For the past two years I find myself playing our wartime scenarios and asking, “will my family be safer where we are in America or abroad where we plan to be?”
Our travel plans were to take place around the election— now I fear travel bans may come.
Dearest Sage, thank you for your kind words, and for sharing this — I feel the weight of what you’re carrying. I too have been planning to leave, but one thing I’ve been reflecting on is how our passport ties us to the state in ways we can’t easily escape, especially under authoritarian regimes. Even if we’re abroad, we’re still subject to its decisions, restrictions, and claims on us. And when I look at the Civicus Monitor, I’m struck by how few countries remain where the democratic rights we’ve long taken for granted are still secure. https://monitor.civicus.org/
It reminds me that there’s strength in the familiar — in knowing the terrain around us, and in having a support network we can lean on. Those things matter more than we often realise, and they can make a real difference in helping us stay steady through whatever comes now.
Interesting that in the UK, people there protested by projecting film of Epstein's besty, on the exterior of Windsor Castle, during besty's time inside, there. Very much cancel cultured the red carpet stuff going on, inside. They made it a point, to show the film, concurrently.
Just for clarity Aleithia, that action was by political campaign group “Led by Donkeys”. The 4 men who carried it out were arrested. Sadly, the only real ‘cancel culture’ on Trump’s state visit seems to have been against peaceful activists.
I feel like you are our “scout” out there in the zeitgeist. Most times, your posts take the thoughts in my head spinning randomly and bring them together—into a cohesive idea, a cohesive narrative.
And a cohesive narrative is so important.
We, and by “we” I mean people who have been doing this for a while as well as readers of your Substack, have constantly had to re-adjust our thinking over the past eight months. (Is it really only that long?) I was not sanguine going into this year; however, the bigger surprise was the way the tectonic plates beneath us continued to shift in an unimaginably powerful way.
To me, this indicated it wasn’t just an autocratic thing or an oligarchical thing or just a criminal enterprise thing. This was a psychological, spiritual, and existential turning point. As for those tectonic plates: bodies in motion stay in motion.
I dearly admire those folks who can get out on the overhang of a bridge with their signs.
On the other hand, signs are symbolic and performative against the movement of tectonic plates.
I am happy to hear and 100% support where you are leaning.
Thank you John. I’m glad to say I’m back to normal now. You seeing me as a scout who helps consolidate a cohesive narrative heartens me. It's a welcome affirmation that I’m carrying out the role I’ve been given to do, as best I can.
I share your sense of how much has changed in just these few months — I feel like I'm living in a parallel world to the one I inhabited when I started writing here. It does feel like far more than simply politics or power struggles. As you say, something far deeper has been stirred. Redressing it will need a re-anchoring of spirit as much as of politics — moral clarity, steadiness of mind, the patient work of rebuilding trust in one another, the discernment to find Truth in a world that conspires to create its own. And perhaps most of all, we need to stay human in the midst of this upheaval.
It's going to be a longer haul than we might have anticipated — because as you say, once the plates are moving, they don’t simply stop — but I believe we're at a divergent boundary, and not a convergent one. I hold onto that hope.
Hah! I helped my son revise for his GCSE exams, which included Geography (in which I had no grounding). He just did not get plate techtonics, so we went through it again, and again, and again until he did. And then of course, it piqued my interest so I did some additional exploring. I know plate techtonics reasonably well now John.
That’s a sharp way of putting it F&C. I’d only add that when politics is built around hating, it leaves nothing constructive to stand on. A movement defined by what it destroys eventually hollows itself out — but unfortunately not before it can do real damage to everyone else.
That just occurred to me yesterday, following a call from one of Mom's hospice workers whose job is literally to provide non-medical care and attention to patients and family.
This woman is about as kind and caring as anyone I can imagine holding her job, with a son who makes her life difficult because of severe autism. She cried when I told her things about my childhood (after inquiring, no less), and in general expressed every quality of a caring, compassionate human being. When she told me she was a Trumper, after knowing her for weeks, I was floored.
But she has zero concern that $1trillion left healthcare to line the pockets of billionaires. And the same amount of concern when I offered evidence that the GOP has had expressed almost zero support for working Americans in the past 75 years.
All she cared about was immigrants, even legal ones, crossing the US/Mexico border, even after I explained the many billions of dollars immigrants pay into American taxes, and their many contributions. (As well, that prices will be higher in numerous industries, particularly agriculture.)
But apparently ALL of that is better than a single Mexican citizen on US soil. (And I really don't even know why, beyond indoctrination.) And she absolutely HATES how much they hate Trump on CNN, so she watches Fox instead (where people respect Democratic presidents and there's less bias, I guess.)
Then it clicked...her ability to hate total strangers is seemingly stronger than her love for her own family. I simply have no other way to explain it.
I hear you Sage. I know it's not easy to sit with that intuitive insight, but the fact that you’ve been sensing this before it became so visible speaks to how deeply perceptive you are. That's a real gift — though I know sometimes it feels too heavy to carry. But I'm certain that gift will help guide you forward. 🙏🏼🤍
Hegseths call for all top commanders to come together was my tipping point to return to your blog and stop reading more by reporters. I’m going to enroll in MBSR again.
I am curious Lori, & please forgive me for not doing my homework, are you a dual citizen of both England & the USA? You are so knowledgeable and I am wondering where you get all your information.
To be honest, most of my work usually starts from an intuitive sense rather than a clear plan.
About six weeks ago, I felt a strong pull to explore the topic of burnout. I wasn’t sure why it felt so important, so I began researching. As I went, I paid close attention to whether the insights I was finding aligned with that internal sense of direction. It took a few weeks to fully work through, but this piece is the result.
It’s not the most conventional process, I know, so I’ll be sharing more about how it came about in my weekend post.
I’m reminded of things said by the great soul Joanna Macy. We must pursue three avenues: holding actions, life-sustaining institutions, consciousness shifts. (I would add, resistance.) All are necessary. Each is not sufficient. I like how you are framing the time required. Thinking ahead (and behind) seven generations is a good start.
Absolutely! Thank you for highlighting Joanna Macy's work to me —she is such a wise and deeply grounded voice. And yes, I completely agree with your addition of resistance, especially now — it’s an essential thread that runs through all three. Your reminder of stretching our sense of time resonates. There’s something powerful (and humbling) about thinking in terms of seven generations. It invites both responsibility and imagination.
I’m curious, Leslie — how do you personally engage with these different avenues? Do you find yourself drawn more to one than the others, or do they tend to weave together in your work or life?
Fantastic. I adore manifesto writing, and this is certainly yours. Count me in and let us know when and how you see we can align our writing, our communities, our communication skills with your intentions and strategies.
Thank you Georgia, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and generous spirit. I’m glad the piece resonated. It came from a deep place, even if I didn’t set out with a strategy or formal intentions.
Right now, I’m working quietly, and simply doing what I can, when I can — “chop wood, carry water”. I don’t have a big plan or structure to plug into, and I’m not in a place to take on new collaborations. But you’re warmly welcome to share my work, if it serves you and your community.
Thank you again for your generous offer to align. I need to keep things close to the ground, but as always, I do appreciate your support.
Oh Sonoran Sun, you made me laugh. There's nothing in me that longs for fame! I’m just grateful to be here in conversation as a friend — never anything more distant than that. And thank you for your cheering words. Encouraging one another on — it's what friends do, right? 💕
It never ceases to amaze me that someone with as many "daddies" as Trump has SO MANY daddy issues:
Fred Trump
Roy Cohen
Vladimir Putin
And the "safest" of the bunch was arrested at a KKK rally in a Klan robe!
And with only one "daddy" left (Putin), Trump seems to be spending every ounce of energy to please him by emulating him as closely as (in)humanly possible, in order to obtain approval that is a joke to the entire (non-MAGA) world, and is as clear as Canadian air to us all.
After all, Trump is inflating hostility toward the US all over the world..at the same time America has never been militarily or strategically weaker. (TONGA could almost take us down at this point, much less RUSSIA, with only Hegseth standing in their way. Hardly seems like an accident.)
That’s one way to see it. But there’s another possibility I keep circling back to: maybe this isn’t about imminent war at all, but about fear being cultivated on purpose.
Think of it this way. What if Trump and Putin aren’t adversaries, but tacit partners? Putin doesn’t actually need to launch a full-scale war if people everywhere are kept braced for one. The sense of imminent threat does the job for him. If China, India, and North Korea quietly propped up Russia’s economy, Moscow could keep going. Meanwhile Europe bleeds billions into defence, while public services crack and people get angrier at their governments.NATO is pulled into endless consultations, trying to project unity but unable to mask the absence of decisive American leadership. In that kind of stalemate, Russia doesn’t have to win outright — it just has to keep the pressure on.
And for Trump, the benefits are as I laid out: allies scramble to keep him onside, he looks indispensable at home and abroad, and he builds his case for extraordinary powers by pointing to the “threat” everyone else says is real.
In other words, neither of them needs an actual war. They just need the rest of us — NATO governments, European publics, markets — to act as if war is always about to break out. The fear itself becomes the weapon.
I agree entirely. But I also sense that Trump perhaps hasn't fully committed to any possibility yet. And many of the justifications we seek seem almost absent in someone seemingly incapable of seeing outcomes not 100% based on (and benefiting) himself.
Some days he seems to only wish to impress Putin by controlling America fully as sole, untouchable oligarch. (A resident-owner, so to speak.).
Other days it seems more that Trump is seeking some sort of "partnership" with Russia and China in order to control all life on Earth.
Other days is seems he wants it ALL, without having to "share" with anyone. (Agreed, ALL of this may be based on my perceptions more than anything else.)
It's hard to know Trump's true motives, when so many of his actions require his supporters to endorse things diametrically opposed to their interests, as well as to reason and human decency in general. I can't help but wonder if Trump would have have the majority of the votes in 2024 if he hadn't killed so many of his own supporters/donors/voters with Covid, all to (perhaps) be able to ignore the pandemic plan left in place by a president he has proven his hatred for on a daily basis, all the way back to birtherism. The same seems true for the ACA. It seems that Trump has succeeded in creating a distrust of the ACA (and Obama) so intense that his cultists would rather die than use the ACA, and that benefits Trump in multiple ways, as well as hurting him in almost as many.
It's hard to say when Trump actually has a "plan", and when he's just being cruel and/or creating fear. I'm not certain which is more terrifying, or if there is any difference between them at all, to him. (As we now know, hate/fear can certainly be an effective plan.)
But it does very much seem that Trump's goal has been realized: To create an army that hates the things they hate more than they love the things they love. MAGA is certainly that.
You’ve articulated something really important F&C.
Trump's lack of commitment to a specific path is not accidental — it’s deliberate, and a known tool of authoritarian regimes. Uncertainty is one of the hardest conditions for us to live with, and when we’re continually kept off balance our nervous systems fray that much faster. It makes it harder to think clearly, harder to act with confidence, and easier to just become resigned to it.
But by noticing this dynamic and naming it, as you’ve done, you’re already pushing back against the intended effect, and that act of recognition helps steady the ground beneath all of us. Thank you F&C.
Dear Lori, you are so erudite and perceptive.
This post mirrors my intuitive fears.
For the past two years I find myself playing our wartime scenarios and asking, “will my family be safer where we are in America or abroad where we plan to be?”
Our travel plans were to take place around the election— now I fear travel bans may come.
Dearest Sage, thank you for your kind words, and for sharing this — I feel the weight of what you’re carrying. I too have been planning to leave, but one thing I’ve been reflecting on is how our passport ties us to the state in ways we can’t easily escape, especially under authoritarian regimes. Even if we’re abroad, we’re still subject to its decisions, restrictions, and claims on us. And when I look at the Civicus Monitor, I’m struck by how few countries remain where the democratic rights we’ve long taken for granted are still secure. https://monitor.civicus.org/
It reminds me that there’s strength in the familiar — in knowing the terrain around us, and in having a support network we can lean on. Those things matter more than we often realise, and they can make a real difference in helping us stay steady through whatever comes now.
Interesting that in the UK, people there protested by projecting film of Epstein's besty, on the exterior of Windsor Castle, during besty's time inside, there. Very much cancel cultured the red carpet stuff going on, inside. They made it a point, to show the film, concurrently.
https://www.dw.com/en/trump-at-windsor-pomp-protest-and-the-ghost-of-jeffrey-epstein/a-74023396
Just for clarity Aleithia, that action was by political campaign group “Led by Donkeys”. The 4 men who carried it out were arrested. Sadly, the only real ‘cancel culture’ on Trump’s state visit seems to have been against peaceful activists.
Lori, first off, I hope you are feeling better.
I feel like you are our “scout” out there in the zeitgeist. Most times, your posts take the thoughts in my head spinning randomly and bring them together—into a cohesive idea, a cohesive narrative.
And a cohesive narrative is so important.
We, and by “we” I mean people who have been doing this for a while as well as readers of your Substack, have constantly had to re-adjust our thinking over the past eight months. (Is it really only that long?) I was not sanguine going into this year; however, the bigger surprise was the way the tectonic plates beneath us continued to shift in an unimaginably powerful way.
To me, this indicated it wasn’t just an autocratic thing or an oligarchical thing or just a criminal enterprise thing. This was a psychological, spiritual, and existential turning point. As for those tectonic plates: bodies in motion stay in motion.
I dearly admire those folks who can get out on the overhang of a bridge with their signs.
On the other hand, signs are symbolic and performative against the movement of tectonic plates.
I am happy to hear and 100% support where you are leaning.
Thank you John. I’m glad to say I’m back to normal now. You seeing me as a scout who helps consolidate a cohesive narrative heartens me. It's a welcome affirmation that I’m carrying out the role I’ve been given to do, as best I can.
I share your sense of how much has changed in just these few months — I feel like I'm living in a parallel world to the one I inhabited when I started writing here. It does feel like far more than simply politics or power struggles. As you say, something far deeper has been stirred. Redressing it will need a re-anchoring of spirit as much as of politics — moral clarity, steadiness of mind, the patient work of rebuilding trust in one another, the discernment to find Truth in a world that conspires to create its own. And perhaps most of all, we need to stay human in the midst of this upheaval.
It's going to be a longer haul than we might have anticipated — because as you say, once the plates are moving, they don’t simply stop — but I believe we're at a divergent boundary, and not a convergent one. I hold onto that hope.
So glad to hear you're doing well!
The breadth of your knowledge, considering that you ALSO know how tectonic plates work, is astonishing.
Hah! I helped my son revise for his GCSE exams, which included Geography (in which I had no grounding). He just did not get plate techtonics, so we went through it again, and again, and again until he did. And then of course, it piqued my interest so I did some additional exploring. I know plate techtonics reasonably well now John.
I know we all crave understanding of the insane, cruel monster that is MAGA.
Yesterday I came to an understanding...I fear.
"MAGA hates the things they hate, more than they love the things they love."
This explains so much...
Covid taking Americans mostly in red states...to "own" the hated libs, and science.
Banning books (and the Department of Education) because they hate libs, and their "learning".
Hating abortion (and many issues of women's bodily autonomy) because they hate women...even by the MAGA who ARE women.
A willingness to pay higher prices and even deprive their own children of nutrition, because they hate immigrants, even those doing it "right".
The list is pretty endless at this point...
That’s a sharp way of putting it F&C. I’d only add that when politics is built around hating, it leaves nothing constructive to stand on. A movement defined by what it destroys eventually hollows itself out — but unfortunately not before it can do real damage to everyone else.
That just occurred to me yesterday, following a call from one of Mom's hospice workers whose job is literally to provide non-medical care and attention to patients and family.
This woman is about as kind and caring as anyone I can imagine holding her job, with a son who makes her life difficult because of severe autism. She cried when I told her things about my childhood (after inquiring, no less), and in general expressed every quality of a caring, compassionate human being. When she told me she was a Trumper, after knowing her for weeks, I was floored.
But she has zero concern that $1trillion left healthcare to line the pockets of billionaires. And the same amount of concern when I offered evidence that the GOP has had expressed almost zero support for working Americans in the past 75 years.
All she cared about was immigrants, even legal ones, crossing the US/Mexico border, even after I explained the many billions of dollars immigrants pay into American taxes, and their many contributions. (As well, that prices will be higher in numerous industries, particularly agriculture.)
But apparently ALL of that is better than a single Mexican citizen on US soil. (And I really don't even know why, beyond indoctrination.) And she absolutely HATES how much they hate Trump on CNN, so she watches Fox instead (where people respect Democratic presidents and there's less bias, I guess.)
Then it clicked...her ability to hate total strangers is seemingly stronger than her love for her own family. I simply have no other way to explain it.
This is all terrifying yet also validation for what I’ve seen as an intuitive.
I hear you Sage. I know it's not easy to sit with that intuitive insight, but the fact that you’ve been sensing this before it became so visible speaks to how deeply perceptive you are. That's a real gift — though I know sometimes it feels too heavy to carry. But I'm certain that gift will help guide you forward. 🙏🏼🤍
Hegseths call for all top commanders to come together was my tipping point to return to your blog and stop reading more by reporters. I’m going to enroll in MBSR again.
I am curious Lori, & please forgive me for not doing my homework, are you a dual citizen of both England & the USA? You are so knowledgeable and I am wondering where you get all your information.
I’m not a dual citizen, no (though my dad was).
To be honest, most of my work usually starts from an intuitive sense rather than a clear plan.
About six weeks ago, I felt a strong pull to explore the topic of burnout. I wasn’t sure why it felt so important, so I began researching. As I went, I paid close attention to whether the insights I was finding aligned with that internal sense of direction. It took a few weeks to fully work through, but this piece is the result.
It’s not the most conventional process, I know, so I’ll be sharing more about how it came about in my weekend post.
Does that help, Teresa?
I’m reminded of things said by the great soul Joanna Macy. We must pursue three avenues: holding actions, life-sustaining institutions, consciousness shifts. (I would add, resistance.) All are necessary. Each is not sufficient. I like how you are framing the time required. Thinking ahead (and behind) seven generations is a good start.
Absolutely! Thank you for highlighting Joanna Macy's work to me —she is such a wise and deeply grounded voice. And yes, I completely agree with your addition of resistance, especially now — it’s an essential thread that runs through all three. Your reminder of stretching our sense of time resonates. There’s something powerful (and humbling) about thinking in terms of seven generations. It invites both responsibility and imagination.
I’m curious, Leslie — how do you personally engage with these different avenues? Do you find yourself drawn more to one than the others, or do they tend to weave together in your work or life?
Timely and effective. Well worth the effort to read, consider, and disseminate.
Thank you Susan.
Fantastic. I adore manifesto writing, and this is certainly yours. Count me in and let us know when and how you see we can align our writing, our communities, our communication skills with your intentions and strategies.
Thank you Georgia, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and generous spirit. I’m glad the piece resonated. It came from a deep place, even if I didn’t set out with a strategy or formal intentions.
Right now, I’m working quietly, and simply doing what I can, when I can — “chop wood, carry water”. I don’t have a big plan or structure to plug into, and I’m not in a place to take on new collaborations. But you’re warmly welcome to share my work, if it serves you and your community.
Thank you again for your generous offer to align. I need to keep things close to the ground, but as always, I do appreciate your support.
As always, thank you. I look forward to your new essays.
Ahh, Sonoran Sun, it's good to see you again.
You're welcome — I hope the new essays help lighten the load. 🙏🏼
Lori, I feel like a famous person replied to me. I'm honored. Your essays will be instrumental in lightening many loads, I'm sure 💕
Oh Sonoran Sun, you made me laugh. There's nothing in me that longs for fame! I’m just grateful to be here in conversation as a friend — never anything more distant than that. And thank you for your cheering words. Encouraging one another on — it's what friends do, right? 💕
Absolutely! I am so grateful for our friendship! I am grateful for the days you are well and feeling great. You bring much equanimity to the webs.
Thank you — that lifts me. And equanimity is what you bring to me. 🙏💗
It never ceases to amaze me that someone with as many "daddies" as Trump has SO MANY daddy issues:
Fred Trump
Roy Cohen
Vladimir Putin
And the "safest" of the bunch was arrested at a KKK rally in a Klan robe!
And with only one "daddy" left (Putin), Trump seems to be spending every ounce of energy to please him by emulating him as closely as (in)humanly possible, in order to obtain approval that is a joke to the entire (non-MAGA) world, and is as clear as Canadian air to us all.
After all, Trump is inflating hostility toward the US all over the world..at the same time America has never been militarily or strategically weaker. (TONGA could almost take us down at this point, much less RUSSIA, with only Hegseth standing in their way. Hardly seems like an accident.)
That’s one way to see it. But there’s another possibility I keep circling back to: maybe this isn’t about imminent war at all, but about fear being cultivated on purpose.
Think of it this way. What if Trump and Putin aren’t adversaries, but tacit partners? Putin doesn’t actually need to launch a full-scale war if people everywhere are kept braced for one. The sense of imminent threat does the job for him. If China, India, and North Korea quietly propped up Russia’s economy, Moscow could keep going. Meanwhile Europe bleeds billions into defence, while public services crack and people get angrier at their governments.NATO is pulled into endless consultations, trying to project unity but unable to mask the absence of decisive American leadership. In that kind of stalemate, Russia doesn’t have to win outright — it just has to keep the pressure on.
And for Trump, the benefits are as I laid out: allies scramble to keep him onside, he looks indispensable at home and abroad, and he builds his case for extraordinary powers by pointing to the “threat” everyone else says is real.
In other words, neither of them needs an actual war. They just need the rest of us — NATO governments, European publics, markets — to act as if war is always about to break out. The fear itself becomes the weapon.
I agree entirely. But I also sense that Trump perhaps hasn't fully committed to any possibility yet. And many of the justifications we seek seem almost absent in someone seemingly incapable of seeing outcomes not 100% based on (and benefiting) himself.
Some days he seems to only wish to impress Putin by controlling America fully as sole, untouchable oligarch. (A resident-owner, so to speak.).
Other days it seems more that Trump is seeking some sort of "partnership" with Russia and China in order to control all life on Earth.
Other days is seems he wants it ALL, without having to "share" with anyone. (Agreed, ALL of this may be based on my perceptions more than anything else.)
It's hard to know Trump's true motives, when so many of his actions require his supporters to endorse things diametrically opposed to their interests, as well as to reason and human decency in general. I can't help but wonder if Trump would have have the majority of the votes in 2024 if he hadn't killed so many of his own supporters/donors/voters with Covid, all to (perhaps) be able to ignore the pandemic plan left in place by a president he has proven his hatred for on a daily basis, all the way back to birtherism. The same seems true for the ACA. It seems that Trump has succeeded in creating a distrust of the ACA (and Obama) so intense that his cultists would rather die than use the ACA, and that benefits Trump in multiple ways, as well as hurting him in almost as many.
It's hard to say when Trump actually has a "plan", and when he's just being cruel and/or creating fear. I'm not certain which is more terrifying, or if there is any difference between them at all, to him. (As we now know, hate/fear can certainly be an effective plan.)
But it does very much seem that Trump's goal has been realized: To create an army that hates the things they hate more than they love the things they love. MAGA is certainly that.
Thank you, Lori. This are SUCH confusing times...
You’ve articulated something really important F&C.
Trump's lack of commitment to a specific path is not accidental — it’s deliberate, and a known tool of authoritarian regimes. Uncertainty is one of the hardest conditions for us to live with, and when we’re continually kept off balance our nervous systems fray that much faster. It makes it harder to think clearly, harder to act with confidence, and easier to just become resigned to it.
But by noticing this dynamic and naming it, as you’ve done, you’re already pushing back against the intended effect, and that act of recognition helps steady the ground beneath all of us. Thank you F&C.