we are anything but powerless
Together, we can topple giants.
In a chorus of hearty, tenor voices, the chants of laborers from the street below bounced from wall to wall up to my hotel room in Athens on the 7th floor.
I peeked out the front door of the lobby this morning and found the streets packed, sidewalk to sidewalk, with protesters holding banners marked in bold Greek slogans.
It’s a nationwide strike led by a powerful coalition of workers’ unions.
Rather than frustration that I can’t go anywhere today, I feel a sense of camaraderie. That same sense of eagerness and pride we all witness inside ourselves when the music begins to swell during that crucible moment in the movie when the underdog might - just might - triumph over the people and powers that have done their darndest to hold them down.
I find myself rooting for them and hoping that the strike is effective in inciting action from the government to mitigate untenable hikes in the cost of living.
I also find myself longing for this kind of solidarity at home. I wish we would come together and leverage the people’s power to demand better from our political leadership.
Instead, we’ve let the folks up top divide and conquer us.
Instead of directing our frustrations at the exploitation of the astronomically wealthy few (who regularly skirt and manipulate the law to continually game our system), we’ve let them convince us that it is our neighbors who are the problem.
I am becoming more and more skeptical and increasingly more worried when others are not.
I’m curious, where do you get your information on what’s happening in the world around you?
Do you look to newspapers or television “news” outlets?
Is your primary resource public radio?
Do you let the algorithm that curates your social media feed determine what you do and don’t see?
How do you metabolize what you are exposed to?
How do you use all this information that you ingest?
Do you consider how it impacts your outlook on life? Your mental health? Have you noticed any patterns?
Do you value staying informed?
I don’t know if I do anymore, not in the way I used to, because I don’t know to what degree it galvanizes me to take action. More often than not, it leads me to collapse under a sense of powerlessness.
But the truth is, I am anything but powerless.
You are anything but powerless.
In fact, the potency of the inalienable power that you and I contain within us is astonishing.
When we combine our powers, we become unstoppable.
Quite literally.
It’s paramount that we refuse to believe anything that tries to convince us otherwise.
I’m happily, joyously stuck in a hotel right now because the workers of Greece know how powerful they truly are.
They know that no one is entitled to their time… their labor… or their precious life force.
They know the value and worth of their work. That it is not acceptable to have to pay more than you can earn simply to exist. That if the majority of citizens are one emergency away from ruin than the people in power are not doing their jobs right.
They know that their government is made up of public servants who have sworn to serve the people, not the other way around.
They know that the power of the people is colossal.
That together they can bring an entire country to a standstill.
Not theoretically. Actually.
The entire country ground to a halt today.
Regular folks did that!
Do you realize that this much power lives inside you?
Yes. While you read this, the power to topple giants lives within you.
It is always there waiting and ready. It cannot be taken away.
It is emboldening to see people have such healthy expectations of leadership.
Not in a fantastical or out-of-touch way.
But in an honest, naked, no-nonsense way.
In a “how has this ever seemed like asking for too much” kind of way.
For me, I’m not sure of all the ways this rediscovery of power will translate into strategy and action.
But here are a few places I think I/you/we can start…
Rebelliously prioritize joy, connection, and enriching life moments with real people, creatures, and places because the power to make art of your life is both divine and deliciously radical.
Each time the information machine tries to convince you that leadership is too corrupt and too greedy, or that the people are too easily manipulated and divided, wrap your fist around this reminder and repeat it until you can feel it in your bones again:
W E A R E A N Y T H I N G B U T P O W E R L E S S.Seize as many opportunities as you can to remind people of their personal and collective power.
Stand behind the need to always demand better from people who sought out the responsibility of leadership.
Remind yourself that progress and activism live as a patchwork quilt of daily efforts. It is found in how you do your work, the conversations you dare to have, where you cast your vote, where you spend your dollars, your willingness to listen and grow, and your resiliency to make mistakes, weather discomfort, and always be learning.
Remember that rest is an act of resistance in a system that requires and demands constant labor and productivity, usually for the disproportionate benefit of others.
The path to embodying and exercising this power is a dance that moves from the personal to the collective, the mundane to the extraordinary, the practical to the aspirational.
Do not let anyone or anything fool you into forgetting how powerful you are.
And then, don’t let anyone or anything fool you into forgetting how powerful WE are.
Dive Deeper:
About 3 hours into writing a very different essay riddled with cynicism about political division, union organizing, and failed leadership I stopped and deleted everything because I realized that I was missing the point.
The takeaway is not how doomed we are back home.
The takeaway is how we have to remember what lies slumbering just beneath the surface waiting for us to shake ourselves awake.
There are incredible scholars and thinkers out there paving the way for new paradigms to take root. There are solutions to our problems even if we haven't thought of them yet.
One such thought leader who I revere is adrienne maree brown. Their newest book is called Emergent Strategy. It’s a “radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help [book] designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen.”1
I am finding immense solace, hope, and direction in their words and I imagine you might too.
Buy the physical copy here or listen to the audiobook version here. Or grab a digital copy from your local library here.
Extra Magic:
Invitations & Promotions:
1. Please share your favorite OHT essay with someone who loves evocative ideas and writing!!
I spend hours working on this newsletter each week (I think it often amounts to most of an entire day). Not just writing and editing the essay but collecting the evocative breadcrumbs that I find moving throughout my life. I relish doing it. It’s like a weekly collage of ideas and art that I weave together like tiny bridges of understanding and human realness between you and me.
The most powerful thing you can do to keep this project alive is by sharing it with someone in your life. Or many someones! You can forward it to your sibling, text it to your best friend, email it to your kids, or use this button to share it on one of the social platforms you frequent.
The essays will always be free!
That said, I dream of a day when the audience here is robust enough that this writing project can become something that supports making a living. Is it not a victory when we can invest our lives into creating things that touch people and make their worlds just a little bit more beautiful? When you share an essay, that dream comes an inch closer to becoming a reality for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
2. Now Accepting Small Business Clients 🤸🏻♀️
If you or someone you know is a small business owner looking for fresh ideas on how to lead, achieve your goals, and grow your business WHILE experiencing more ease and joy in your work, click here to read more about how I can help with that!
Little List of Noticing:
If you haven’t been following WNBA Player Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia, she just lost her petition for an appeal. Unless our leadership can negotiate her release, she will be sent to a penal colony for 9 years of hard labor… Please take a few moments to write BG a note here. Please share with people. Talk about it. And sign this petition to the White House and your federal representatives asking them to prioritize her release.
I’ve been learning a lot about sensory processing sensitivity lately. I’m cautious of self-diagnoses because I always want to use the information to empower myself rather than let it morph into perceived limitations. In exploring what it means to have SPS, I’ve found a new language and liberating self-understanding that’s been helping me create more intelligent bridges between me and the people I love. I always love the fruits of a new awakening!
I have a crush on Gen Z. I’m not interested in maligning them the way older generations always seem to want to blame younger generations for the state of the world. Gen Z is rad. They are well-educated, compassionate, inclusive, and avid environmentalists. I’m excited to see what they do as they gain power and occupy positions of leadership.
Look at this incredible memorial art that my housemate made me in honor of Arlo. Yes, I cried when I received it. To be so well loved and seen is such a gift
She really captured his colors, softness, and the peek-a-boo black of his nose. Thanks for letting me send this on a Wednesday instead of the intended Tuesday. I was traveling all day yesterday and was about to beat myself up for not getting it out on time, but then I remembered, we don’t do that anymore. Done is better than perfect. In case you needed a reminder, let yourself be imperfect and worthy this week too.
until next week ~ Theora
AKPress.org description of Emergent Strategy.