a recent discussion of some friends who are “in the trenches” as asylum officers—two of them since 1992. (I took early retirement from the job in 2009 and now live in Thailand.) We got into regular iMessaging a year ago when I was about to undergo radiation treatment and chemotherapy for stage 3 tonsil cancer and was also trying to sell a townhouse from here; they helped with schlepping things from a storage locker to a thrift store and the county dump to be able move from a 10×10 to a 5×5 unit. Anyway, I’m better now, having just “passed” my second PET/CT and PET/MRI scans a week ago. And I’ve gained back 19.7 kgs k (43 lbs. 6 oz.) in 38 weeks of the 17.4 kgs (38 lbs. 5 oz.) I lost in 17 weeks on nothing but smoothies, as I can no longer eat without losing weight.
But I digress.
Here is a lightly edited version of a recent conversation:
AO [Asylum Officer] 1: [Guys] I am sure you have a sense of where we as AOs need to be readying ourselves, but I would like to gather and strategize what we think will be coming down the pike and what exactly we should prepare if/when asylum protections are thrown out the window… i.e. do we expect that SAOs [Supervisory Asylum Officers] could insist that all Muslim cases should be denied?
AO 2 (union rep): Thanks, [AO 1]. I will recommend a series of Union-led seminars and trainings on Hatch Act Whistle-blower protection. And of course, we will have to step up our public advocacy and legislative and political action work. Our union leaders and members must embrace the notion that the union must be an activist movement (public advocacy, legislation and political action)—not a mere service provider for individual job security. I have also recommended that our USCIS union fund a full time AFGE attorney dedicated to our Council [xxx] work. If you have not read Project 2025, you need to. There is a whole chapter / play book for the overhaul of DHS and its components—including removing USCIS from the bargaining unit.
But to answer you last question, the stark reality is that an asylum officer must carry out a lawful order or face disciplinary action or removal. The question, of course, is what is a lawful order?
During the last administration, some AOs took the approach of trying to help as many asylum seekers as possible, within the constraints of the executive orders. Others resigned in protest. Others simply found other jobs (service centers, field offices, HQ).
AO 3: It will be off and on as we do have a judiciary and although ultimately controlled at the Supremes. Important thing is to communicate rather than allow silence to erode all confidence, reason, and morale. It’s going to be a real roller coaster ride for those who want to ride for the next 4 years. It’s strap yourself in, obey and grieve—blow that whistle, but get ready to get off and step aside when it gets too ugly because an asylum program will still be here in 2028. Those that leave will return, if there’s something to return to.
The union rep then added a “Dear friends,” from Steven Charleston, Native American elder and retired Episcopal bishop of Alaska.
Thank you Marcy and contributors…so many great ideas and links. Much appreciated.
My wife has taken up woodworking/furniture making. She’s been spending her evenings hand-planing mahogany lumber. She finds it quite meditative.
I run public games of RPGs. It’s mostly the same people, but you never know for sure who is going to show up. Coming together as a group to tell stories is always powerful.
I’ve also recently gotten back into armored combat, which is helping me get back into shape. On the one hand, I’m never going to seriously compete with these buff guys half my age. On the other hand, I now have friends who are former MMA fighters and live within 10 minutes of my house, which is not nothing these days when you are a transwoman in West Michigan.
Everything Marcy said here! I took this week off of work. Unfortunately I’ve spent most of that time fighting off a seemingly endless stream of anxiety attacks. I’m prone to depression, but the anxiety attacks are new and even more devastating.
But I’m working on it and doing many of the things Marcy suggests here.
So, we will not have a new Emptywheel Friday show today. I do plan on being back in front of my mic on Monday, and a new episode with Marcy next Friday.. Thanks for your patience and understanding!
Thank you, Nicole. Wishing you restorative peace.
Thanks for the reminders, Dr. EW. And for all of the suggestions thereafter. I have naturally gravitated towards many of these ideas over the last 2 weeks – it is fantastic to see that I am not alone in exploring ways to cope. Thank you everyone – I am grateful that folks are willing to be out there in this community.
I am also grateful that I am not on the socials (knowing myself, it would be a tough habit to quit). Moderating my news consumption in the long term may prove more difficult. After too many years, I dropped my NYT subscription in disgust the day after the election. I have not gone on the site since then, and I know that has been good for my mental wellbeing, but I am truly torn over the dilemma between my own wellbeing and the need to stay informed. The siren call of a big discounted subscription rate for one year is calling ($1/mo), and I have a few days to decide until access ends. Should I stay or should I go now? I am open to anyone’s thoughts on the matter!
That $1/month deal gets offered all the time. I bit the first time I called to cancel my subscription; when the year was about to expire in October, I cancelled and my spouse signed up for $1/month. Then NYT robo-offered it to me as a lapsed subscriber.
You get what you pay for, I guess.
The five sources of human power:
Control, discipline, forbearance, timing and will (the God Force)
[Welcome back to emptywheel. Please use the SAME USERNAME and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. You attempted to publish this comment as ” The Winter Hawk Est.49″ triggering auto-moderation. You have now used FOUR different variations of this username, each containing different punctuation and spacing, each triggering auto-moderation. **PICK A VERSION AND STICK WITH IT ON ALL FUTURE COMMENTS.** Please check your browser’s cache and autofill; future comments may not publish if username does not match. /~Rayne]
Still inspiring after all these years is Jonathon Schell’s “Introduction” to Adam Michnik’s book, Letters From Prison. It’s also published in The New Yorker, under the title “Reflections,” in the Feb 3, 1986 magazine. Schell describes how Polish Solidarity reconstructed a hollowed out civil society by refusing to obey in advance and by insisting on living freely, even if only in small spaces and in small ways. At the time it never occurred to us how appropriate this analysis would become to our own situation.
Talking of James Bond, if you have never compared Ian Fleming’s fictional James Bond to a real spy check out a news article dated 13 September 2024 in TheBurlingtonFiles website. Sadly for Fleming’s Bond, reality like exploding pagers and walkie-talkies is leaving espionage fiction in the ashtray of history. Why not forget about fictional agents like Bond and Bourne dashing to save the world from disaster and forget about CIA and MI6 officers reclining on their couches dreaming up espionage scenarios to try and thrill you. Check out what a real MI6 and CIA secret agent does nowadays. Why not browse through TheBurlingtonFiles website and read about Bill Fairclough’s escapades when he was an active MI6 and CIA agent? The website is rather like an espionage museum without an admission fee … and no adverts. You will soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won’t want to exit.
[Welcome back to emptywheel. Now that you have used the same username and email twice in a row, this is your identity going forward. Future comments with mismatches between username and email will not be cleared for publication. /~Rayne]
Breathing is very powerful and easy to use. Some in the military use “box breathing” to calm themselves before action: inhale, hold, exhale, hold and repeat. Start out with a count of 1-2-3-4 for each “side” of the “box.” You can use breathing to switch on the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve by inhaling to one count and exhaling for double that count: inhale 1-2-3-4 and exhale 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
Many more technique are possible and usable. Here are my notes on Breatheology: The Art of Conscious Breathing: https://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2021/04/breathing-consciously.html
I use the box breathing routine from time to time and it works like a hot dam for me. Nothing works all the time, so then I move to Brown music–works as well as medication, then walking.
staring at the ocean works but when you have spent your life living on the “left coast” of Canada, its always there but with the current weather, ferries can”t run, the ocean is quite interesting.
After the American election results were in, couldn’t sleep for another 24 hrs. Then turned off the t.v. for 4 days and thought, “and this too shall pass”. Nothing is forever in most cases in this world and others got through horrible situations. we will also.
I can drive down the hill, look at the ocean and see the State of Washington across the bay. They just elected a new young Democratic Gov. Inslee retired. The new Gov. was their A.G. and I remember him clearly from when Trump instituted the Muslim ban. He and his staff were on that immediately. He wasn’t putting up with that. If I’m not mistaken Washington State was the first one to head to the Courts. I know there are others like him and the U.S.A. will get through this.
When I started to think about what Trump could/would do I also noticed how other countries were stepping up to help Ukraine. When Putin “borrowed” North Korean troops South Korea has announced they will be looking at how to assist Ukraine. European countries are stepping up to the plate. Trump may find he and his are less relevant to the world as time moves on.
Had a good laugh when trump announced he was going to have Musk el al look to reduce cost in the federal government. I recall this thing the federal politcians had called “ear marks” I think it is, where politicians add things to a bill so they can pork barrell for this constituency to ensure they are re elected. Sat there and wondered how is this going to work and then just laughed to myself.
Over the decades the U.S.A. has done some good work around the world and I think it is now going to pay off, i.e South Korea looking at helping Ukraine.
The other thing which always makes me laugh is California is the world’s 5th or sometimes 6th largest economy. Its a good thing. Presidents can jump up and down and carry on, but California still keeps rolling along. One year their economy was larger than Great Britain’s. As I recall the American game rules include “state rights”, which seems to offer states protection from the federal government. Some one was thinking ahead.
Right now its scary not knowing what is going to happen but the U.S.A. has some amazing minds and people who hold their Constitution as their guiding principle.
Some of those being appointed by trump seem to be lacking in principles and intelligence. Sooner or later they will make a very big mistake and be gone.
Its sunny out so its time for a walk or drive and think happy thoughts. Some houses already have their Christmas Lights up!
We took immediate solace in live music: Malian guitarist and singer Habib Koité and friends at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley was a real salve for the soul.
Music. As Zappa said, music is the best. Watching a live band, playing an instrument, just listening to it. It goes straight to the heart of us.
Love it.
Typing on my phone, so this will be short: THANK YOU to Marcy, your team and the community of commenters here. You help me so very much and give me so many great ideas about how to stay centered and useful to those around me. I have a similar group of friends here at home who are mutually supportive and sanely, constructively action-oriented. I feel so very blessed. Love to you all.
Nice to see you as always. Hope the gales of November have been gentle this year.
A little lagniappe — the inland sea I visit for my restoration.
(Image not rendering? See https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/488/834/803/765/391/original/da56570f2bba3979.jpg)
Gorgeous! TY
I saw the alt-text on it. I assume this one eats ships – and yes, it’s beautiful!
A followup to this post is now up: Lessons from Red States on How to Push Back
Playing guitar all the time, trying to make a band with friends, gives me a little sanctuary where there aren’t any stakes. Hit the wrong chord though Billy gets pissed off. Anyway, I’m chiming in to recommend everybody get an art. Art is something where you don’t have to have any stakes. A person can get “serious” at any age. You can surprise yourself if you only give yourself positive feedback. You can get pretty good, and that can make you happy too. Anyway, country music gives me a sanctuary and a pipe-dream, but the main thing is when creativity happens which can seem like little miracles.
According to Camus in “The Rebel” with art you can rebel existentially against the corruption and wickedness of the world. For him, art is the way to rebel without becoming an evil bastard yourself. In country music we organize resistance to Nashville. Nashville makes country music shittier ideologically and musically. Atlanta should be the Capital of Country Music.
I got a bit distracted above by what everybody else was saying. Getting back to the original post: I have the joy of living by the coast. I grew up there, went away to the big city as a student, eventually came back. As they say, you don’t know what you have until you don’t have it.
The sights, the sounds, the smells. The beach changes every day. The mix of sand and shingle is different. The ridges and plains shift and move.
Sometimes there are swathes of rotting seaweed. Sometimes there aren’t. The birds swoop and soar and play on the wind. Right now in my part of the world we have seals on the sandbanks, eider ducks flocking by the beach, swans and geese in the stubble fields.
Benjamin Britten’s Sea Pictures speak to me in a very visceral way.
As will the worlds of those who grew up elsewhere. Enjoy the beauty of your world, wherever you find it. Breathe it in and relax.
Then breathe out and relax some more. It’s a beautiful world, despite everything :-)
Wow! Thanks I needed this. So many great suggestion and yes, we can make a difference!
[Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We have adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is far too short it will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. Thanks. /~Rayne]
I’m attending yoga classes. And still raging against Merrick Garland in a vehemently direct contradiction to Marcy on that one issue. Garland is the type to chew each bite of a tuna sandwich 32 times while mulling the ‘optics’ of any meaningful pursuit of prosecution.
My wife and I live on the Connecticut side of the eastern end of Long Island Sound and so water is everywhere. The waves, the colors, the smells are all comforts. Others have mentioned art and I have recently begun once again to do pen and ink drawings. And, just for fun(!), I have started reading math books, rekindling an old love of the subject, principally about the history and philosophy of mathematics. Whatever gets you through the night, It’s alright, it’s alright.
Recently sent this out:
At 2 am Sunday morning we will be given by the masters of political discourse an artificial gap where we can relive an hour; or at least an hour minus the time it takes to adjust the electronic screens, electro-mechanical devices, and purely mechanical devices that supposedly gauge our passage through existence.
There is the unarguable sequence to existence where things proceed and follow the moment. The only thing we truly experience is each moment, even if we cannot separate the moment from the progression. The basis of logic and philosophy is beget by this progression. Clocks can, and do, keep us from engaging the mystery of progression with awe.
We are not penalized for making the change to our devices at an hour different from the ordained time – just be on-time for your endeavors in accordance with the political dictate on what time it is. Indeed, we can experience 1 am to 2 am twice this Sunday, or any hour we choose within reasonable boundaries.
If your life allots the time, I suggest each of you, either before or after adjusting your devices, plan on existing through the gifted time by capturing a moment. In spite of our training to obey clocks, it should be easy. Let your thoughts seep away, leaving silence, during the time you choose to recapture. Inner silence may be the only true peace.
It is ironic that to experience a moment we must disconnect from the progression of time, and all the attendant things we have been trained for connection with the progression.
Since we have been gifted up to an hour, give mental silence a try. Don’t waste time.
Does clock adjustment represent a brief brake in control over us? Should we celebrate it? What should we do during the gifted time?
I would love to hear about what you did during the gifted time.
Thanks for all the ideas, everyone.
Along similar lines, The Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr’s “Surviving the Broligarchy” is also worth a read:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump