Thread by @SMpwrgr

Long 🧵realistic faith

I’ll never believe it’s useless

We may never see some small outcomes of our advocacy, the strangers we influence or better inform

If all my efforts turned out to convince one person to protect themselves & their health it’d be worth it

https://twitter.com/roseannebyrne/status/1736874516582990197

I’ve mentioned before I spent 6 mths tearing my hair out trying to convince my vulnerable elderly parents to mask, “but no one else does”

Providing masks, modelling, explaining, lecturing, challenging, pointless … til it wasn’t

They’re the only ones masked at church now

The other day my young adult, at risk youngest daughter sighed as she put on a mask to attend a crowded outdoor market with me.

“I hate wearing a mask outside, but I’ve been making good choices for so long, it’d be stupid to stop & get infected today”

😮

People reach out & say I was ready to give up, thanks 4 posting that infographic/quote, it helped me keep going

You never know who printed that info out & shared it, you know which person saw you masked in a healthcare setting & thought if they can do it, maybe I can too

A friend is building the single biggest piece of advocacy I can think of from the ground up from sheer force of will

She has set her sights on changing the world and her determination is breathtaking. She is a magnificent force of nature & makes me want to try harder

Good doctors are arguing with indifferent doctors, showing up despite mind bending cognitive dissonance, heartbreak and moral injury

If they can keep going on the frontlines, while I advocate from the privileged safety of home, the least I can do is stand with them steadfast

I keep going for those who can’t. Our numbers are decimated by the impacts of infection.

Watching passionate activist friends fall by the wayside is nothing short of devastating, but now I have no choice but to carry them in every single action I take

When we meet with crossbencher & they’re gobsmacked at “how reasonable” what we’re asking 4 is

Then watch in real time as their mind blown, equilibrium lost with real cost of inaction & know it’s the v 1st steps of a journey of an ally

& you do this half a dozen times, building

A warrior senator with integrity hears heartbreaking testimony from a friend in a zoom and is moved to fight the bureaucrats and CMO on the public record on the side of decency

and you see a glimmer of what could be in the long run

if you keep running

I believe this will turn. My goal is to help turn the ship sooner not later

The more voices, more advocacy, more information, more pressure

the sooner we change direction away from destruction

It’s possible that what we do changes things quicker & prevents more damage.

Keep fighting so we can look the next generation in the eye & say we never stopped trying to protect you

They alone would be enough to keep me going

I keep going 4 my youngest daughter who is at risk & trying to protect herself in a world that doesn’t care how vulnerable she is

I keep going to protect the little time my elderly mother has left

I keep going for respect for every amazing member of CAC & this community

I keep going for my other family members who are not strong enough to look at this head on because I am strong enough for all of them

They want us to give up, they want us to feel so defeated that we stop trying and let them continue to make decisions that damage and kill, unanswered, unopposed, til everyone is too impacted to oppose anything.

We stand in the way of total capitulation

They want no control group to prove our point. They want everyone impacted so they can say it was inevitable, nothing they could have done differently

It’s an act of defiance to refuse to capitulate, to show road less travelled, road well protected, road less indifferent

It feels like building a wall one tiny pebble at a time.

It is a gesture of faith.

It is a gesture of defiance.

It is a gesture of resilience.

It is a gesture of the value of life.

It not now, when?

If not me, who?

If not this, what else possibly matters?

The stakes are so impossibly high, the outcomes so profound, how can I choose anything but to keep putting one foot in front of the other?

There’s no choice, I cannot be a bystander. I cannot unknow what I know.

I will fight until I physically can no longer fight.

I will go down fighting.

I will be inconvenient.

I will be relentless.

I will hold and nurse my anger and I will bear witness to everything.

I will keep receipts.

If there’s an opportunity to hold to account in the future, I will be there with my evidence and my fury

Yes it’s exhausting and frustrating and we can’t see if our drops are extinguishing the edges of a fire, our pebbles are holding together. We go forward with faith, we go forward with humanity, we go forward with resistance

We have no reason to know we make it out unscathed

We stay on the path that gives us best chance of surviving- which includes fighting 4 better policy

We do this knowing odds are against us, but strong enough to absorb that truth & keep going

We’re in a war, not with cvd, but with those who accept death & damage 4 self-interest

The optimists will fall, the realists can prevail with heavy hearts & eyes wide open

We can be the living embodiment of that which you refuse to allow to kill you, makes you stronger.

We can continue even though we don’t know the end of the story.

The only way we influence the end of the story is to remain active protagonists

Don’t look ahead, stay in this moment, what can you do today that will add another pebble to the wall of resistance?

It’s a marathon extending beyond the horizon

Take breaks, balance with simple joys, feed your soul in any way you can so that you can stay in the fight. You can experience joy in a little life, you can find happiness & meaning amidst the devastation

You can put down the load

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in end—which you can never afford to lose—with discipline to confront the most brutal facts of yr current reality, whatever they might be”
James Stockdale

Our challenge: accept reality, then never stop working to change it

Show the world what new, long term survival mechanisms and adaptations look like

Have faith, confront reality, hold hands and endure

Walk through the world holding our values and purpose and grit

And then get up tomorrow and do it again - with realistic faith

We have a goal and we have obstacles and we have each other

And this mess isn’t going to fix itself



“We’re not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!”jimcollins.com/concepts/Stock…