18 - Super Quick Pick Us Up

["Hands of Hope" mural in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland. Black lettered words Hope. Courage. Resilience on background of multi-colored handprints.] 

You’ve got this. And, when you don’t, we’ve got you. -me

This is hard. So here are some things to help lift you up. 

Every day, I give up, Rudy Francisco

Every day, I give up
for twenty minutes
but decide to
push through
on the twenty-first.
Survival is a ritual,
a ceremony, and
a practice.

Sturgill Simpson, one of my favorite artists, paused his concert in Boston back in November to say something that was really helpful to remind myself of today. 

Here’s BlueSky version of the clip (it’s about a minute) https://bsky.app/profile/wutangforchildren.bsky.social/post/3lbq3gfkdus2i

I think you need an account to open so I’ve been trying to find the video on something that wasn’t owned by a fascist oligarch who openly supported the elimination of people I love but I couldn’t. So for those of you without BlueSky, I included the transcript below.

“I just want to say that I think it’s ok to disagree as long as there’s compassion and kindness in everybody’s heart. And if you meet in the middle, that’s OK. But for anyone that’s pretty down right now, for those that don’t know how to deal with anxiety of the day-to-day that they find themselves accepting, I just want to tell you something that I believe. I think that this toxic patriarch energy that we are experiencing right now, this is an age coming to an end. What you are seeing is that energy clinging and clawing for survival because it knows it’s dying, and we are heading towards something very beautiful. And we just gotta go through some dark s— first to get there. Love everybody around you, don’t accept anything other than that, and f— s— up. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

And, finally, here’s Simpson’s video for his song “All Around You” from February 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdlk3W_pfcI 

Keep your head where your feet are.

In love and solidarity, e