Because in a lot of ways we are & will be running on fumes, the fumes of our forests, of our old state apparatuses, and our will & ability to organize. But isn’t this when transformation truly occurs? When we get so tired (or fail so hard) one order ends and others begin?

I think what I mean by radical hope or optimism is the fierce love for one another that pulls us on when we get tired, yes, but it also means the joy and creativity and sense of imagination needed for designing what’s next! 4

What feels like rock bottom politically and ecologically and culturally never is. It can and will get worse. And worse. Not everywhere all the time but in a lot of places, in unexpected ways, in uneven and unequal ways, we will sink and keep sinking.

and we will for the most part… just get used to it, we have to.

But to keep organizing, reorganizing, fighting, creating, we will need to radicalize our optimism to match the intensity of our descent…
3/

It was so surreal to feel climate collapse and far right austerity politics converge all at once in one place and alter so many people’s lives. i kept trying to describe our new political reality to blue state friends on the phone but people didn’t seem to get how bad it was, how shocked I was about it, how scared I was about the future.

and then, life went on. we recalibrated to the new norms, got used to the losses, re-elected the governor. I bring this up cuz this is how it’s going to go… 2/