Last Mile Weekend
LFG, friends!!!
Dames Nation, time is short, the Iowa Poll looks promising, and we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Here are some small, good things sustaining me (and I hope will do the same for you!) as we head into Election Day.
There’s still time to help. Yes, even now! Whether you do so in person, through virtual phone- or text-banking, or by having conversations with people in your social circles, no effort goes wasted, and all of it matters. Dames National Mari commented last week that she’s been having fun phone- and text-banking with Swifties for Kamala. I signed up for a couple of shifts with them, too, but if that’s not a lure for you, there’s so many other opportunities available between now and Tuesday night; Mobilize lets you filter and sort events by location, type, and date/time. Doing one is doing 100% more than if you do none!
Polls are only as powerful as we decide they are. Look, I have absolutely allowed and would still allow my mood to be buoyed up by a bunch of polls showing big leads for my candidates. I’ll also allow any giddiness that burbles up to be tempered by shifts to the right. It’s so easy to get swept up in enthusiasm and in a morbid glumness, though, and for what? A habit I’ve been working hard to cultivate this time around, as a kindness to my brain and well-being and ability to not seize up and suddenly find myself unable to do anything, is to not get too attached to any particular poll or to apparent voter sentiment trends that do make themselves known to me dictate anything other than my resolve to do something. I feel kind of terrible! It’s ok! I’m going to keep swimming! (Since I drafted this paragraph, Ann Selzer’s well-regarded Iowa Poll was released, showing Kamala Harris ahead by 3 points in a state where Biden was behind by 12 in June. It’s considerable progress — yay! — and the last word won’t be in til Tuesday.)
We can think about and do other things, as a treat! No brain, no matter how resilient, can only do one thing all the time. We have to break things up and recharge. So! Whatever works for you, works for you; my previous go-tos such as stress-baking and dread laundry are waiting in the wings for future deployment as needed. The main strategies I’ve been leaning into lately are sports and taking on too much work. I was so happy for the Dodgers, and wish there were more games to watch! F1 is carrying a lot of weight for me at the moment. Work is, too: I filed 13,000 words or so this week (1 Elsbeth recap & 8 The Diplomat recaps for Vulture, and 1 Passenger recap for Telly Visions) and am on pace to file another three pieces next week. I predict that I’ll be cursing Past Sophie’s name at some point for this, but I also have a good track record with this strategy and am both too tired and too antsy not to keep on keeping on with it.
We can enjoy what’s enjoyable (and refuse to be guilted into toxic positivity). This is a pretty big, pretty obvious umbrella, with a twist for some of us. Seeing, hearing, doing something nice and/or fun is, y’know, nice and/or fun. These are little things that may brighten our day, and it’s good to be alert to them, and also, I want to emphasize that they only work if they’re real. They can be frivolous, and they can’t be something that makes you feel bad for feeling anything less than 100% positive. What in the world do I mean? For me, it’s things like seeing conceptual and/or niche Halloween costumes — I don’t know if there’s more of them out there this year or if the algorithm knows how much I love to see them, but I have definitely seen way more this year than in previous years.
A Prince/Purple Rain couples costume! A guy dressing like one of the choir of children dressed like Serge Gainsbourg, serenading Serge Gainsbourg himself with their tiny little voices lifted in song to perform “Je suis venue te dire que je m’en vais” / “I’ve come to tell you it’s goodbye”! A kid as the Speak Now Era from the Eras Tour! The tennis ball from Challengers!
My other go-to category at the moment is Funny Place Names. The U.S. has no shortage of these; vital swing state Pennsylvania alone is home to King of Prussia, Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, and Paradise. Since our family trip to the Southwest of England in September, I’ve started collecting especially colorful examples there, too. So far, my favorites are in Cornwall, and include Praze-an-Beeble, Troon, Knave-Go-By, Ponsanooth, Frogpool, Playing Place, The Towans, and of course, Gweek. They aren’t the East-West Bowl of place names, but aren’t they? And they’re evidence of human creativity and humor, which have always been grist for substantive hope for me.
See you on the other side, friends!
Keeping It Classy-fied!
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