Counting up to the election: Chesed

[sonia]

rosefox is adapting the Jewish practice of counting the omer, Kabbalah, to the seven weeks until the US election. See their initial post here: "Torah umitzvot, chukim umishpatim". The title looks intimidating (to me) but the rest of the post feels approachable and practical (to me). There are great links for suggested reading.

I worked through counting the omer in 2015 with a focus on connecting with my body. That was an intense experience! I'm tentatively going to follow along with rosefox's posts, although rereading [locked] posts from 2015 gave me a rush of nausea. Intense, like I said.

My issue with political donations is that they're used for advertising, and I hate advertising. As rosefox says, I'm giving myself permission to go with what works for me. I made a couple of donations to group slates recently on ActBlue. I also donated to local mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, since I have Opinions about our current mayor.

But mostly I like to donate to local organizations that help people directly. I often donate to Sisters of the Road Cafe who feed houseless people. I just made a donation to Street Roots, our local street newspaper, and I put "In Memory Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg" because why not. We are each working toward justice in our own way, and justice requires that everyone have shelter and food.

For my long-term organization, I recently joined the NAACP, on the theory that they know what they need and how to get there, and I can hand them money to support that.

My own social change actions: writing my articles and making them freely available, continuing to read and learn about social justice, biking for transportation, buying locally grown food... As much as I can, I've tried to shape my life to be part of the world I want to create.

Looking forward to seeing what other folks post about this as well! I think it might be a useful process whether you have a Jewish background or not.