Absolutely! Going to re-read! You have shared some of these strategies before. And thank you for the moving onwards since then. We are protesting weekly and defiantly! We love the United States 🇺🇸. Thank you again for strategies to stay safe and defiant. 💙🇺🇸🙏 FIGHT!
Absolutely love hearing that, Vicky! You’re living proof that resolve still beats resignation. Re-reading, protesting, standing tall...those are exactly the muscles we have to keep flexing if we want this country to stay free.
Every week you show up...you remind the rest of us that courage is contagious. Keep fighting smart...stay safe...and never forget: defiance is patriotism in motion.
This is gold to study and internalize, Jack. It makes such good sense, and I must study it regularly until it all could come naturally. Thank you immensely, yet I hope we never need it for good reasons. You are a gem!
Jack, you have made my YEAR here in Europe. I agree with everything you say. I do most of what you recommend which is why I feel - always - spectacularly free. I like myself a lot. But that took years of living, experience and also recent EMDR therapy which, by the way, is extraordinary in its effect. Now I no longer fear the death of my beloved husband, which was a terrible fear which panicked me every time he left the house. Now, thanks to EMDR, I know that if the unthinkable happens and he dies before me, I will grieve deeply but I will be safe, I will be okay.
I am printing out your essay anyway because it's a mighty fine one and indeed, a blueprint for survival in the direst of circumstances.
I have already published - twice because it is so well-liked - a poem by Stephen Spender, "The Truly Great" which I have said for many years I would recite to myself if ever I was imprisoned or tortured or some other terrible event befell me. Please read it. Or better yet, read it and like it and restack on my substack!
Finally, your words remind me of those of the late, great Primo Levi. He chose his response to his captors in a Nazi concentration camp. He chose to be civil and polite to the guards, to the capos, to every last person he encountered, because that was his character, and he wasn't going to change it for anybody.
Thank you again, Jack, for this exceptional essay. Now to restack it.
I read every word. I appreciate your strategies and help. Your writing sinks in. Every day I write about gratitude, what I’m thankful for. There’s a Journal app I use and can do it anytime throughout the day. Your reminder about how Holocaust survivors lived is powerful and I remember reading Corrie Ten Boom. Living in the moment just for today helps make this dark time more beatable. Good times never last and bad times never last. When I grow weary and feel despair I cry and move on. Remember when you knew this all was going to happen? You did your best to prepare us. People around me thought I was simply living in fear of fascism. Well…where we are now is real. We are not crazy yet some people are just living in another world. Thank you for outlining these steps. I do Bridge Brigades once a week, write postcards to voters, protest and stay involved in local/state Democrat groups. I see where so many more are rising up each day.
Absolutely! Going to re-read! You have shared some of these strategies before. And thank you for the moving onwards since then. We are protesting weekly and defiantly! We love the United States 🇺🇸. Thank you again for strategies to stay safe and defiant. 💙🇺🇸🙏 FIGHT!
Absolutely love hearing that, Vicky! You’re living proof that resolve still beats resignation. Re-reading, protesting, standing tall...those are exactly the muscles we have to keep flexing if we want this country to stay free.
Every week you show up...you remind the rest of us that courage is contagious. Keep fighting smart...stay safe...and never forget: defiance is patriotism in motion.
-Jack
We are going to the freeway overpass this week! Thank you, again Jack.
This is gold to study and internalize, Jack. It makes such good sense, and I must study it regularly until it all could come naturally. Thank you immensely, yet I hope we never need it for good reasons. You are a gem!
Jack, you have made my YEAR here in Europe. I agree with everything you say. I do most of what you recommend which is why I feel - always - spectacularly free. I like myself a lot. But that took years of living, experience and also recent EMDR therapy which, by the way, is extraordinary in its effect. Now I no longer fear the death of my beloved husband, which was a terrible fear which panicked me every time he left the house. Now, thanks to EMDR, I know that if the unthinkable happens and he dies before me, I will grieve deeply but I will be safe, I will be okay.
I am printing out your essay anyway because it's a mighty fine one and indeed, a blueprint for survival in the direst of circumstances.
I have already published - twice because it is so well-liked - a poem by Stephen Spender, "The Truly Great" which I have said for many years I would recite to myself if ever I was imprisoned or tortured or some other terrible event befell me. Please read it. Or better yet, read it and like it and restack on my substack!
Finally, your words remind me of those of the late, great Primo Levi. He chose his response to his captors in a Nazi concentration camp. He chose to be civil and polite to the guards, to the capos, to every last person he encountered, because that was his character, and he wasn't going to change it for anybody.
Thank you again, Jack, for this exceptional essay. Now to restack it.
Regards,
Sarah
Going to print, copy and distribute. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and cheering us on.
I read every word. I appreciate your strategies and help. Your writing sinks in. Every day I write about gratitude, what I’m thankful for. There’s a Journal app I use and can do it anytime throughout the day. Your reminder about how Holocaust survivors lived is powerful and I remember reading Corrie Ten Boom. Living in the moment just for today helps make this dark time more beatable. Good times never last and bad times never last. When I grow weary and feel despair I cry and move on. Remember when you knew this all was going to happen? You did your best to prepare us. People around me thought I was simply living in fear of fascism. Well…where we are now is real. We are not crazy yet some people are just living in another world. Thank you for outlining these steps. I do Bridge Brigades once a week, write postcards to voters, protest and stay involved in local/state Democrat groups. I see where so many more are rising up each day.
I needed this tonight. Thanks, Jack!
Thanks Jack 😊
The photo says it all. Thank you and hope one day to share a coffee when we get through this challenge.