after last night, i'm seeing a lot of people expressing despair and wondering how to find hope. i've shared some thoughts on that before, but i think they're worth re-upping now. this is what works for me; maybe it will work for you too

for me, hope and action are related the way inspiration and writing are. i think many people have this idea that i must feel Inspired before i sit down and write. and if that were true, i would maybe have written like, five minutes of music and one essay in my entire life

instead, for me, it's almost exactly the reverse: there is something i want to make, and so i sit down and try to make it. i set aside time to do this, regular time, daily time when i can. a time when i'm gonna sit down and try to put some art together. clock in, clock out

and sometimes — not always, but sometimes — sometimes *in the process of doing it*, i find myself becoming inspired _after the fact_. but the doing comes first. the doing is more important

and i think similarly, if i waited until i felt hopeful to take action in the world, i would do nothing. hope is fickle. i don't always feel it, and it doesn't always last long. but there is a world i want to help make, and so i sit down and try to make it. clock in. clock out

and sometimes — not always, but sometimes — sometimes hope comes after the fact, as a result of *having done something* to try to make the world a little bit better, but i don't do it for the hope per se

i do it because i believe a better world is possible, and i believe that working towards that better world is the only thing that will bring it about. i don't believe that we will inevitably win if we do this, but i do believe that we will inevitably lose if we don't

i believe the world is full of boundless need. there are more causes than you could ever give time to, even if you spent a day on each for your whole life. i don't think you have to find the Most Important Cause, you just have to find one that you care about and pick at it,...

...whether that's decolonization, antiracism, trans/queer liberation, disability rights, access to healthcare, anticapitalism, prison abolition, environmentalism, ending gendered violence, mutual aid, religious liberty, housing the houseless, political organization,...

...or any other cause broad or narrow under the sun. obviously, all these things criss-cross and interlink, but like a big messy sweater with many fraying threads, sometimes you just gotta find the thread you can grab ahold of right now and yank on that one

sometimes you can help one person in crisis; sometimes you can chip away at a big structural problem that will not be solved in one lifetime. both are important. both are necessary. eventually, if we're all working together, our threads will link up; the whole thing will unravel

so i'm not going to say "here, go do X". i think the thing to do will be different for different people. some people have time to give as volunteers. some people have no time, but have money to donate. maybe you have skills or knowledge that you can share — knowledge about...

...toppling statues or regimes, about making accessible resources or cheap but hearty food, about building strong communities and being there for friends (it doesn't have to be formal knowledge you were taught in an Institute Of Higher Learning!)

maybe you can find an organization doing good work and show up to their next meeting. (this will almost certainly feel more sustainable if you aren't doing it alone, if you are joining together with other people, if you turn this from an individual endeavor into a collective one)

maybe the thing you can do is survive. maybe the one person you can help is yourself. survive. live. the fascists want us dead; we shouldn't do their work for them. if all you can do right now is keep yourself alive, then do that. my *g-d* do that!

keeping people alive is what all this Work is directed at; that is the goal, the heart of everything. no one, not one single person, is disposable

if you are feeling despair today, find one thing—just one thing—to do to make the world a better place. i cannot guarantee that it will make you feel better (tho i think it might), but even if it doesn't, it *will* make the world a little better. and isn't that the entire point?

the impact you make will be limited. it's worth making anyway <3