Kina, Queen of Tasks

Daughter, now a full-grown adult, asks parents for new ways to be helpful; parents, skeptical, go along

Yesterday, as I was writing out a list of things people could do as we move forward to create a better government and society, I wrote out the following rough list:

• Protest

• Run

• Vote

• Fund

• Aid

• Speak

• Amplify

Each of these words came with a rudimentary description of the ways in which I felt I personally needed to do that thing. Vote locally (for example) for representatives with real spine and energy, and to maintain the majority; protest, in every sense of the word, to build that spine in our existing representatives; fund organizations that will help people in need in hostile states to obtain safe abortions, but also fund the candidates you want to vote for, and fund mutual aid societies that support the people most at risk now—who are often also most at risk of being unhoused, assaulted, and unfed.

For now, for where I am at today, I am comfortable to make my task about the writing. Monday is another story. Kina will put away her clothes, in the meantime—and that is somehow the greater miracle.

dad