It can be easy to let your imagination run away with you. But when despair, fear, and anger are driving the boat, we have an opportunity to pay close attention to the messages they are sending, and be active and intentional with our imaginings.

Despair might ask us: how did the world get to this point? And the answer leads us to understand that we are living in the imaginations of those in power. As Ashley C. Ford writes, 

"The goal of oppressors is to limit your imagination about what is possible without them, so you might never imagine more for yourself and the world you live in. Imagine something better. Get curious about what it actually takes to make it happen. Then fight for it every day."

Fear might tell us that we are experiencing a lack of agency. As bell hooks reminds us, by way of Tricia Hersey's wonderful book, Rest is Resistance, 

"Imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can do and use." 

We can use that fear as a reminder that we can do something, however small. 

Anger is useful, too. It can tell us what we won't tolerate. It can be focused and applied to necessary change. When it comes to threats against our ability to be at home in our bodies - whether because of more mass shootings, the racism that led to the Tennessee Three uprising, or another attack on reproductive justice rights - anger can give us the fuel to reimagine.

Imagine what would happen if a large majority of our nation mobilized together?

What would happen if people organized to - even temporarily - withhold our time, energy, and money? 

We wonder what would happen if a large majority of us opted out together?

We imagine what would happen if we recognized and exercised our collective power? 

Imagination is both a form of work and a form of prayer. However limited you are by various factors - by what some of us can and cannot afford to do - imagination is free, and it can't be taken away from any one of us. 

To imagining a more just future for all,

Tay + Dor

photo by Sanket Jain

tidbits...

resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . 
 

What London's cholera outbreak, car accidents, tobacco, and lead paint have in common with gun violence, by Nancy Dodson.

What you can do to repeal the PLCAA and support Equal Access to Justice for victims of gun violence.

We could all use a healthy dose of Mikaela Loach, the 25-year-old climate activist: "The elite class want us to believe that the world as it is now is as good as it can be, and they want us to limit that; they want us not to be able to envision or to imagine." Mikaela guides us to an alternative future in this article, on this podcast, and in her new book It's Not That Radical. 

Dr. Ayesha Khan's long form Cosmic Anarchy newsletter consistently taps into the feelings we have deep within our soul. This one gets to the root of the connection we all need. 

Sometimes simple message and reminders can help fuel us. This one comes courtesy of Cafe Con Libros. 

The amount of money and coordinated energy going into banning books is mind boggling. This is just one example. 

View and share this free guide to How to Write a More Equitable Job Post, and stay tuned for new resources to deepen this work.

"The process of studying history and prehistory has indefinitely lacked the inclusion and approval of Indigenous people." Read the latest GFJ Story on the swordfish hunters of North Haven Island in Maine. Words by Jasmine Michel, photos by William Trevaskis.

got a tidbit? drop it here for us and we'll share it in next week's newsletter.