the joy of busy-ness
no idle hands during election season
Hi friends! I’ve got another interview up, this time at The Rumpus, with the wonderful Nikkya Hargrove. We discussed her incredible debut memoir, MAMA: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found. Make sure you check out her book, and our conversation, here.
Also: This post marks the end of this “season” of NW. I’ll be taking a little time off from here to focus on other work and writing for a bit. But fear not: I’ll be back with a new season in time for winter (or summer, if you’re down under). Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon!
Not sure if it’s on your radar just yet, but: turns out 2024 is a presidential election year.
To say that the past six months have been a political rollercoaster would be an understatement. And all of this is happening while a genocide plays out in Palestine right before our eyes, and a war rages on in Ukraine? Oof. Living through all of this has been the sort of thing that makes me whittle at my cuticles with my teeth until they look revolting. And I mean, I’m writing a few weeks in advance of when this will arrive in your inbox. Who knows what fresh hell will be in the news by then?
It’s been hard not to feel totally helpless given the polls and the sound bytes, the political takes and Project 2025. Thinking about it is anxiety-producing to say the least. Which is usually a sign that I need to find a way to stay busy or risk spiraling entirely.
Back in 2020, I was similarly anxious and had, well, a lot of free time. So I signed up to write letters with Vote Forward, a nonprofit organization that helps volunteers send handwritten letters encouraging people to vote in the upcoming election. Oftentimes these letters are focused on voters in swing and/or purple states. You get a letter-writing template you fill in for each voter, explaining why you’re voting and why voting matters to you (from a non-partisan standpoint—in other words, you can’t endorse one candidate or another).
Something about handwriting letters is extremely satisfying to me, more so than other forms of outreach. The few times I’ve tried phone/text-banking I felt entirely out of my element, and I’ve lived in a city so long that the idea of going door-to-door makes me feel like a serial killer suspect or something (I should probably examine that further but that’s a problem for Future Sarah).
So, I signed up again for Vote Forward’s 2024 “Big Send.”
Using one’s hands to counteract anxiety isn’t entirely new or novel, but it can feel revelatory in the moment. Something about engaging my body, specifically my hands and the sensation I can feel with my fingers and palms, can be grounding in the face of existential (and maybe even physical) annihilation. It’s the reason why I enjoy cooking and baking, and why plenty of people unwind by constructing LEGO bouquets or crocheting tea cozies or tinkering with ancient cars that moonlight as money pits.
That’s also why the trick to de-escalating an impending panic attack is to name five colors around you, or five things that you hear (there’s a million variations of this technique, but they all have to do with invoking your five senses). It connects you to the here and now, and gives your mind something real and tangible to focus on. In my case, the feeling of paper under my hand, a pen in my fingers, and the sweet ache of hand cramps made me feel like I was doing something.
But is this actually even useful? For the country? Or for me?
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