Stop with the searing
Hello all,
To all those celebrating the season of Holy Week, our best wishes for a meaningful and renewing holiday. Next Sunday, the communications wing at DoD will take the day off.
Peering ahead into the relatively remote future, we have another Demsof Davidson social hour coming up on Thursday, April 11 (every second Thursday of the month) and then our monthly precinct meeting on Monday, April 15, both at 7:00 PM. Please pencil those in and look for more details in the coming weeks.
One quick observation before I head out into the yard to engage in a fitful and losing battle with spring weeds. Many of you may have seen this article from a few weeks ago: “Anti-Trump Burnout: The Resistance Says It’s Exhausted.” Even if you haven’t, you’ll probably resonate to its content and language: fatigue, exhaustion, anxiety, frustration, exhaustion, discouragement, and yes, exhaustion. It’s a veritable thesaurus of terminology describing the mental states of those on the political left.
One phrase in particular caught my eye: Democrats are “struggling to sustain the searing anger toward Mr. Trump that [they] have relied on for nearly a decade.”
Well, for heaven’s sake, no wonder they’re burned out! Searing requires high heat, and continuously keeping your inner thermometer at 450 degrees takes a toll on the cooks and the equipment both.
And so, based on extensive experimentation, the cooks in the test kitchens at Dems of Davidson HQ recommend that you stop with the searing and come up with another way of cooking. Maybe “gentle poaching” or “light sauteing.” Or maybe the world of cooking isn’t a source for helpful metaphors when it comes to politics.
Not that we shouldn’t have a deep sense of passion or urgency about our work, which of course, is tremendously important. But if the energy is simply reactive—based on a horror of what Marjorie Taylor Green or the rest of Coo-Coo Krazy Caucus is going to do next—then we have surrendered our agency and initiative. We end up chasing the crazies through every news cycle, and yes, that is exhausting. The passion we bring needs to be generated and directed from within, not provoked from without; it needs to be deliberate, paced, and life-affirming. And sustaining this passion happens best in a group, with like-minded people, dedicated to the same ideals. That is the deep logic of our meetings and social gatherings.
Is it possible that the political environment in which we now find ourselves can actually make us better people? More durable, resolute, and good-natured, more open to others, more ready to help? I think so, through a combination of supportive social gatherings and meaningful local work like canvassing, calling, and reaching out to our neighbors.
And try turning off the broiler this week; see if that helps.
Have a marvelous week and a restful Easter holiday; see you in two weeks.
Greg