give a damn.
I’m a list-maker. I like to have a handle on what I’ve got going on. So I was always one to make the ultimate list: New Year’s resolutions. Granted, I typically failed at them, but I made them all the same.
A few years ago I started a gratitude journal practice in which I wrote a line or two each evening about what I was grateful for in that day. It was cathartic, let me tell ya. When I started doing that, I got lax with my resolutions. In fact, I can’t even remember the last actual resolution I made.
But after the year we had, after going all in on my own business in the middle of a pandemic, after drama and death and disappointment, I thought it might be a good idea to allow myself one resolution:
Let’s be clear- I already give a damn. I’ve been a give-a-damn-er for as long as I can remember. I was the weird kid who adopted a humpback whale in the 6th grade. Giving a damn is how I’ve always shown up in the world. It’s been a driving force in all areas of my life.
Trouble is, the world as we currently know it is full to the brim with non-give-a-damn-ers. Billions of ‘em. And they’re fuckin’ everywhere, from Twitter to the grocery store to (some of) our families.
They’re exhausting and demoralizing. They create a black hole of despair for the state of our society. I’m fed up. I want to punch them in the face. I want to shake them until their brains rattle, in hopes that it would knock all the bullshit loose. I want to shove a mirror in their face and tape their eyes open and show them exactly who they are.
I can’t do any of that, of course.
All I can do is control what I can. Make what impacts I can. Use the privilege I was born with (as a white woman, I’m given so much more than so many) and the privilege I have worked for (as a compassionate human, I’ve spent my life learning from those who know better than I) to do my part in pushing progress forward.
So everything I do, all the projects I take, all the initiatives I support, will come from that give-a-damn place. Get ready…