What Sustains Us
For many years, the running joke we’ve had about my mid-March birthday is that sleet is always the forecast. The weather in Chicagoland in March is, of course, very changeable. Even before the equinox, March can feel like spring, or even a bit of summer. It seems more and more possible that I could draw one of these balmy days for my birthday – but for many years, I just didn’t, and sleet was the remarkably consistent element. This year, I very nearly pulled the warm, sunny day card – but instead, the temperature dropped forty degrees the day preceding, from 64 to 32 degrees, and then down into the teens on the day itself – only one of 7 or 8 of such temperature swings in March this year. That old jape – Don’t like the weather? Wait a minute! – was made for Chicago in March.
As we stood outside this past Saturday with our fellow demonstrators, thickly layered in fleece and fiberfill, though the sun shone brightly, the wind and cold nonetheless penetrated. Even so, folks were jovial, petting the dogs, admiring one another’s signs, shaking our cowbells, waving at passing cars. A girl brought her homemade stickers to hand out – lovely! An elder hippy brought his portable speaker and playlist of old protest songs. Our bodies were all thoroughly chilled, of course – it took me hours once back at home to thaw out – but we were also remarkably warm in spirit. It put me in mind of the songs coming out of Minneapolis – lovely and melodic and full of meaning, shared in houses of worship and under capitol domes and on the move through neighborhoods. It’s a scientific fact that people who sing together make not only sonic harmony, but also synch up their breathing and even their heartrates.
Nothing so changeable as the weather, of course – and increasingly so over time. But also, change is always with us. Nature is change. Though we might have the idea that we wish things would stay the same, this is false comfort. Change is always coming for us, if it isn’t already here. If we find ourselves searching for constancy, we might remind ourselves that all times are changing times. Evolution, even transformation, is always underway. And I find that so often, what truly sustains me, as I feel the world shifting, is community. The rallies remind us that our neighbors can bring song and sunshine even on the coldest day. If we’re looking for what sustains us, perhaps we might look first to one another. We are ourselves always evolving, of course. Even so, in consistently showing up for one another, our sustained, communal effort may just also change the world.