Adrianna Tan, who I follow on Mastodon, posted something today that I want to remember.
Adrianna runs a product management team at Monterey Bay Aquarium, and works on AI ethics and policy at the Center for AI & Digital Policy. I like her writing a lot, both short and long-form. Links to her stuff from her profile, linked above.
“Bullies pick on the powerless. Especially the politicians. Everything that is happening today in many places (not just the U.S.) points to abuse and bullying by the powerful. Not to say that hasn’t always happened but I do think we go through waves. This wave feels like a peak, in many ways. Homeless people. Activists. Old people. Children. Farm workers. Immigrants. Refugees from climate change and war and genocide. Trans people. People of color. All kinds of minorities.
It’s easy to feel depressed (and I am, many days), but I also think it’s important to choose to live my life by choosing kindness and doing the things that I can. I can’t always pick every issue to work on or help to support and I can’t always be loud about it (having a few of those above mentioned identities). But it’s important to me, and for my soul, that I continue to be able to laugh at bullies, and do anything I can in any little ways. In my decade + of running a nonprofit (that works with some underprivileged kids), I’ve learned that if I take systemic failure personally I’ll never be able to do anything else.
Trying to remind myself of that in these times.
Also, the whole lens of ‘I can’t help everything / save the world’ is fundamentally a colonialist mindset anyway. I can’t help everyone and everything, but I can be part of a community that can help more people on more things.
Not able to do it myself isn’t reason to stop caring. It’s a call to action and community.”
When everything feels too big, too much, too overwhelming, community is the answer.
Community is strength.
Look for the helpers.
Monterey Bay Aquarium. Image credit: Photo by Mason C on Unsplash