大象传媒

I loved this  on the outerwear brand Outside Voices from last year. Reading it again now, this paragraph feels so different given the current sitch: 

I took my place amid a sea of young people wearing Doing Things hats in blue and burnt orange. Haney gave a minute-long pep talk鈥斺�淥ur mission is to get the world moving!鈥濃�攁nd waded into the crowd. The ludicrously energetic instructor turned on a booming reggaeton mix and launched into a 2-a.m.-at-the-club dance routine so saucy and contagious that everyone around me screamed. It was a hot, thick, strange day, and soon everyone was booty-popping, body-rolling, unhinged by glee. I took videos so that I could show my friends what I was doing. I felt amazing鈥攑orous and overcome. Afterward, I talked to a student named Jesse, whom I鈥檇 spotted in the crowd. He wore a U.T. polo, rolled-up khakis, shower slides, and tube socks. He鈥檇 just been walking by, and had joined in; he鈥檇 never heard of Outdoor Voices or Zumba. He was buzzing. 鈥淭hat was so, so great,鈥� he said, dazed.

It speaks to the physical joy that no amount of Zoom dance parties can capture. Happening upon something wild and gleeful that perfectly satisfies some desire you didn鈥檛 even know you had. Of course, I鈥檓 a sucker for outdoor collective dance parties on 鈥榟ot, thick strange days.鈥�

The piece made me go check out the workout wear company itself, but I could find no correlation between the strangely bland overpriced leggings and the rather beautiful Outdoor Voices motto: Doing Things. And yet I always think about this phrase, #doingthings. Is it the time to be thinking or the time to be doing? Does doing require movement? Is a disco protest more #doingthings than a letter-writing campaign?

VIBE OR PRESCRIBE?

A reader, Cath, wrote to me a few weeks ago suggesting I could make the newsletter a bit more prescriptive (thank you, Cath!). That had been my original intention, but with disparate interests and geographies and resources and styles, I鈥檝e slowly pivoted that initial idea into customizable prompts鈥攈opeful thought starters that can be adapted to the particulars of your world and worldview. But I get that sometimes people want a simple thing to #do. I myself often want these things, too. (Just tell me what to do, world! Do I stop flying? Do I stand in front of my MPs office with my hair on fire? Do I watch Love Is Blind?)

In my work, I鈥檝e often used engagement tools to help clients generate thousands of petition signatures or letters sent to politicians. It鈥檚 not so much that I don鈥檛 believe in the effectiveness of these tools, but that they don鈥檛 feel like #doingthings. They feel like autopilot. Most people don鈥檛 read the letters they send, or the petitions they click. So while the sheer mass of them may be effective on occasion, the jury is out on how much they move people up the ladder, thereby stymieing real mobilization. I worry, too, that recipients of these mass-produced campaigns don鈥檛 grant them the same legitimacy as individual change-making efforts, or they experience digital onslaught fatigue. Sure, constituency assistants dutifully catalogue numbers of emails received, but I suspect they consider these digital efforts a less-worthy means of doing. Politicians don鈥檛 capitulate to a few thousand letters the way they do to a few dozen angry citizens and a TV camera. In Ontario, our government generally just ignores anything that doesn鈥檛 immediately make them look horrible.

But is attending a rally or occupying a physical space doing more? I think I鈥檝e always had a bias toward the physical. It takes longer and feels scarier, therefore it must mean more. Every nonprofit鈥檚 Ladder of Engagement agrees. We move people from clicktivism to…mobilizing. It鈥檚 harder for me to get to events at prescribed times, so, rightly or wrongly, I ascribe a higher value to the idea of showing up. Even as I know it鈥檚 increasingly impossible for so many people to find the time or resources to show up. Of course, we literally can鈥檛 show up right now. So #doingthings must now answer how to make our voice heard while we shelter in place. I know, I鈥檓 running in circles in my living room.

I don鈥檛 have an answer, but I do think being shuttered is going to force us to find new ways to do action, new paths to move projects and goals and ideas forward. It鈥檚 one of the few things I鈥檓 optimistic about. That, and my next loaf of bread (I never learn).

PIVOT TO ACTION 

7 oil and gas CEOS reportedly have an in-person meeting at the White House on Friday.

Remember that when you're considering whether to engage in climate activism right now. You might be scared to use COVID to push an agenda. But the fossil fuel industry isn't.

— Emily Atkin (@emorwee)

In the run of two newsletter editions (an eternity on the COVID clock), I鈥檝e gone from feeling like we needed to be sensitive to the current situation and not advance an environmental agenda while people get sick to…! (Even staid Obama has jumped into the fray to say 鈥�.鈥�)

I don鈥檛 want climate work to be silenced because we can鈥檛 leave the house, which is . So let鈥檚 DO THINGS. Let鈥檚 write things, let鈥檚 share things, let鈥檚 yell things from our porches, be they digital or clapboard. 

How are you taking action from home? I would really, really love to know. As well, if you have a digital effort that could use a bump, please send it to me, and I will start a handy new section to share these. I鈥檝e started this week with a few of my own. ???

THIS WEEK: BUMP THIS

Why are construction sites deemed essential but community gardens being shut down here in Ontario? .

 from Environmental Defense Canada.

We can still climate strike (). Tomorrow!!

LAST WEEK: WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE QUIET鈥�

So many beautiful ones.

Danae
I am working my way down through the (too big) chest freezer down in the basement, meal by meal, and can almost see the bottom in some places鈥�

Petrina
I walk my dog nearby In a re-treed tree farm, I put her many sticks (former tree branches) in the X branches of a tree along the middle trail.  So far we have 2 layers of sticks in one tree to select, 5 sticks on one layer, 4 on the other. I like ones that are smooth, just enough wt., not too terribly long or it鈥檒l hit the ground and mess up my aim, and jar my wrists.  Sticks that bounce like a kong ball, every which way, thrill me. The sticks in the tree remind me of a place pool cues live鈥�but in trees! I think the bouncing (kinda like throwing rocks in a lake鈥攕kipping 鈥榚m) thrills me more than my lab Tess!

Jenny
I’m essentially solitary in a retirement community.  I’ve been reading my old journals to try to get in touch with my much younger self.  It’s been a fascinating dialogue.

鈥�

For some reason my kids started watching Alf this week.

Hope you are safe and healthy. 
Thank you for reading,
Sarah

P.S. I鈥檓 always curious to know what you think. This is my newsletter for the week of April 2, 2020, published in partnership with 大象传媒 Media You can sign up to get Minimum Viable Planet newsletter emailed directly to you at .