Havdalah #32: Nikommo Artist Market, Mutual Aid, & Borrowed Trouble

Shavua tov, neighbors.

I hope that everyone has been processing their grief as well as can be reasonably expected. Something I like to remind myself is that moments like these are experienced communally, and therefore, processing is best done in the same manner. We can rage together, despair together, rally together. We are none of us alone.

In this spirit, we bring you our usual aggregation of community events, and Katherine shares her meditations on fear and the obligation to feel it responsibly.

Remember: you’re not the only one who must carry these troubles. If nothing else, there are others reading these words who are your neighbors too.

Bella ciao.

James

Office Hours with The Womxn Project Team

• When: Every Tuesday starting November 26, 3:00pm-5:00pm

• Where: Zoom

• Need a little support or just want to know what’s going on? The Womxn Project team will be on a live Zoom to answer your questions or point you in the direction of where to turn.

• TWP Office Hours Zoom

Nikommo Artist Market

• When: Saturday, December 7, 12:00pm-4:00pm

• Where: Kettle Pond Visitor Center, 50 Bend Road, Charlestown, RI 02813

• The Tomaquag Team warmly invites you to join us in celebrating Nikommo, a cherished Narragansett tradition that embodies the spirit of giving back. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to immerse yourself in Native arts and experience the magic of captivating storytelling.

Continuing Actions for Palestine

Jewish Voice for Peace Weekly Flyering

• When: Every Wednesday, 5:00pm-6:00pm

• Where: Providence Train Station, 100 Gaspee Street, Providence, RI 02903

• JVP RI invites all to join them in their efforts to spread the word about their work and simple actions people can take to demand an end to the genocide in Palestine. They meet on the Statehouse side of the train station.

Weekly Kaddish

• When: Every Sunday, 1:00pm-1:30pm

• Where: Michael Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge, Providence, RI 02903

• Jewish Voice for Peace RI and allies will be hosting a weekly gathering on Sundays to recite the Mourners Kaddish and communally grieve the Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military. You need not be Jewish to attend; all are welcome to participate.

Power Half-Hours for Gaza

• When: every day, Monday through Friday, 3:00pm EST

• Where: online

• Jewish Voice for Peace is holding Power Half-Hours for Gaza every day — join us as we channel our fury and sorrow into collective action to stop genocide.

• Power Half-Hours for Gaza Registration

Ceasefire Today Toolkit

• This toolkit has a variety of links, including call scripts, groups accepting donations, phone banks, petitions, and more

• Ceasefire Today Toolkit

News Coverage

• As always, especially when getting news from social media, be aware of who is sharing information and why they’re doing it.

• Al Jazeera Coverage of the War on Gaza has continued to be a reliable source

• Mondoweiss has also provided excellent context and deep dive pieces.

Tomaquag Museum Lunch and Learn: Breaking the Thanksgiving Myth

• When: Monday, November 25, 12:00pm-1:00pm

• Where: Online

• Join the Tomaquag Museum for a free virtual presentation on Indigenous history and culture. Grab your lunch and take a break with them!

• The long held conventions we associate with Thanksgiving are beloved traditions, particularly in New England, but with them comes an adherence to erroneous, antiquated, and even offensive beliefs about the origins of this holiday. In this presentation, the Tomaquag Museum explores how you can still enjoy your turkey while being historically accurate and culturally sensitive.

Remi’s Fight Against Stage III Cancer

Remi has recently been diagnosed with stage III cancer, and though they underwent surgery, they are still experiencing complications and are unable to work. This fund will go toward medical expenses and covering the gaps while they’re in treatment. Remi is an organizer and street medic who has contributed a lot of their time and efforts to local community defense and mutual aid networks. Let’s show up for them now.

There’s a saying that keeps running through my head, in inexplicable KJV syntax:

Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof.

AKA: don’t borrow trouble.

It feels like there’s a large chunk of people I speak to who are forcibly shoving down terror; are twenty minutes of small talk away from a compulsive litany of what horrible things are going to happen; are fatalistic to the point of paralytic inaction. And if you’re one of them, I can’t tell you that reaction is unwarranted; I can’t tell you you’re wrong. If you want to doomscroll, I can’t stop you, of course. All things are permissible, though not all things are beneficial. If you want to game out catastrophic scenarios for every tweet Trump’s ever said, bounce from thinkpieces to doomer predictions, that’s your choice. All things are lawful, though not all things build up.

You can do all of those things, but are they helping?

Fear and anxiety are there to tell us there’s a threat, real or imagined, that requires a response; they exist for a reason, and that’s it. But the threats they expect are lions in the bushes, or a man with a spear. They aren’t calibrated for climate change, or stressful workplaces, or a long term pandemic, or looming authoritarianism; given those inputs and unchecked range, they’re an alarm in us that never turns off: they burn in us like a wildfire, consuming all our fuel until, when we’re called upon for actual action, months or years later, all that’s left is ashes. 

Fear is a tool; utilize it, or put it aside, but don’t indulge it. It was made for our use, for our benefit; don’t let it rule you (if you can).

There’s benefit in being informed, in knowing what’s actually happening and what possible consequences are, so that they can be prepared for, so that they don’t blindside us. But endless thinkpieces, talking heads, people on twitter saying Trump is going to kill us all isn’t helpful. Maybe he is; maybe he isn’t — and if he is, how would this help you? Are you terrified about his stance on abortion? Get off twitter and get connected to an abortion network. Worried about his economic policies (such as they are)? Find a mutual aid group — or start one! Realizing that you don’t really have a good grasp on the constitutional problems he’ll cause? Find some good sources, from actual lawyers, judges, experts — ideally, more than one — and sit down and digest them carefully, properly, with sustained attention; accept that the problems, and the solutions are difficult and will be complicated. And don’t get your information from TikTok. 

And when you cannot do anything else, because you’re exhausted, because the food pantry has closed for the evening, because one more second of thinking about this is spiraling you into a panic attack — put it aside. Put down the phone and stretch out your back. Take a walk. Hang out with a friend. Watch some trash TV. Make some bread. Take a moment, take an hour, take a day. Breathe. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’ve been running for eight years. If we run flat out for the next four, we’ll burn out.

Do what you can, and rest; don’t compare yourself to that person on Twitter who constantly posts about their protests; don’t judge your cousin who you’re sure could be doing more but says they’re exhausted. Work with others; work in groups: many hands make light work. We don’t all have to reinvent the wheel: if something’s giving you anxiety, chances are there’s already a group working on it and they’d love the additional help.

Acknowledge your fear, use it, and put it aside.

No amount of worrying, so matter how sincere or overwhelming, fixes something or does anything or adds a single hour to our lives; only the action to which it spurs us.

Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof.

Don’t borrow trouble.

Mind how you go.

Needle Drop: “This Year”, Shearwater

Oops! All Pod Recs! It Could Happen Here, Knowledge Fight, & Movement Memos

Life For Trans People Under Trump (It Could Happen Here, November 11, 2024)

What Happens to Gaza Under Trump (It Could Happen Here, November 12, 2024)

How Trump’s Tariffs Will Impact You (It Could Happen Here, November 13, 2024)

Trump’s Foreign Policy (It Could Happen Here, November 14, 2024)

Why Did Non-White People Vote For Trump? (It Could Happen Here, November 15, 2024)

#981: November 14, 2024 (Knowledge Fight, November 15, 2024)

Trump’s Cabinet of Curiosities (It Could Happen Here, November 18, 2024)

Anatomy of the Great Replacement (It Could Happen Here, November 19, 2024)

The Death of Public Health Under RFK Jr. (It Could Happen Here, November 20, 2024)

We Must Contest the Christian Right’s Agenda in Every Venue of Our Lives (Movement Memos, November 21, 2024)

Bonus: Kelly Hayes

Collective Survival, Adaptation, and Direct Action (Kelly Hayes in Organizing My Thoughts, November 14, 2024)