Thinking today about acts of protest + moments of truth-telling.
I’m thinking about Nancy Pelosi ripping up the State of the Union speech and Mitt Romney casting a lone vote to convict.
I’m thinking about Taylor Swift (after watching her documentary) choosing to take a political stand after a lifetime of political silence to endorse candidates in the midterm elections.
I’m thinking about how all our moments of pushing back, doing a lonely + brave thing, and telling the truth as best we can matter, even when we don’t get the results we want, even when we fail, even when - by every objective measurement - it’s not enough.
It’s easy to feel defeat + impossibility + not-enoughness in times like these.
Pelosi led an impeachment charge and Romney voted to convict, but Trump is still in office. The candidate that Swift endorsed in 2018 lost his election.
Doing the right thing doesn’t mean we win.
It doesn’t always usher in some dramatic change.
Sometimes it feels like it doesn’t matter at all.
But while concrete results are important and the stakes are high, impact isn’t only calculated by what we can see + measure on the surface.
Truth and courage have an inherent + built-in momentum -- they are sources of power that fuel our work + connect us to each other + build morale.
And anything we can do to bring more truth and courage into the world is worthy of our efforts.
None of us (including superstars + senators + speakers of the House) can do it alone.
But moments like these remind us that we’re not acting alone. We never are.
We hold the vision for each other. We remind each other what truth-telling feels like. We share courage. We reflect possibility. We remind each other what we’re capable of.
(And obviously, celebrating words of truth, acts of courage, and moments of power can coexist with fair + valid criticism. Romney, by his own admission + calculation, has voted with Trump 80% of the time. I still think his politics are trash *and* I’m so appreciative + super moved by what he said + did here.)
At this point, I’ll take truth (+ courage + power) wherever + however I find it.
I’ll absorb it into my system, use it to fuel me, and squeeze all the goodness and hope out of it that I can.
And I will celebrate any moment when more of it exists in the world than in the moment before.