Vive la Resistance

An ode to Minneapolis and a knitting pattern; plus, a couple of things that are making me happy right now, despite the headlines.

Hello reader,

Wherever you are, I hope you are warm and safe.

Sometimes I'm able to compose these weekly dispatches to you ahead of time. Sometimes they come together at the last minute. Other times, like today, I realize that what I've done is all wrong for the moment (and what a moment) and I decide to go back to the drawing board about an hour before this normally arrives in your inbox.

That's where I am today.

Minneapolis is a very cool – and occasionally very cold – city. I've only been there once, but I really enjoyed it and thought about how nice it would be to come back when it wasn't freezing, or when I could take a class at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, or...stand outside for more than five minutes without losing feeling in my hands and face (I know...tell me you're from the South without telling me you're from the South...).

The reason I was in Minneapolis a couple of years ago was because an art school there offered my kid a generous scholarship, so we toured it, and then kiddo decided it was just too far away from home. Also, good God it was cold. Just bitter, bitter cold. But the people there were really kind, and there were a lot of cool things to do (there are some really good thrift stores!!!), and we went to Paisley Park and ate at Owamni, so that was nice.

Fast forward a couple of years, and two innocent people have been killed by masked ICE agents in this lovely, lovely city over the past two weeks. Other innocent people have been killed by ICE in other cities too. People in Minneapolis have taken to the streets in protest, because their neighbors Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed in broad daylight for either helping someone else, or exercising their 1st amendment right to protest.

Good's last words were to the man who would then shoot her multiple times: "That's fine dude. I'm not mad at you."

Pretti's last words – "Are you okay?" – were to the woman he was trying to help.

These are not the words of domestic terrorists out to cause harm, or whatever it was that the administration has claimed. These are the words of loving neighbors trying to take care of their own.

On social media this month, people have been sharing what their life was like in 2016. I was finishing my first book, The General's Niece, initially thinking that what I was writing about there was distant history. When I reflect on the headlines over the past year, when I think about Minneapolis right now, I understand how naive I was.

And yet, having written that book and witnessed recent events, I also know that there's power in community and in unlikely places. I know that seemingly small acts can pack a big punch. One example: A Minneapolis yarn store called Needle and Skein began posting online about how in the 1940s, Norwegians knitted and wore red hats with tassels as a form of protest against the Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, these hats were so omnipresent, that the Germans made these hats illegal to wear, make or distribute. On January 15, Needle and Skein wrote: "As purveyors of traditional craft, we felt it appropriate to revisit this design. Our city and many others are currently being swept door to door by a Federally funded and supported organization. Sound familiar?"

The business began a resistance knit-in, offering a $5 hat pattern on Ravelry for anyone anywhere who was interested in joining in. To date, Needle and Skein has raised $250,000 that it is donating to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund for emergency rent assistance and other aid. I don't know about you, but to me, that's extraordinary and just so inspiring. It's easy to feel like you can't do anything to make the badness stop, that your calls to Congress won't matter, or that you lack the ability or skill or imagination or whatever to do something to push back. But look what a yarn store did with a $5 pattern! Look at the businesses that provide safe spaces for people to come and just be! Those are things that give me glimmers of hope right now.

Where are you finding glimmers of hope? Hit reply and let me know.

Also, thank you for being here. Big hugs to all of you.

Paige

Writing prompt: Think about a little way you can make a big impact right now. Write about what that is and how you can put that idea into action.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another, then, I say break the law.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Endnotes

A Few Things That Are Bringing Me Joy

A new season of Shrinking on Apple TV. Fredrik Backman's book My Friends, which kept me up well past my bedtime a couple of nights this week. The Golden Girl tea I picked up from Just Add Honey. An art journaling workshop I decided to do. The way my kid draws stained glass. Seeing instances of people coming together at a time when certain elements are trying to tear us apart.

If You Get a Minute, Please...

...go to 5calls.org and tell your congressfolk to put a stop to ICE's attacks on immigrants and citizens. Also, click here for a list of ways you can support Minneapolis and St. Paul right now. You can also preorder this Melt The ICE sweatshirt from Brooklyn's Books Are Magic bookstore. All proceeds go to Stand With Minnesota and Unidos MN to help local organizations on the ground there. And, check on your people. We won't get through this alone. Thank you.