I've experienced many tragedies in my lifetime but the most profound and also the one with lasting reverberations to this day, was when I went to bed on a Sunday in April 2000 and woke up the next morning to find my husband dead. I was three weeks away from giving birth to my fourth child. As my entire life upended itself, for years afterward I walked around in a daze, like I'd been hit in the head with a ball bat and I was still vibrating. No one understood how I felt, no one could relate, and over time I began to feel like a freak, a head case, an aberration who didn't belong in this world. More than twenty-four years later I woke up this past Wednesday morning to that same feeling. Like someone had bashed me in the head with a ball bat. I suspect I'll be vibrating for years from the blow. The big difference is, there are others out there (like you) who know the feeling. So thanks for not keeping quiet. Please don't ever keep quiet.
I was incredibly saddened and disheartened by the outcome, but unfortunately not shocked. There was a great article in the NYTimes on Wednesday about how we should stop acting like this is not what we want. For the bulk of voters, they voted for that orange POS. There is a cultural shift, not only in the US, but across the world. Character apparently has no bearing upon elections anymore, not to mention policy that might help us up rather than knock us down. We are in a crisis of passivity which I've not seen in my time. And we are in the age of cults of all shapes and sizes. Because, make no mistake about it, the cult of t*ump is real. How else could I explain my 92 year old Mother In Law voting for a man as degraded and sick as he is?
Thank you for your post, it feels good to be in a community that cares.
Not only passive but complacent, Tim. Complacency has replaced democratic values. People who don't know how good they've got it are in for a rude awakening because some of the things they rail against are what keep us safe. Will four more years of hate and power-mongering teach them anything? I don't know, but the rest of us hurl at the thought.
You are quite right about complacency. And that’s the thing, what you said: four more years. Did we not learn our lesson last time? Are we that complacent? Will we sit idly by as our rights are winnowed away? It indeed makes me want to hurl.
Again, I think algorithms and recency bias will teach them a tough lesson. We suffer collateral damage. Will I fight back? Hell yeah. (Sorry if I'm stretching this longer than you intended but I'm angry and fearful.) Thanks to Kate for her thoughts and giving us a safe space.
It's a disturbing article. To think that in this age of technology that we would become more insular is both surprising and not. We all find a community to fit, but then closing an eye to opposing views is dangerous. For years I've dismissed Trump as a vacuous toad when clearly he has somehow become relevant beyond Page 6. I will fight like hell right beside you, Gail. And yes, thank you Kate for posting and promoting discourse.
I will never understand how any human who watched the insurrection or saw the POS convicted on 34 counts, vote for him to oversee a subway rat, let alone a country. The list is long and it got worse when he was voted out the first time. Will attorneys general grow a pair and hold it (not him) accountable? It's infuriating.
I understand what you grasp so perfectly – that literature isn't a "lane" to stay in, but rather the very highway of human consciousness. Your commitment to writing another book, to creating something that might make just one person smile – this is exactly what we need. The act of creation is inherently political, whether we're publishing Rushdie or underground manifestos. And your decision to read more books instead of feeding the social media beast? That's not just personal choice – it's revolution in its quietest, most powerful form. The world needs more voices like yours, unafraid to blend the personal with the political, the craft with the cause. Write on! Write on with the fire of a thousand rejected manuscripts. And let those who wish to "stay in their lane" remain in the slow traffic of mediocrity.
Thanks for your beautiful, actionable list, Kate! Actions empower us. I, too, am laying off social media, reading more books, listening more, and engaging more. Here's to being the change we want to see in this world.
My pen, my computer, my iPad, that’s where you’ll find me too. Reading and writing my way out of grief, paying attention to the trees, doing what I can to help the unhoused. It’s hard to believe that between the two candidates, 14 billion dollars was spent on this campaign. How many unhoused people’s lives could be improved if we could put that much money towards the issue?
I retired this year and volunteered with League if Women Voters and Election Protection, became a Deputy Registrar for our county Voter Registration Dept. Yesterday, I reached out to our legislative district democratic party office to volunteer. Next up, volunteering for both Planned Parenthood and ACLU. I'm also asking and listening for other opportunities to help groups and individuals who will likely become more marginalized in the next few years. And wtite. I'm going to get back to writing. 💙
Sheesh. The day you stop telling me what you think and feel is the day I stop reading you. Of course I want to know those things! Otherwise I'd be looking for a bot to follow.
Dear Kate. The highway of life is big. We're meant to switch lanes from time to time. Thank you for sharing what you're doing now. I'm trying to figure that out. More time reading books than social media. Supporting with my time, talent, and treasure, groups that can ease the pain of those who have, are, and will suffer because of our nation's policies. And never, ever giving up the fight for what is right and just.
Thank You for the honest words. The shock has been felt around the world - particularly here in Europe. And I agree wholeheartedly: after some time to lick our wounds, well earned rest and some disassociations, we need to go back to our creative work
👉🏽 "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair ... no time for fear. We speak, we write ... That is how civilizations heal." (Toni Morrison)
Don't stop telling us what you think - that's why I'm here! I feel everything you are saying right now. I'm off social media, off most of the news, just pulling my head out of my phone and assessing what's actually around me and how I can make a difference within that. I won't stop being political, that's like breathing to me, but I have to change something. I love your point about listening.
So I'm taking some time to figure out what steps I can take to be and see the values I hold in my life and in this world. They may not be the prevailing values right now, and that's ok.
I'm also directing all my big feelings into my characters: the raw feelings of anger, disappointment, bitterness, rage, are going straight into the parts of my story that incorporate them. My characters are experiencing them for different reasons, but the base emotions are the same, and that's incredibly helpful. At least, it helps me feel like I'm doing something productive with these feelings.
Thank you for the newsletter - appreciate all your hard work.
Thank you so much Kate -- it's wonderful to see you express your opinion in the newsletter you started to do just that:) I happen to agree with your opinion but would feel the same even if I didn't. And yes, I'm going to join you in writing and helping!
I also want to find things I can do. In particular, I want to actively protect immigrants, people of color, queer people (gay, bi, trans, etc.) and homeless people. I will be on the lookout for organizations or events where I can participate constructively. If anyone here has ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Politics is everyone's lane - it's our healthcare, our education, our roads, our bridges, our public transport, our refuse collection and our economy. It underpins everything. So thank you for sharing your opinion and your perspective. I'm in the UK, but am still feeling the shock and the impulse to do something positive however small. I'm trying to remember that we can all hold up a light in dark times. No matter how small it is...
Thank you. Yes. For those of us who are affected by the election, which is all of us, politics is our fucking lane. Thank you, Kate.
I've experienced many tragedies in my lifetime but the most profound and also the one with lasting reverberations to this day, was when I went to bed on a Sunday in April 2000 and woke up the next morning to find my husband dead. I was three weeks away from giving birth to my fourth child. As my entire life upended itself, for years afterward I walked around in a daze, like I'd been hit in the head with a ball bat and I was still vibrating. No one understood how I felt, no one could relate, and over time I began to feel like a freak, a head case, an aberration who didn't belong in this world. More than twenty-four years later I woke up this past Wednesday morning to that same feeling. Like someone had bashed me in the head with a ball bat. I suspect I'll be vibrating for years from the blow. The big difference is, there are others out there (like you) who know the feeling. So thanks for not keeping quiet. Please don't ever keep quiet.
I was incredibly saddened and disheartened by the outcome, but unfortunately not shocked. There was a great article in the NYTimes on Wednesday about how we should stop acting like this is not what we want. For the bulk of voters, they voted for that orange POS. There is a cultural shift, not only in the US, but across the world. Character apparently has no bearing upon elections anymore, not to mention policy that might help us up rather than knock us down. We are in a crisis of passivity which I've not seen in my time. And we are in the age of cults of all shapes and sizes. Because, make no mistake about it, the cult of t*ump is real. How else could I explain my 92 year old Mother In Law voting for a man as degraded and sick as he is?
Thank you for your post, it feels good to be in a community that cares.
Not only passive but complacent, Tim. Complacency has replaced democratic values. People who don't know how good they've got it are in for a rude awakening because some of the things they rail against are what keep us safe. Will four more years of hate and power-mongering teach them anything? I don't know, but the rest of us hurl at the thought.
You are quite right about complacency. And that’s the thing, what you said: four more years. Did we not learn our lesson last time? Are we that complacent? Will we sit idly by as our rights are winnowed away? It indeed makes me want to hurl.
Related, add apathy to the mix. As a publicist, I should have understood respectful vs. evil messages may not have hit right? (IMO, it doesn't excuse letting Nazis into the conversation 🤢, but...) See this writer's piece: https://www.fastcompany.com/91224024/im-a-gen-z-man-heres-why-so-many-of-my-peers-supported-donald-trump
Again, I think algorithms and recency bias will teach them a tough lesson. We suffer collateral damage. Will I fight back? Hell yeah. (Sorry if I'm stretching this longer than you intended but I'm angry and fearful.) Thanks to Kate for her thoughts and giving us a safe space.
It's a disturbing article. To think that in this age of technology that we would become more insular is both surprising and not. We all find a community to fit, but then closing an eye to opposing views is dangerous. For years I've dismissed Trump as a vacuous toad when clearly he has somehow become relevant beyond Page 6. I will fight like hell right beside you, Gail. And yes, thank you Kate for posting and promoting discourse.
I will never understand how any human who watched the insurrection or saw the POS convicted on 34 counts, vote for him to oversee a subway rat, let alone a country. The list is long and it got worse when he was voted out the first time. Will attorneys general grow a pair and hold it (not him) accountable? It's infuriating.
I understand what you grasp so perfectly – that literature isn't a "lane" to stay in, but rather the very highway of human consciousness. Your commitment to writing another book, to creating something that might make just one person smile – this is exactly what we need. The act of creation is inherently political, whether we're publishing Rushdie or underground manifestos. And your decision to read more books instead of feeding the social media beast? That's not just personal choice – it's revolution in its quietest, most powerful form. The world needs more voices like yours, unafraid to blend the personal with the political, the craft with the cause. Write on! Write on with the fire of a thousand rejected manuscripts. And let those who wish to "stay in their lane" remain in the slow traffic of mediocrity.
Thanks for your beautiful, actionable list, Kate! Actions empower us. I, too, am laying off social media, reading more books, listening more, and engaging more. Here's to being the change we want to see in this world.
My pen, my computer, my iPad, that’s where you’ll find me too. Reading and writing my way out of grief, paying attention to the trees, doing what I can to help the unhoused. It’s hard to believe that between the two candidates, 14 billion dollars was spent on this campaign. How many unhoused people’s lives could be improved if we could put that much money towards the issue?
100%
I retired this year and volunteered with League if Women Voters and Election Protection, became a Deputy Registrar for our county Voter Registration Dept. Yesterday, I reached out to our legislative district democratic party office to volunteer. Next up, volunteering for both Planned Parenthood and ACLU. I'm also asking and listening for other opportunities to help groups and individuals who will likely become more marginalized in the next few years. And wtite. I'm going to get back to writing. 💙
Sheesh. The day you stop telling me what you think and feel is the day I stop reading you. Of course I want to know those things! Otherwise I'd be looking for a bot to follow.
This. Onward.
Dear Kate. The highway of life is big. We're meant to switch lanes from time to time. Thank you for sharing what you're doing now. I'm trying to figure that out. More time reading books than social media. Supporting with my time, talent, and treasure, groups that can ease the pain of those who have, are, and will suffer because of our nation's policies. And never, ever giving up the fight for what is right and just.
Thank You for the honest words. The shock has been felt around the world - particularly here in Europe. And I agree wholeheartedly: after some time to lick our wounds, well earned rest and some disassociations, we need to go back to our creative work
👉🏽 "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair ... no time for fear. We speak, we write ... That is how civilizations heal." (Toni Morrison)
Don't stop telling us what you think - that's why I'm here! I feel everything you are saying right now. I'm off social media, off most of the news, just pulling my head out of my phone and assessing what's actually around me and how I can make a difference within that. I won't stop being political, that's like breathing to me, but I have to change something. I love your point about listening.
So I'm taking some time to figure out what steps I can take to be and see the values I hold in my life and in this world. They may not be the prevailing values right now, and that's ok.
I'm also directing all my big feelings into my characters: the raw feelings of anger, disappointment, bitterness, rage, are going straight into the parts of my story that incorporate them. My characters are experiencing them for different reasons, but the base emotions are the same, and that's incredibly helpful. At least, it helps me feel like I'm doing something productive with these feelings.
Thank you for the newsletter - appreciate all your hard work.
Thank you so much Kate -- it's wonderful to see you express your opinion in the newsletter you started to do just that:) I happen to agree with your opinion but would feel the same even if I didn't. And yes, I'm going to join you in writing and helping!
I also want to find things I can do. In particular, I want to actively protect immigrants, people of color, queer people (gay, bi, trans, etc.) and homeless people. I will be on the lookout for organizations or events where I can participate constructively. If anyone here has ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Politics is everyone's lane - it's our healthcare, our education, our roads, our bridges, our public transport, our refuse collection and our economy. It underpins everything. So thank you for sharing your opinion and your perspective. I'm in the UK, but am still feeling the shock and the impulse to do something positive however small. I'm trying to remember that we can all hold up a light in dark times. No matter how small it is...
All of this!