… as resistance

Rest as resistance. Writing as resistance.

I have had some conversations lately about what resistance looks like. Rest as resistance, brought to us by the author Tricia Hersey, encourages napping, daydreaming, thinking complete thoughts.

My advisor suggested a writing as resistance workshop. As some who resists writing, I am not sure that is useful for me, but it started me thinking about all the ways we can resist the coming deluge of right wing madness.

I have often thought that just the act of getting up and going about my day is an act of resistance. I will not be mowed down by the pressures of life. I will be like the willow tree, bending and straightenting, bending and straightening.

These day, just getting up does not feel like enough. And maybe writing is the answer. I am constantly anxious. I worry about social security since I have a disabled adult son who gets survivor benefits. His benefits allow him to pay some rent. Those benefits will help him if something happens to me too soon. I also worry about my trans child and everyone who is the least bit different from the fat white man who golfs on the public dime and decides who lives and dies. I worry that my youngest two will have their education ripped from them.

And sometimes I remember than raising three caring, thinking, brave humans to adulthood, mostly by myself, was also a form of resistance. Which is good, because I can’t ever nap.