Learning from Anne Frank

Like countless millions in America, I woke up this morning with dread and horror in bed with me.

What now?

While outside my window the peaceful hayfield looks the same, my world has cracked and shifted on its axis.

I start marching out the what ifs:

What do I do when all my gay friends and relations have to flee the country?

How fast can I encourage them to emigrate?

What if the blue states are overrun with Christofascist militias because the theocratic government can no longer tolerate states’ rights that are not in line with Christofascist theology?

What if the people in my area who are on the side of the Christofascist gun fetishists decide that they can come shoot me with impunity because God told them to?

What if the Christofascists ban psychics as witches and poisoners? After all, that’s what a mistranslated Bible has said for centuries.

What if everything I’ve ever written against what is coming gets me imprisoned? Tortured? Killed?

How do I fight?

I admit to doomscrolling this morning because I need to know what others are thinking, that there are others out there who think as I do. That I need to see if we have a chance.

I look at my friends’ posts on social media, amazed at how my UK and Canadian people have a normal life that is now forbidden to Americans that are not white/straight/Christian/male.

They have the luxury of not looking chaos in the face, sitting with it across the table, lying in bed at night as it whispers nightmares.

But then, I remember a play I did in high school.

In my senior year, the high school drama production was THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

Remembering the script, even though yes, their level of fear and threat was exponentially higher than mine is right now, they still found small joys. They did not curl up, figuring their fate was sealed and it was only a matter of time before the Nazis broke into their hiding place.

Even though that WAS their fate, they didn’t succumb to it early.

I need to take a note from Anne’s diary.

Yes, plan for the revolution. Plan how to fight back. While I accept it will take years, I must remember that I am not alone in this battle; there are millions and millions in the United States who recognize the horror as I do.

One of the reasons America has problems today is the energy of “don’t step on my rights; what I think is perfectly valid.”

But maybe that’s going to be the saving grace.

If America was originally born in revolution and rage against the fiat of a government that saw them as lesser beings, maybe we have to harness that energy to put a stop to what the Christofascists want to rain down on us like so many plagues of locusts.

And in the meantime, I am allowed to breathe. To eat a peaceful meal. Even to laugh, sometimes.

This fight for our freedom is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

And marathoners know they have to pace themselves to finish the race.

So today, even though we are horrified at what was done and what they gleefully promise they are planning — remember that nourishing yourself, finding your calmest center, and tasting what we are working to SAVE is just as valid as tactics and strategizing for what we must do in the months and years ahead.

You are not alone.