Well, it’s a quiet week here in America, and… lol nope.
This is a friendly reminder that no matter what you hold most dear, the work of building a meaningful life for yourself, and a strong community around you - the actual work does not change one bit next Tuesday.
Yes, the degree of difficulty may feel like it’s shifting up or down a bit. It may feel like the path is getting shorter or longer. The act of walking the path stays the same.
The Rev. Dr. William Barber helped organize Moral Mondays in North Carolina - a series of weekly protests that drew in hundreds of thousands of people over the two full years of the state’s General Assembly session in 2013-14.
People think of that action as an immediate response to the agenda of the Republican-led Assembly. But in a podcast interview with Chris Hayes, Rev. Dr. Barber notes that the work had begun years earlier, when the Democrats were in charge:
“Moral Mondays started as an outgrowth of what was called the Forward Together Moral Movement, that was started in 2007, when Democrats controlled the General Assembly in North Carolina. … Didn't matter who was in office, because a moral movement can't just look at who's in office.”
I’m not saying I welcome chaos, or suffering. We must work with urgency when we see people around us who need help, and we have the capacity to support them.
And yet: Who promised us that anything worth doing was going to be quick or easy? When we say, “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready for challenges,” are we still secretly expecting to dictate the terms of how that will happen?
Life is weirder, and more interesting, than that.
Keep walking.
Programming Note
Starting with this issue, Build Notes will now come your way on a biweekly or fortnightly schedule, depending on which term you prefer for every other week. This allows me to line up the publication cycle with each Dadline episode, and I’m really excited about how that project is shaping up as a way to complement this one.
So the next Build Notes will show up on Thursday, November 12th. Please adjust your New Edition of Build Notes Release Party plans accordingly. ;-)
Dadline This Week: Creative Listening
Is listening the main skill involved in connecting with people and making friends? In this episode, guest Liz Mosley talks about her experience organizing small "creative listening" groups, and why so many of us have a hard time listening to each other without offering advice.
Dadline Podcast on Anchor.fm (Audio only, 27 minutes)
And Finally…
This week’s song is a good reminder that despite what you may hear on Twitter, everything is not, in fact, your fault. I couldn’t find a lyrics version of the video, so you can access the lyrics in text form here if you like. The video itself has some soothing visuals to go along with it. (Video is 4 minutes.)
Have a good week, friends.
- Michael
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