Hey friends~
I’ll bet you’ll agree there’s a mental effort to deciding what to do about anything, and then there’s the work of actually doing it.
Early this week I felt like I had run a mental marathon after a 20 minute phone call.
It was a challenging interaction with someone which required every communication skill, every bit of patience, and even empathy for the person who had some sad misunderstandings about equity, and what it means to care for one another – it’s a broad subject – in this case, about how we have a responsibility to be part of a community to protect and provide for everyone. I did silent, long deep breaths (I didn’t want them to think I was sighing with exasperation) while they repeatedly interrupted and confidently justified their position.
Any conversation like this involves negotiation in my head. How forcefully should I assert my belief, my conviction? What aspects of it should I focus on, how to narrow it down? Do I push, hold back, or pivot?
Which way to go?
Having these kinds of dialogs several times a week (some of them are online, some are on the phone, and some are in-person) briefly drains energy, but if I process it like training and recovering, I think I can keep getting stronger and more effective at it.
Just like after a physical effort – if it’s in training or a competition, I’ll recover, do it again, and hopefully get stronger each time.
And like in training, for myself or for clients – doing things the same way over time just does not work.
The social media problem:
With the constant bombardment of social media (especially now with AI) there’s so much misinformation, clickbait and outrage that it’s hard to find meaningful, productive ways to engage.
That’s why I am filled with admiration for my daughter-in-law, Carleigh Beriont, who’s running for Congress in New Hampshire without being tied to social media, which means she shows up. Literally everywhere.
She’s taken on the mental load, and has been doing the work every day for 6 months. She’s going the distance to the primary in September, and the election in November.
I hope you’ll read her blog. Her superpowers are listening and connecting.
She’s engaging with people without feeling the pressure to capture and create content for the internet. She says, “going directly to the people also offers a chance to break the stranglehold these platforms and their right-wing billionaire owners have on our political system”.
Ways to help in New Jersey:
There are initiatives in every community – like coat drives, food banks, and initiatives like in my community, Trinity Center For Community, and Code Blue with volunteers working tirelessly to help keep people fed, safe, and warm.
Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network is working to make a difference in our local neighborhoods.
As a founder of Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition, I advocate locally, and at the county and state levels for equitable mobility – with the conviction that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, deserves safe access, without being targeted on streets and roads.
People are gathering in New Jersey Cities and towns targeting policies related to the Trump administration, immigrant rights, and social justice, include the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ), People’s Organization For Progress, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ), Indivisible, MoveOn, and New Jersey Citizen Action.
I’ll be organizing events for Carleigh in the coming months here in New Jersey.
We need this brave, brilliant woman in that seat in NH, just as we need representatives in every seat in every state who will be the change-makers.
Here’s Carleigh’s recent article responding to the horrific events in Minnesota, and elsewhere in the US, calling upon us all to do what we can to stop this administration from terrorizing children, to stop the violence being inflicted on families, to prevent this horror from continuing, and to demand justice for ALL.
As we all know, it takes a lot of financial support to maintain a campaign in the US. The Primary is in September, 2026, and the election is in November.
If you can, please donate.
And please let me know if you’d like to be on the invitation list for upcoming events for Carleigh.
x
Polli
