Grimby’s Gratitude – The Long Fight
the E-Newsletter of Goldeen ogawa • Issue 12, November 2018
Originally posted for Patrons on November 2 on Patreon
What have I done?
- Written: Professor Odd 18/3.6: “The Last Voyage of the Odyssean”
- Art: Groomin’ Draggins watercolors for the WFC art show
- Published: Apsis Fiction: Mesohelion 2018 (print edition!!!)
What am I doing?
- Writing: Driving Arcana 30/4.3: “White Noise”
- Art: Valdelluna and book design for Rotation Four
- Publishing: Driving Arcana: Rotation Four (eBook)
Where am I going?
- Next weekend (the 8th—11th) I will be at Anthro NorthWest, where I’ll be in the Artist Alley Friday and Saturday nights. It will be my last con appearance of 2018, so come on by!
The Long Fight
There’s an election coming up. You might have heard. It’s not a big, fancy, exciting election like a presidential one or anything. It’s midterms. Even so, it’s a bit of a crisis point. There are enough positions in the United States government that are being contested that, if things go one way, we can take some ground back from the forces of bigotry, racism, sexism, and fascism that have seen such a resurgence in the past two years. If things go the other, we could lose ground. A lot of ground.
You’ve probably been extolled to vote. Whatever your feelings on the matter of whether your vote actually means anything, do go do that. Because it’s good practice. It’s practice for doing the harder things.
Because voting is a form of fighting. And fighting is what we will be doing for the rest of our lives. Not just for the next two years. Not just for the next six, ten, twenty… we are in a long fight, a fight that is bigger and older than any of us.
Two years ago I watched as a foreign conspiracy put a puppet in charge of our government. The feelings I had then are much the same as they are now: resentment, disgust, disappointment. Anger. One feeling, however, has dissipated: the sour, petulant feeling of “I don’t wanna…”
It’s a feeling that I get periodically about lots of minor things. (I don’t wanna call the plumber. I don’t wanna do my taxes.) It’s a feeling I’ve felt whenever one of my animals gets sick or some equipment breaks. It’s the feeling of “oh, now I’m gonna have to work. And I don’t wanna.”
I got that about the U.S. after the November 2016 election.
“I don’t wanna have to go fight literal nazis.”
I’m over that now. Whatever happens next week, whether it’s relatively good or relatively bad, doesn’t really affect what I have to do.
I have to take care of my cats. I have to walk my dog. I have to feed myself and go on bike rides and make art and stories and publish them. I have to hold my representatives accountable and push back against bigotry and racism and sexism and apathy and be ready to punch nazis at any moment. I have to keep fighting.
And so do you. Whatever your particular battles are, we are in this big, long fight together.
It’s not a good story, this fight. It’s been going on for as long a humans have lived together. It’s about power and the imbalance of it. It’s about raising ourselves to a higher standard of being. And it’s a fight that can never truly be won. We gain ground. We lose ground. We get it back again. And we hold it. That’s where our victory lies, I think.
Humanity will always be under siege from forces rooted in greed and selfishness and power-lust. Even if we win ground in this election, we have to hold that ground. We have to keep fighting.
If we lose ground, we have to fight harder.
Divest yourself of the notion that you can ever go back to not caring or caring only for yourself. That might be easier. It’s also wrong.
Dare to care. To fight. Though we don’t all fight the same way. The important thing is to find what you can do, and do that. It’s hard, but it’s life. And it has within it so many small wonders and beautiful marvels that, even as we slog on through this long fight, we may find islands of peace where we can rest and replenish ourselves. It is right to enjoy them.
This fight is not a sprint. It’s an endurance test. Resist. Endure. Fight. Rejoice. Take strength in the beauty of a universe where moonlight dances on the dark waters of a lake at night, where Sirius twinkles blue and green, where nothing is assured but gravity and time. And live. And breathe. And laugh.
And fight.
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What’s coming in November?
Patrons can now look forward to:
- Saturday updates to the Sparks Gallery
- Sunday updates to “Travels in Valdelluna”
- Exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming projects AND
- eBook release of Driving Arcana: Rotation Four!
ProTip
Before beginning a task you are not familiar with, whether it’s replacing a bicycle chain, reprogramming your irrigation timer, or calling a government agency for advice, take the time to make sure you are well fed, have gone to the bathroom, and have water at the ready. These things are hard!
This post has been generously sponsored by my Fellow Traveler patrons.