Relight the delight
Energy to meet the moment. Plus nice art by my friend's mum.
This week:
A new word recipe
Delight
Cool things
Cool coping things
People dancing
Hello delightful humans,
I read soooo many words in the clear light of last Wednesday morning, from climate writers, activists, artists, comedians, friends, bakers. And in the coming weeks, I will read thousands more. Not the Monday morning vivisections (so easy to to do now, under the million-watt glare of an LED operating room lamp) of a world choosing cartoonish strong men, but the real-time processing of smart people all over the world, working to find their way forward. Sometimes reading these planful posts and ponderings was and is helpful, and sometimes it’s too much — I’m not ready to be as pragmatic as you, good sir, I’m still processing — so wherever you are, I hope you are finding what works for you. ❤️
🖼 I am fond of frameworks for living: Le Corbusier, mnemonics, to-do lists, affirmations, heuristics — I even like the word rubric, though it’s weird and clinical and clumpy when you say it. I love a slogan that sticks, a principle that persists, a phrase that stays for days. For the last while, I’ve been a grieve, breathe, seize gal — absorb the shocks, work through them, do the things. But, rules are made to bend towards justice. So here’s my new one: Nap, ask, act.
Nap
It is wearying. And for those who are vulnerable, the nap might need to be longer, quieter, and even more nourishing. Rest is required, even if it’s a disco nap, otherwise the prescriptions being lobbed, aloud and aligned, can feel too overwhelming. Some people only need a good night’s sleep, others need to hibernate. Yes, rest is resistance, but it’s also just rest. I put myself to sleep with this paragraph, but I guess that’s the point.
Ask
What are the questions I did not ask? And did I mistake a rapacious appetite for information (and cookies) for curiosity? (Yes). I like to think of myself as an inquisitive, nosy person, but what if the pond in which I’m nosing is too homogenous? What if I need to smell farther? This is modestly rhetorical, as I have a terrible olfactory sense.
Wrote Dan Pfeiffer last week on the Democratic rebuild: We can get there if we ask the hard questions and do the work. I think that’s broadly true of everything in life, but have I/we been asking the hardest questions everywhere? Perhaps not, when the climate pace required forces a most hasty question period. I will not short circuit the asking, and I will expand its radius. This is the bodysuit I will wear.
Act
I will act. And find more courage. It all matters. I’ve hit a wall with some climate truisms (most truisms, really, which makes no sense for someone who just went on about loving rules, see above). After I hear truisms a bit too much they bore me, and feel stale, wrong even. I’ve gotten to that place with ‘every tenth of a degree matters.’ Because it’s true, but it’s sad, and, in some ways, an ongoing recalibration of defeat, dressed up as realism. At the same time, it all matters. It all adds up. “We are alive at just the moment to change everything,” says Eric Holthaus. Our human future will be determined by the people alive today (us!). We must act with the courage and love this world requires, as our circumstances allow. Which includes baking cakes for friends in need of warmth and fortitude. (Next up:🍌🍰! TY, Rachel K!)
This planet
What is your rule for living? Let me know!
Last planet
Elsa sent me this much-needed beauty and some Robin Wall Kimmerer:
Not so helpful in making a significant change.
But really comforting to me, a gardener, a grandma.
I cannot despair. hopefully some comfort to you as well…
Delight
I was thinking about delight before last week. And then I stopped. Now I’d like to relight the delight. And talk about The Delightenment.
My friend Tristan made this beautiful video about the work he’s been doing since 2017, as a response to his climate grief, and then some. I met Tristan in the most delightful way. Ambling home from brunch in 2006, my now husband and I came across a merry band of weirdos in our local park. Dressed old timey and serving free scones, they were playing an absurd game of bicycle polo, equal parts performance art and competitive sport (for artists though, so, not all that competitive). It was a beautiful act of community hilarity. And we’ve been friends ever since.
“In any design cycle, that’s the moment of the greatest opportunity…when you realize there has to be something different,” says Tristan, in this perfect video about his latest project, General Notion. Highly applicable, because we’re in a Democracy Design Cycle, right? Watch this incredibleness, and meet me below the embed.
“The archetypes of General Notion are more about moving together, delighting together,” he says. After last week, I had a brief period of overcorrecting against joy. Joy had not resounded. And worse, it had wounded. In a moment where the pain, economic and fentanylic, is so real for so many people, joy felt like the world’s most contagious case of can’t read the room. BUT. Reset. Rejoyn. We need delight more than ever.
I’d already been wrestling with what it means to delight in the commons. How do you create diverse points of entry? How do you engineer experiences that give everyone a place to feel comfortable? A bunch of twee artists in jodphurs will always be an opt-in experience, but the key is to create as many variations of delight as we can, space for people to conjure their own definitions of shared exerience, while always demonstrating that community is the mechanism by which we repair the things that are ailing — local economies, loneliness, education, climate.
This is truer than ever, and, alongside my wonderful colleague, Aimee, I’ve been diving into literature on the new structures we need for democratic renewal and flourishing.
This whole piece by Ned Resnikoff is worth a read, because it’s about redefining party as a mechanism. It pulls, as does this terrific Nation piece, from the work of political scientist Theda Skocpol, whose 2003 book, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, I am now reading. (Want to book club it with me?)
We need capital P parties and lowercase p parties, now more than ever. It’s just that they both have to be a whole heck of a lot better.
My pal, C, is a Canadian diplomat. She perfectly encapsulates why we come together. It’s like a haiku. If you’re not into the whole brevity thing:
Could not agree more.
THIS IS SO GOOD, ELIF BATUMAN.
I love these gorgeous pantings of conviviality from TO artist Maxine McCrann.
My pal Rachel’s mum, Vera, was the Milton Glaser of Toronto in the 70s. LOVE THESE!
I was quoted in this John Leland piece that is so near and dear to my heart — outliers push the Overton Window. Research, overwhelmingly, is beginning to demonstrate this. Subject of the next MVP, but for now, meet Joshua Spodek.
Cool things
There’s been an explosion of great climate content on Blue Sky. Meet me there?
Public grids? YES. And what a gorge site.
The energy transition will be much cheaper than you think. The Economist.
Reader Matt has an awesome podcast with a name that I love: Future Mending. Check it out!
How cool is the idea of super circularity in renewables? Hannah Ritchie expands my frame.
Cool coping things
This newsletter, How are you coping, from Chris Hatch at the National Observer, is a beautiful, and helpful, distillation about how people are dealing with the current sitch. In particular, I loved:
Some of you emailed with very practical practices. “You need to feel it to heal it,” one reader advised me. It’s such a great expression that I suspect I might be the only one not to have heard it before. It definitely echoes the advice from experts on grief and anxiety who warn against leaping exclusively towards positive thinking or collective action and bypassing our authentic experience.
A really terrific list of ideas from economist Hans Stegeman:
But with these complex issues, what can we, as a society, actually do? Some ideas:
1. 🌍 A Radical Push for Community-Led Infrastructure
Let’s rethink "infrastructure" to include more than just roads and bridges. Democracies are healthier when people are connected through shared spaces.
2. 🗳️ Empower Digital Civic Engagement (Beyond Voting)
Democracy isn't a one-time event — it's a continuous practice. We need tech-driven platforms that allow people to participate in government every day, not just during elections.
3. 🤝 Cross-Ideology Education Programs
Our societies are becoming polarized echo chambers. To combat this, we need programs that bridge ideological divides through cross-community education.
4. 🌱 Ecological Self-Reliance at the Community Level
True environmental sustainability is under constant political threat, but communities can build resilience by creating local, ecologically sustainable systems that don’t depend on federal policy shifts.
5. 🎥 Reframe Democracy in Media and Storytelling
We need stories that reshape how people view democracy and civic duty. Imagine TV series, films, and social media campaigns that portray heroes in everyday life who protect democratic values — teachers, community organizers, environmental advocates.
6. 🧠 Invest in Critical Thinking from an Early Age
A robust democracy relies on citizens who can critically assess information. It’s time to teach critical thinking, media literacy, and civic responsibility as core elements of school curricula.
Fights to win
Cycle TO versus Premier Ford. Help! Sign!
Take Toronto’s leaf blower survey, pls.
People dancing
I like to normalize aging and dancing, and often post myself trying to keep up with my 28 year-old dance classmates. But look at PENNY MARSHALL taking it up a notch!!!! Funny, and amazing, and she was 41 when she did this! Just incredible.
As always, let me know how you’re doing and how to make this newsletter better. Wishing you health and happiness, safety and sandwiches,
Sarah 💚
“You need to feel it to heal it” - yes to this and yes to miso banana cake. I took a lot of joy and delight in this issue and I know my mom will too - thank you, Sarah!
So glad to get your long, interesting, supportive post today. It sustains me.