I’ve been trying to figure out what the first step in resistance to tyranny should look like in my life.(Timothy Snyder–“Do not obey in advance.”)
I think perhaps it’s simple: just keep on keepin’ on. I will attempt to do what I do, to be who I am called to be, to stand for my values and ethics through every avenue available to me, as long as I am able.
That step was confirmed by the geese I watched this morning. On my daily route across the pasture, a flock of Canadian geese swept into the sky from their morning pursuit of gleaning seeds from a field across the road. The immediate and overwhelming cacophony stopped me in my tracks. Something had spooked the winged crowd and they all took flight. The racket drowned out even highway noise. They circled for a few minutes, settled quietly down again, and returned to being the geese they were called to be. Kept on. Flew on. Settled down, and returned to their geesehood pursuits.
Yes. That’s it. “Do not obey in advance.” Doesn’t mean to ignore stimuli (bad news, calls to action), but do not let it take over my life either. Keep on keepin’ on.
As Edmund Burke said, “Never, no never, did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.”
A petunia seed sprouted in a large container on my deck late in the summer, and I brought it inside before frost. It is companion to a succulent that would not last the winter, sharing the same pot. Since then, this petunia put out quite a few blossoms, even though it’s wintertime.
It longs to be outside in warm summer sunshine.
But it wouldn’t last long in the snow! So it just looks out the window, daydreaming about what life would bring in a different time.
May we all be like Miss Petunia–longing for better times, but putting out our blooms anyway. We will need to be as resilient in the coming days, taking what comes our way, and doing our best with it.
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” MLK
In the approach to January 20 and the changing of the powers in our country’s capital, I’ve read that it’s important to be absent from those events on mainstream media.
Don’t even think about tuning in to watch on television. Keep your distance for a week. Or longer.
I will cling to sanity in the face of the chaos that is sure to come.
I plan to check in with trusted commentators through Substack and/or Bluesky such as Robert Hubbell (Today’s Edition Newsletter), Joyce Vance (Civil Discourse), and Heather Cox Richardson (Letters From an American). Jessica Craven (Chop Wood Carry Water) tries to share good news on her substack, as well as simple things we can do to make a difference. We can all use some of that.
Robert Hubbell dispensed this advice about the coming week: “First, don’t collapse the future into the present moment. The future comes at us one day at a time.”
“Second, maintain ’emotional distance’ from bad news. Recognize that you can’t control most of what Trump says or does. Given that fact, recognize that unchanneled anxiety and fear will not change the outcome. Focus on what you cando to change, impede, obstruct, or reverse policies we oppose.”
As I distance myself from the absurd news of January 20, I note that others have recommended that we all delete our Twitter (X) accounts that day, in resistance to the “Mump Regime” (Timothy Snyder’s term for Musk/Trump). That one is easy for me since I never had a Twitter account. Now I’m considering what to do about Facebook and Amazon.
I have already signed up for Bluesky as @prarywren55. Consider checking out that venue for social media. If you are on Bluesky, consider following me. I’m stumbling along. At my age, this whole social media thing is rather mysterious and incomprehensible. But in resistance against billionaire acquiescence to the returning chaos that Donald Trump brings, I plan to limit my Facebook appearances and try to figure out how to effectively use Bluesky. If you have tips for this old lady, I’d be glad to know them.
At one point in the last few months, when we eagerly anticipated the election of Kamala Harris, I endorsed a notion brought out by someone that on January 20, 2025, this year’s observance of Martin Luther King, Jr’s Day, our country’s first Black woman president would take her oath of office on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, administered by our country’s first Black woman Supreme Court Justice.
Well, that isn’t happening. In another universe, it would have been grand.
So, it’s time to mourn that lost dream. In no way will I tune into the installation of a facist president. Instead, what can I do?
I might read a section from the biography of John Lewis: Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
I might review Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem from Joe Biden’s inauguration: “The Hill We Climb.” Or another of her awesome wordsmithing such as anything from her book Call Us What We Carry. Or the recent poem “New Day’s Lyric,” which ends with the sentiment:
“Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.”
–Amanda Gorman
For the few days following January 20, 2025, I will resist tuning into all the bad news. I will strive to support the recovery efforts of the horrific fires in California. I will honor my neighbors, of all hues and backgrounds. I will look for and celebrate the beauty of our natural world, and try to share some of it to help lift your spirits. Moment by moment. Day by day. We’ll get through this together.
Seventy-three years ago today, at 10:10 in the morning, a baby boy arrived in this world who would become a significant part of my life. Two decades later, I met Craig Winter in college at FHSU. We enjoyed traipsing around public parks and nature reserves in Kansas with our cameras, taking pictures of the wonders of nature. This morning I celebrated his life with a walk in the winter wonderland, taking a few pictures of the snow that fell overnight.
Craig and I were married in 1977, during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Having taken a class in the biology department at FHSU together–a class called “Can Man Survive?” that examined all the environmental issues of the day, including the greenhouse effect and global warming as climate change was called then–we were united in our commitment to support the natural world and reduce humanity’s harmful effects that were due to our unmitigated greed. Jimmy Carter was our guy. They say he was ahead of his time. I don’t think so. The probability of a global consequence to our short-sighted ravaging of our planet was known more than 100 years ago. Society knew all the benefits of alternative energy in the 60s and 70s. But harnessing free energy from the sun didn’t make any corporations much money. Craig and I were supporters of Carter’s conservation methods–turn down the winter thermostat, 55 mph speed limit, his installation of solar panels on the White House. And we dreamed of becoming reliant on our own private energy production, even then.
Carter acted with the well-being of his neighbors in mind, a true Christian quality. He wasn’t ahead of his time. The “resistance” at that time was just way behind. Look where that got us as they gained and assumed power.
Craig became a cancer statistic 9 days after his 33rd birthday in 1985, and I became a widow. (Quite the stigma for someone not yet 30 years old.) But I haven’t forgotten our joint priorities, nor our admiration for President Jimmy Carter.
Photo courtesy of The Carter Center. Cuba 2002–The Carter Center’s delegation to Cuba, being the first time since the 1959 Revolution that a sitting or former president visited Cuba.
After his time in office ended, President Carter showed that you don’t have to be the elected leader of the country to make a huge difference, and today, a day after President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington, DC, I renew my commitment to make a difference for those in my circle, for the inhabitants of Earth’s future, and for all the non-human neighbors that are as dependent on this planet as we are dependent on their well-being. Those of us with the future of our planet and its life forms in mind are now the “resistance.”
This morning, in honor of Craig Winter, I was trekking around our acreage in the fresh snow with my camera, capturing scenes, just like we used to do. Thinking of you Craigie, as I always do on this day. With love.
NOTE: I am deeply grateful and indebted to my second husband, Mike, for his generous and compassionate heart for the last 36 years. He has never objected to my memories or to my honoring people from my personal history that helped make me what I am today. We are all products of our histories and our memories, not just the stimuli we receive at the present time. Thank you for being dad to all our children, and grandpa to all our grandchildren as well as allowing my heart to grieve through the years.
The Bridge 