Staying with the trouble

Dear friends,

I like to talk about 'staying with the trouble' after the title of a book by Donna Haraway, a trailblazing feminist theorist who, since I read her Manifesto for cyborgs in the early 2000s, has helped me think through so many things over the years.

'The trouble', for mine, is the chaos of connectivity - all the drama, false gods, wrong turns, confusion, and friction of planetary existence. It so often goes wrong. But it somehow adds up to the perfection** of creation.

In this post I want to offer some things to read or listen to or view that might help you stay with the trouble right now, as we find ourselves looking directly down the barrel of another Trump presidency:

To get to/stay grounded:

Guided meditation: Remembering your spiritual heart by Tara Brach

10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won from Waging nonviolence

Words and pictures on adrienne maree brown's Instagram

For perspective:

Four things 'to set as a reminder against the onset of despair', from Nishant Shah on LinkedIn

Do not ask what Trumpism means for the rest of the world. Trumpism is already here by my friend Megan Clement in Crikey

Inspired by Colleagues Around the World, the Pulitzer Center Will Hold the Line, by Marina Walker Guevara (with thanks to Erica for passing this one on!)

On Curiosity in Times of Change: How I'm experiencing this moment, by Yasmin Abdel-Magied

Surprised, Outraged and Can’t Understand What is Going On, by Ghassan Hage

For motivation:

The Wonder Chronicles 27: On Getting Up, by Mona Eltahawy

Here's how we get through the next four years, by Venice Williams (thankyou to Adriana for sending me this one!)

Till next time,

In love and struggle,

Ann.

*Haraway uses 'mixotricha paradoxa' — a species of protozoan (one-celled organism) that lives inside the gut of a South Australian termite and is difficult to actually define because it contains five symbiotic genomes — to illustrate "how all plants and animals including ourselves have evolved to contain multitudes.” (quote from When Species Meet, pp. 285-6)

**thinking perfection more as 'completedness', like in grammar, than 'flawless' here...