Hello!
Today’s newsletter comes to you on the winds of change. I spend my summers in MN because all my kids/grands are here (beware of raising your children in places you don’t necessarily want to end up yourself! They’ll mistake it for home…) I observed many years ago that around August 10 in this part of the world, a day comes where I step outside and say, Oh. Hello, fall.
It’s not that the weather has changed, it’s that the light has. There’s a different slant to it, a brittleness—it glances off things that were soaking in it just a few days ago. It happened again this week. As I write this, I look out my window and can’t help but notice my beloved tree seems to know what’s coming.
It’s been a strange few weeks in the US—politically, the world’s turned upside down, and no matter how you feel about our politics generally and our candidates specifically, I think most everyone probably senses change is afoot and is paying attention. I hope you’re enjoying the surge of energy and urgency as much as I am.
I’m a political junkie, raised to be so from the time I was a kid. The grandfather to whom I was extremely close lived and breathed it. He worked and hobbied around politics all his life, and we often had an ice cream bet riding on the election. I lost the year Jimmy Carter won—can’t tell you now why I had no faith in Jimmy—and I remember so well riding in the red Pontiac to buy that .25 cent ice cream cone with my babysitting money (a whole hour’s wages).
My other grandfather was a cynic/armchair philosopher who didn't put much stock in politicians, but sure had opinions about them. In fact, when he learned that a good friend was planning to run for local public office, he responded: I didn’t even know he was a crooked son-of-a-b!tch!
These grandfathers lived on opposite sides of the political aisle, and account for the mixed-faith political marriage of my parents. Politics was so often the topic du jour at our dinner table. No one ever changed sides as a result of those conversations, but we loved stirring the family pot.
This week a NYT opinion piece by feminist writer Roxane Gay grabbed my eye. Until a few weeks ago, I was guilty of a real lack of imagination, convinced my country was still at least one election cycle from seriously entertaining the idea of putting a woman at the helm. (Here’s a gift link to the article, if you’re interested.) Ms. Gay said something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about:
But. To imagine extravagant things is to want extravagant things. We have become so accustomed to mediocre political choices that we have forsaken the idea of sweeping change. I understand why. We often forestall hope by detailing, at length, why the change we most want to see will never happen.
[…]
The political class is firmly entrenched in believing we cannot change the system; we must merely endure it. But what if change really is possible now — not in four years, or eight or beyond?
It’s an interesting thought politically, but even more interesting when I put it in the context of the current reality of our lives as Latter-day Saint women. You may remember Cynthia and me talking about how sometimes women are the problem, and I think Ms. Gay has put her finger on it: Convinced we can’t change things, LDS women forestall hope by doubling down on all the reasons change will never happen.
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