Writing My Way Out

As part of the resistance, the machinery of a Republican government will be clanking in the background no matter what else I am doing, even as it needs improvement, maintenance, and breaks down intentionally. I am doing my part and want to do more. I also have to move the rest of my life forward.

It is important to write my way out of 2025 and this post outlines how I intend to do it. One word at a time, one post after another, emails again and again until a flood is unleashed. I worked all my life to do this, so there is no stopping now. The carpentry of my life dovetails with the rest of society even less since Jan. 20. This post is about writing in this new, broader context.

A cleanser from my journals:

Here in my basement I continue to make preparations, to write what I believe will provide the basis for change in the point of view of American life. The change from “the other” to the recognition that we are all part of the whole, of the one, that there is no other, just the one. (Personal Journal, Iowa City, Iowa, May 26, 1983).

I am 31 days into a streak of daily blog post writing. I expect that to continue, but it is not compulsive (I hope). I make a post to get daily words flowing in an organized manner. Correcting and revising each post, then hitting the schedule button is its own closed sphere of narrative. Some are better than others, and that is to be expected. The hour or two spent posting is like turning on the lights in my shop. I can immediately see better.

Equally important are the emails I write. Email is a dying art form, with text, Discord, Reddit, social media, and other venues taking more of our time and writing energy. In emails I work through things on a variety of topics. Each has a recipient potentially giving feedback. I spend a lot of time on a single email because it has import not only in answering someone’s inquiry, but represents an attempt to make more generally cogent and applicable statements. The group of people with whom I engage in the email is diminishing.

Finally there is the book. Doing the math, I need to write about a chapter a week, leaving time at the end of the year to pull everything together. That would present me with a draft for final editing and potentially publishing in 2026. The key at this point is when I get in a groove to keep writing until I have written it out. Hopefully such grooves will present themselves frequently. I drafted the first six chapters, so I’m about where I need to be today.

Recently two cable guys were at the house to fix a problem with the internet service. They wanted to see where my computer was, so we crammed into my book-lined space and stood there chatting. Not many people besides family enter here. It is my hideaway from the ubiquitous politicization of our lives and poor governance by Republicans. It is my safe space until I write my way out.