I had a wonderful dream last night that Kamala Harris was a sea queen and I was visiting her castle. It was down in the depths. She was sovereign and everything was deep purple and pale aqua and brilliant gold and there were beautiful creatures that served her: starfish and crabs and corals and dolphins and rays. I was there with activists, we had come as a group from some kind of political training to try to pressure her into being more… something. But once we were in her castle we knew that we could trust her because her magic came from the depths of the ocean itself.
This dream feels true to me. I am so used to the feeling of wanting our leaders to be more… something. And also, it feels true to me because I know that there is magic at work now, that we are doing a deeper magic than we have ever done before in this moment and in this election. I know this in spite of the fact that I have not been outside connecting with the magic of the wild for days, avoiding the terrible smoky haze of the West coast fires. Maybe I know it because of this fact.
Also, yesterday I saw a picture of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris looking at each other and there was so much love and trust for one another in their faces that it pierced my heart. I looked at that and I hoped that we could heal as a country.
The day before yesterday I spent my afternoon calling voters in Wisconsin, because I will not feel on November 4th the way I felt the day after the election in 2016: A) so fucking hungover from the whole bottle of chardonnay that slipped down my throat as the results came in and the bottom fell out of reality and B) filled with a desperate wondering why I didn’t do more.
This isn’t 2016. I know it needn’t be said and yet, in addition to all the disasters that make the world different, the size of what I hope for now is different too. This hope is ocean-sized. I imagine the city that I live in with gardens where there are now streets, growing food where we once grew climate disaster. I imagine a country where we have actually looked slavery in the eye and made reparation, where we have been so successful at dismantling racism that those gardens and paths are filled with children of color in every neighborhood, who are safe and happy and whole and do not fear to be seen by police. And, I imagine that in the evening, the songs of tree frogs ring across the city, because that will mean that we have made repair with the earth, of which we are part, and because frogs bring me joy, which fuels hope.
I did not hope for this back in 2016, or even 2017 or 18 or 19. I can hope for it now – partly because of the power of last night’s dream, partly because of what I see in Harris and Biden, partly because of the disasters that are unmaking so many things that once seemed permanent and partly because I am a witch and hope is magic. And I’m not trying to be simplistic. I don’t think that a loving connection between an old white man and the first Black and Asian-American woman in the White House could be enough. It won’t be enough. But it could be the beginning. It could be a portal to the world that I want with all my heart.
Speaking of portals: the day before yesterday I also heard an interview with the Reverend Greg Lewis, who told the story of fighting for his life while he was sick with Covid and still continuing to call Milwaukee voters from his hospital bed for his project Souls to the Polls, which is about creating real, local, community-based power for Black communities in Milwaukee. “It’s not just about this election,” he said. “We can’t live this way anymore.”
And yet, it also is about this election to him. He is working to create a real block of power so that the community has to be answered to and when you listen to him, you can hear the power in his voice. He is being featured on Pod Save America partly because Wisconsin may be the state that decides this election. We lost Wisconsin in 2016 by less than one percent. We won it by less than 1 percent in 2018 when Democrats kicked Republican super-villain Scott Walker out of the governor’s mansion. And Milwaukee is where the difference gets made.
The host asks Reverend Lewis the question that beats like a drum in the heart of so many of my friends, especially in blue places like Seattle. The host asks Reverend Lewis “What do you need? What can we do?”
And Lewis answers ““We need to light up Milwaukee right now! There’s people still running around here not knowing there is a vote November 3rd, let alone that there is already voting. We need money- we need to be on TV, we need to be on radio, we need to be on print. I don’t want to wait for the Democratic party to help my community, I want to help myself- get people engaged and energized and know that the key to change their community is in their hands right now. Listen, Milwaukee is key. If we come out to vote, we will change the nation and the world.”
Today is the new moon. New moon in Virgo, in fact. Virgo – born at harvest time, when our ancestors decided how many seeds to eat this winter, and how many to save for planting in the spring. Virgo, who sees the long game and sees also the tiny details that get us there. I was born under the sign of Virgo and today I am filled with hope that spring will come. I am filled with the giant vision, even as I sense the despair that is hope’s shadow. I pick up the seeds. I take action- because I know that action is the antidote to despair, is hope’s ally. I go to the website for Souls to the Polls and I donate more than is comfortable for me, knowing it is still less than they need. And I write this down and send it to you and I say to you. Take action. It is hope’s ally. It is the antidote of despair. And it is the New Moon. Open the portal.
Here’s the website to donate to Souls to the Polls. (Take action now, even a small action. Donate $5, donate $50. There is magic and power in action.)
And here’s the link to listen to the interview with Reverend Greg Lewis on Pod Save America. (It’s the “50 Days to Joe” episode.) The interview starts at minute 56:07.