On Resilience, Roe, and Monster Slayers
It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. ~Babe Ruth
Yesterday should have been a celebration.
Roe would have been 51 years old.
Instead, it was a day to contemplate all that we’ve lost … and what we are to do about it. It made me think back to the night the Dobbs decision was officially released.
It was a Friday night, and as I tried to walk off (or maybe walk with) my anger and anguish, somehow my brain dribbled off to a particular episode of Stranger Things.
Strange, I know.
Who knows how or why minds do what they do.
But, there I was. Walking a little aimlessly, thinking about my favorite character in Stranger Things – Jim Hopper. Hopper was the Hawkinsville, Indiana Chief of Police, but in a prior season was captured by Russians and has been “living” (if you can call it that) in a Russian gulag.
After a nearly-successful escape attempt, Hopper is thrown into an even worse situation.
He and a few fellow prisoners have to fight a demogorgon (a pretty terrifying monster from the Stranger Things underworld), gladiator-style. For anyone who’s seen the monster in action, it’s doubtful any of them will last more than 90 seconds.
Hopper, of course, has seen the monster in action before.
So Hop knows his situation is dire. Maybe even hopeless.
He’s got no way out.
But he does have a choice.
He can spend his last day reflecting on his life. Mourning the loss of a future. Dreading demise.
Or he can spend it actively finding a way out of this desperate situation.
The question, as he puts it to a fellow prisoner, is whether to just give up and die – or to die as a monster slayer.
Because the reality, as bleak as it is, is that if he is to have even a .001% chance of surviving, he’s got to fight.
He devises a plan – he’ll use the only weapon he’s ever seen used effectively against a demogorgon: fire. With a stolen lighter and liquor smuggled into “the arena,” he’s got a shot. Maybe.
He’s hopeful. We’re hopeful.
Hop lashes a piece of fabric torn from his threadbare coat onto the tip of a spear. He douses it with vodka, and pulls out the lighter to set it aflame.
Click. The lighter won’t strike. Click. Click. Click.
His eyes get more frantic. The monster is literally chewing through other prisoners around him.
He doesn’t lose focus. And he doesn’t lose hope. He keeps trying the lighter. Again, and again, and again, and again –
Finally, it catches.
The monster is horrifying. But, at least temporarily, held back by the flame.
Because even when all looked lost, Hopper kept trying.
There are more obstacles, of course – how to get out of the arena, and if that’s possible, how to get out of the fortress-like prison.
But this fight scene is what was playing out in my head on that Friday night, because after months (or years? we don’t know) of being imprisoned, worked nearly to death, malnourished, and tortured … he was now in his most hopeless and dangerous situation.
And still, he kept trying. Just one foot in front of the other.
Actively deciding, after each setback, to keep going.
I admire this seemingly endless reservoir of resilience.
Over time, that level of resilience and internal motivation is tough to beat.
That’s the resilience we need to tap into.
There are plenty of reasons you should feel like giving up. I understand, and I feel them sometimes, too. We’ve been fighting for years, decades. We’re tired. The “Exhausted Majority.”
And, depending upon which state you live in, things look pretty bleak right now.
But we have a choice, just like Hopper did when he realized he had to fight a monster. We can just give up already and spend the rest of our lives mourning the loss of our basic human rights and democracy. In a lot of ways, that’s the easier path.
Or we can fight like we mean it – wherever we can, as hard as we can, for as long as we can. We can actively decide to keep going, no matter what setbacks we face. And we can go out proud, knowing that we gave it everything we have.
You know which path I recommend.
It’s like that clever old quip from Churchill, When you’re going through hell, keep going.
We know that there is a better place than where we are right now, because we’ve seen it and we’ve lived it. It’s not perfect (not by a long shot) but it’s better.
So let’s get (back) there.
The good news is that there’s a pathway. Some states – including some Red States – have already enshrined reproductive freedom into their constitutions. Other efforts are underway. Democrats have outperformed expectations in election after election since Roe fell. The electorate now understands what reproductive freedom means, and why it’s always been important.
We’ve got a long way to go. But we’re making progress.
So on the day after what should have been the 51st anniversary of Roe, let’s celebrate our resilient selves. Let’s celebrate our broader coalition.
Let’s dig deep and make the active decision to keep fighting.
Let’s get out there and slay some monsters.
And let’s get to work.