chin up

that quote is from frederick douglass’s 1857 speech about West India’s Emancipation. i think about it a lot. lately i wonder who is in a place (emotionally, materially, spiritually, relationally, psychically, financially, mentally, professionally, etc) , really (real-ly lol) to demand? and about how i was taught that power is outside of me, concentrated in places like washington dc or wall street, in the ceo office. he continues,

so much tyranny born of power imbalances, which on some level are people not being aware of their power. Sendolo Diaminah said, “all of us are always already wielding power”2 and there are a lot of forces convincing us of our powerlessness, breeding so much misery.

i listened to this podcast3 last thursday, which was about power in the workplace. one of the interviewees was a union organizer, who talked about the creative tactics he uses to connect people with a felt sense of their own power, a felt sense of collective power. the tactics included pranking bosses. humor and mischief can thwart business as usual, can open new pathways for power to move or be experienced.

the most moving part of the episode, for me, was hearing about the ripple effects of winning union drives. one previously shy, quiet guy started taking up more space. one woman chose to leave an abusive, toxic marriage. the organizer reflected:

“they’ll just realize their worth, you know like they’ll realize like i don’t deserve this shit at work and imma go home to this shit? it’s just a beautiful thing knowing your fucking worth, feeling like you’re worth something you know and that it’s worth fighting for..sometimes it takes a long time to get people to realize it sometimes people never want to realize it but when you can get people to feel like they have just even a drop of power it’s a beautiful fucking thing that happens with that”

something like i have had enough of the bullshit. the etymology of freedom includes a lot of love. one of the root words means beloved.4 loving too much to tolerate fuckery anymore. we will no longer quietly submit. call it worth, call it self regard, call it exasperation. it moves.

as in, enough already. that’s enough.