Got a Happy Story? One in the Number Edition

Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Friday night where we share stories large and small that have put a smile on our face.  It is a time to acknowledge the joy and wonder we experience.  The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of taking back our country. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. May we find joy and strength here.

This has not been an easy week for me on almost any front in my life.  I wish that so many things were different--familial, personal, societal etc.  But being part of a community or communities is how I keep on keeping on.  There have been times in my life when I was completely alone dealing with health issues, political issues, family issues, professional issues etc.  I don't allow that to happen any longer.  I surround myself with people who understand where I'm coming from, usually from personal experience.

I had some political disappointments this week but I know that as my sig line used to say, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, and the dream shall never die."

Progressive politics requires a total commitment.  It isn't just about voting for me, it's about how I live my life.  I got my ass kicked and my heart broken in 1980.  What helped was to move my political involvement into working to defeat an anti-choice ballot initiative.  And to volunteer with people who had AIDS.  And then to choose social work as a profession.  My belief system would not allow me to just show up and vote, it demanded that I change my life to correspond with my principles.

I have a memory from childhood that is still vivid.  My mother brought us with her when she volunteered at the Red Cross Blood Drive.  She was a nurse but wasn't working out of the home at that time because the 5 of us were still pretty young.  The Blood Drive needed volunteers to collect blood so she signed up.  It wasn't easy managing the kids while trying to get a needle into a vein.  But for her nursing wasn't a job, it was a way of life.  Nursing was about helping people in need, there was a need and therefore she couldn't turn away.

So when Reagan was elected, even though I was only 18, I knew I had to do something.  I did the things I mentioned above.  I also joined a food coop, walked or biked to school and work, protested the failure to tenure women professors, read as much as possible on foreign policy, attended Gay Pride, joined a parish dedicated to social justice, frequented the Women's Center, went on strike with a union and took classes on Radical Political Action.  In each place I found people with whom I had something in common.  Their dedication added to my own made me a better person and a better citizen.

Many things have happened since those days and all of them, good and bad, were improved by sharing them with others.  So while I'm in a similar predicament as I was in 1980, I don't despair because I know I'm not alone.

Today I spent the morning with sober women and had a very frank exchange with one woman who is also experiencing deep pain on the same personal issue.  I also spoke about something I rarely discuss in public because a woman disclosed private information and I didn't want her to feel alone.  This afternoon I went to work and spoke with a woman who had lost her husband to cancer 6 weeks ago.  I listened to the entire saga as she began to process what she'd been through.  I got home and called a friend who just had both hips replaced to see if she wanted company on Sunday.  I listened to my son talk about his day.  I did laundry and listened to my husband talk about his frustrating day at work.  I practiced the readings I'm doing at Mass tomorrow.  I cooked dinner.  I came here and reccd a bunch of comments, interacted a bit, and figured out what to write about.

None of these things will elect a president.  But they will have some small impact in the lives of people with whom I interacted.  And they had an impact on me.  Sometimes progressive politics is working for a candidate.  But always it is living our lives as though people, collectively and individually, matter and are special in their uniqueness.  I am not giving up on the possible in the Presidential race; I'm just shifting gears to make my daily life closer to that vision of what the world can be.

There are many ways to work for change.  Some of them aren't flashy and attention getting.  I always wanted that when I was younger.  Truthfully I wouldn't mind it much now.  But life is more than that.  The people I've come to admire most are those who just do what is in front of them simply because it is the next right thing.

So what is your happy story, happy memory, or happy pet picture this week?

That which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Struggling myself don't mean a whole lot, I've come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Bernice Johnson Reagon