My Advice to Kamala--Don't Be Weak
On Climate Change
I never talk politics. Except today I am going to because, probably like you, I watched the debate last night. Holding my newborn grand-girl, I listened to enough of the debate to get a sense of the current political landscape.
When President Biden stepped out of the race seven weeks ago, a wonderful thing happened. My nervous system calmed, almost instantly. With one move, many beautiful things became possible.
What Harris/Walz Offered
Americans suddenly had a chance to end a slide toward totalitarianism.
We had a chance at our first woman president, a move that will catapult us forward in ending centuries of oppression toward women.
We had another chance at righting centuries of racial injustice.
Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, brought in the “nurturing parent” metaphor, as opposed to Donald Trump’s “strict father” one. George Lakoff outlined the difference in his hard-hitting book Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, and Lakoff’s colleague Gil Duran breaks it down in his Substack post, “Dad Vibes: Tim Walz and the brilliance of nurturant family politics.”
I’ve never been good with the strict father—I detest hierarchy, I detest the patriarchy, I detest “power over.” Walz is a comfort. With him, I feel as if I have a chance.
By the way, Chelsea Green Publishing has a new edition of Lakoff’s book available for $7.50, and I highly recommend that you read it.
We had a chance for a woman to lead, and a woman’s leadership is usually different from a man’s. Harris offers a different kind of leadership, I can see that already. A woman is more apt to understand what democracy really requires.
But What About the Environment?
Because I am nature-first and even earth-first, I was listening carefully last night to the climate-change question.
Mr. Trump’s response was not to address the looming crisis at all, and instead, as with every question asked of him, to use his one minute to talk about immigrants pounding on our borders and how Ms. Harris would let them in, because Pres. Biden sure did.
Harris had fashioned an intelligent answer, at least. But the answer was disturbing.
She started well enough. Climate change is not a hoax. People are suffering. They are losing their homes. They are unable to insure their homes. She has been part of an administration that “invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy.”
Then her answer became problematic.
The Biden/Harris Administration invested in clean energy while “we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels.”
But that’s exactly the problem. Gas production, domestic or foreign, along with rampant destruction of forested ecosystems, has caused the crisis we’re in. Increasing domestic production of gasoline is not a fix for climate change.
Neither is her next declaration, that she and Biden opened up factories around the world. That was followed by a statement that she’s helping promote American manufacturing and creating American jobs.
She’s watching the clock tick downward as she speaks, no doubt, and her minute is flying by. She trying to think of everything she needs to say. So she talks about her support of American automobiles. If she had said “all-electric” automobiles I would feel less pain about this.
Bernie
Many years ago, when I lived in Vermont, I stood up at one of Bernie Sanders’s community meetings and railed about the climate crisis. His stand then was similar to Harris’s now, that maybe we have a problem with our atmosphere but what about jobs? What about people’s lives?
As the years passed I watched Bernie quickly pivot to understand fully the climate crisis. He changed his mind, changed his tune, changed his rhetoric.
One More Thing
“The young people of America care deeply about this issue,” Harris said last night.
By no metrics can I count myself as a young person of America. And I care very deeply about this issue. I’ve been caring about it since I first heard of it, years ago, when I read Bill McKibben’s book The End of Nature. I’ve cared about it enough to get arrested more than once, to organize and attend dozens of rallies, to write letters, to plant trees, to drive a hybrid car for the past two decades, to become more sustainable in every facet of my life.
What I Want to Say to Harris
We can no longer afford to talk about manufacturing jobs and American automobiles. All of us are sitting on the ticking time-bombs of the global climate catastrophe. This is not an issue of the youth. It is beyond time to take climate change seriously—with deadly seriousness—and start enacting real-time and speedy solutions. We need more public transportation. We need to end clearcutting. We need to replant thousands of acres of trees. We need to stop flying around so much. We need more public spaces. We need more livable communities. We need to support America’s small and local farmers.
And so much more.
Also I want to say, I’m with you. I’ll help you get us where we need to be.
Transcription
Here is a transcription of the debate if you wish to read it.
Let Metaphor: A Workshop for Writers
It was from George Lakoff that I first learned the power and potency of metaphors, no matter the scale. I use them, I think about them, I solicit them for my work, but until now, I’ve never really taught metaphors.
They arrive two ways.
You as writer have to labor to find a good and fitting one.
Or the perfect one comes to you. It just shows up.
I do both—I work and I watch and wait.
I’ll be teaching a powerful and potent workshop on being a metaphor maker and a metaphor magnet with lots of exercises and handouts. It’s Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024 starting at 10 a.m. It goes for 2 hours 22 minutes and costs $22. That’s a random number I chose because 2 is my favorite number of all time.
I’m doing this for you. For all of us.
Here’s the Eventbrite link for Let Metaphor: A Workshop for Writers. Join me to harness the strange and miraculous power of metaphors.
What I’m Reading & Listening To
My friend Joe Wilkins’s new novel The Entire Sky
Dr. Gabor Maté’s life work on trauma, The Myth of Normal
I’m finding gems in Jay Shetty’s podcast “On Purpose”
Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama, and I’m enjoying the poems he chose to highlight (Thanks to Mendy Knott for sending the book to me.)
Farm Report
Our delivery person, Doak Morrison, brought 60 rounds of hay yesterday, purchased from Curtis Durden of Oak Park, Georgia. We’ve been working with these two for years. Doak was one of the men who, in their 30s and hale, almost died from covid. He ratcheted himself back from a respirator, a coma, and paralysis. I always like to see him and get a report on how he’s doing. These years later, he still can’t get enough breath when he’s exercising strenuously, and his doctor reports that his lungs are scarred. The covid damage was permanent, although of course he’s happy to walk again and breathe again and work again. The hay cost $3900 and will get us through the winter feeding the grazers, meaning the cows, horses, and mule. Hay delivery is always a happy time on the farm.
Our temporary farmhand Joshua has been here a month. He’s doing morning and evening chores, so I’m not having to lug the baby out to feed the horses at dusk. Of course I miss those loveliest of moments, with the sun setting and bats flying about, but doing feed-up with one hand wasn’t easy.
The weather has shifted and we’ve definitely turned toward fall. Goldenrod is blooming. (Did you see this goldenrod cornbread?) Wild helenium is still vibrant in the fields—it blooms for over a month—and I’m already anticipating the sadness when it’s over and done. I did a little photo shoot with Little Fawn in the helenium. Look at that moth-print onesie that she’s wearing.
How to Easily Regulate Your Nervous System
With way too much interrupted sleep and ear-piercing baby cries, and not enough time for getting work done, much less for self-care, I’ve had to think about quick ways to regulate an overworked nervous system. Mostly I’m talking about mine, but also about the baby’s.
These don’t work for me when the angst is major, but for day-to-day overwork and sleep deprivation and worries, this keeps me steady as she goes.
A bath. Little Fawn loves warm water. I get into the bath with her, and she’s calmed and soothed right away.
A walk outdoors. I can put her into the baby sling, strapped to my chest, and she sleeps for a long walk, although sometimes she wakes and stares at the trees spreading their limbs against a blue sky.
For me, sunning and grounding. This is working miracles. While Raven keeps Little Fawn, I sneak out to the edge of the pasture to lie in the sun. After 30 minutes I am unbelievably calm. I wish I’d known the power of this. It’s why we go to the beach, yes. But this is different. This is available to anyone with a spot of land. Take as many clothes off as possible and get as close to bare earth as possible. Highly recommended.
Yoga. I do it every day. I wish I’d started this habit years ago, just 15 minutes a day. I roll out my mat, set a timer, put on a playlist, and jump right in. I don’t follow a video. I have developed a routine. Usually when the timer trills, I shut it off and keep going. At the end I do a very few minutes of savasana, final resting pose, then I meditate for a few breaths, then repeat my mantras. I am a different person after even 15 minutes.
Journaling. Yep. This kind of writing is the crap that will never amount to anything, but it’s a place to process. I can think straight afterward.
A glass of wine. Some evenings I really really need it.
Will You Buy Craft & Current Directly From Me?
Do you have a copy yet of my new writing manual, Craft & Current: A Manual for Magical Writing? I hope you want a copy for your personal library, and I hope you buy it directly from me. The paperback and case-laminate hardback both go live on Amazon on Sept. 21, 2024. For now, my website is the only place you can get this book, and when you buy it directly from me it comes signed and dated, with the place—Altamaha, Ga. I am shipping orders daily right now.
Consider purchasing the Companion Workbook as well. It’s a spiral-bound book with space for you to write prompts and do the writing exercises from the book.
However. If you intend to buy multiple copies of the paperback, please wait. I’ll be offering a bundle soon—3 or 5 books to share with others you know will love it—and these will be available at a significant discount.
Call for Submissions for Anthology—Stories of DNA Tests That Changed Everything & Submit an Essay to the Contest to Win $1,000
The availability of inexpensive DNA testing has meant jaw-dropping surprises and serious reckonings within families.
Many writers with whom I’ve worked have written these stories, and I’ve heard dozens of them at our local Archives.
Now I’m editing an anthology of creative nonfiction stories about how a DNA test permanently changed your idea of the past. If this has happened to you, please send me an essay about it. The essay should be 5-20 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman.
If your essay is accepted, you will receive 3 author copies, a small honorarium, plus half the profit of all copies you sell (by affiliate links).
In addition, I’m running an essay contest as part of the project. First place cash prize is $1,000 and will be given to a well-written and engaging essay deemed worthy of and appropriate for publishing in an anthology. If no essay meets these guidelines, no prizes will be given. There are 2nd & 3rd-place cash prizes as well. If not enough essays are submitted to fill an anthology, no prize will be given.
Deadline is Nov. 1. Please submit to Janisse at wildfire1491@yahoo.com.
I have a favor to ask you—Please forward this call for submissions to anyone, writer or not, who has a DNA story to tell. Thank you.
Feel free to ask any question in the Comments section in case someone else has the same question.
My Calendar
Sept. 20-22—Slow Exposures: Celebrating Photography of the Rural South—Pike County, Georgia. I’ll be there this year doing a writing workshop and keynote.
Sept. 20-22—Ideas Festival Emory—Oxford, Georgia. I’ll be on stage with celebrity chef and author Virginia Willis on Sunday, the first day of autumn.
Sept. 27-28—Storyfest 2024—Columbia, South Carolina. I’ll teach a Magical Craft Masterclass on Friday 27th. I highly recommend this writing conference.
Seeking Winter Speaking Engagements Within 4 Hours of Beloit, Wisconsin
I’m proud to be the Mackey Chair at Beloit College in early winter, from Jan. 20-March 10, 2025. During that time I would be honored to do readings or workshops in the region. For example, Cyn Kitchen has set one up at Knox College in Galesburg for Feb. 21.
If you are in a 4-hour radius of Beloit, Wisconsin and you’d like to recommend a venue or invite me to read in your series or even at a house party, hit me up. There’s a big chance I’ll do it!
Thank You
Thank you for being here and for pouring a lot of sweetness into my life at a time when I truly need it. Thank you for caring about the world, especially this beloved old earth of ours. Thank you for hugging the precious trees. Carry on the good work and stay in touch.
Yes, dear Kamala, somewhat disappointing in the climate arena yet thrilling elsewhere. When have I ever heard a presidential candidate talk about incest and childhood sexual abuse and trauma? Or speak with such heart about how women have been effected by these insane abortion laws? Not ever, until now. And it feels so great to be heard, as a woman. I love her! PS I have a DNA essay brewing...
You covered a lot of ground in a short amount of space. I put several posts on my Facebook account yesterday, trying to create a certain atmosphere before the debate. Now I am tired, but I am glad you raised the questions of environment, climate, and energy. Even the mention of the border is welcome.
I believe that US foreign policy created the border crisis by propping up despots and petty dictators in the third world. Many of these leaders care nothing about their people. If any of us lived there, we would want to leave too. The crisis is made worse by climate and water supply issues, and many of these wanderers are climate refugees and water refugees.
Energy policy is a key issue for our future, but any real change will require a sustained effort. I once wrote a poem that ends with the line, "There will never be enough until we say, enough."
Given our society's demand for more of everything with each passing year, I believe we will continue to exploit fossil and nuclear power to the maximum of its potential while also developing other technologies to their maximum. This is why some energy companies are developing solar and wind while bad-mouthing those technologies to the public. There will never be enough until we say enough!
I am disappointed that neither party in the debate addressed land as an issue. Since the days of Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, the first to say, "Get big or get out," agribusiness and the agriculture department have been putting family farms and farming families off the land. Thanks to John Cougar Mellencamp for addressing this in his song, "Rain of the Scarecrow." Now we are hearing about a potential food crisis. Thanks to Wendell Berry for addressing it in his essays.
I grew up on an acre plot with a garden and a small orchard. I believe this country is better off when people grow as much of their own food as possible.
Despite all this, I remain hopeful. I believe that a transformation of our culture is possible.