

On Tuesday, overwhelmed by the blizzard of executive orders, news that Medicaid’s portal was down in all fifty states, and the repeated attacks on the rights of transgender people, I added five pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream into my cart.
I don’t recommend this. I mean, if you actually want ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s is a fine company, and tasty ice cream. But I’m unconvinced that activism via capitalism does much good, even if it feels satisfying in the moment.
So, what do I recommend (rather … or alongside of … ice cream action)?
Stop, breathe, and think. Yes, adults of a certain age by recognize this as being the mantra of Steve from Blue’s Clues. But it worked on my 3 year old and it works on me, now. When we get overwhelmed, our anxiety goes into hyperdrive. We move into fight, flee, freeze modes (putting the ice cream in my cart is an example of “fleeing” – fleeing the source of the anxious feelings). We aren’t doing our best thinking.
Examine feelings of urgency and anxiety bubbling up in other areas. I’m noticing this happening in myself and others. It’s natural – those anxiety hormones are churning, and so it makes us feel like everything is more urgent or threatening.
Decide if something in the larger world needs your attention and what your action will be. For me, it was that this presidential administration was doing something considered illegal, with potential for great harm. So this was a time that living my values meant picking up the phone and contacting my federal elected representatives.
My shopping cart on Tuesday was online, so it was a simple matter to remove the pints of ice cream from my cart. Well, three of them. Gotta keep a little around just in case.