Seeking joys and de-lights
These are dark times as horrible policies spew forth and deeds are committed by the current US administration. Old alliances are being shattered by the bully and his minions.
At the same time, the short daylight lengthens each day by seconds. Perhaps it is healthiest to focus on that.
I struggle with wanting to be informed but not overwhelmed by “the spectacles” of waging power. Ezra Klein had a great podcast on the displays. I could go on.
Probably the most rewarding response I have right now are the asylum exams I am doing through Physicians for Human Rights. I first met the organization during my work in Chechyna in 2000. They sponsor medical student asylum clinics across the US. In Providence ours is BHRAC—Brown Human Rights Asylum Clinic. Lawyers ask us to interview clients seeking asylum and to document their physical and psychological wounds.
In the last month I have done two evaluations at the detention center in Providence. Immigrants going through the proper channels for seeking asylum and showing up for their appointments were arrested and sent to detention—precisely what ICE is doing across the US. Both were heartbreaking stories: men seeking relief from political unrest at home due to their efforts to speak out were tortured (one had a police dog turned on him). As a result, they undertook the multi-country trek to the US with the promise of a better life. This journey include the Darien Gap, the jungle which connects South and Central America, and then suffered eventual robberies and attacks in Mexico. Their experiences confirmed all the horrors I have read.
Hoping for kindness in the US, they experienced more cruelty at the hands of the current administration and a paralyzed Congress. Both were taken from their young families that they had created with other asylees here in the US. They were finding great joy and pride in being the fathers they never had. Both lost their own fathers at young ages due to political violence. These are heart-wrenching stories to hold and write up.
The last client gave our team a joyful gift when he and our translator uncovered the fact that his 3-month-old daughter had the same name as our French translator, an old Belgian-French name connected to Belgium’s colonization of the Congo. The translator, the medical student scribe, the client and I shared a tender moment marveling at the coincidence and finally seeing his smile in what had been several hours of uncovering the client’s dissociation due to his trauma history that had started at a very young age.
Seeking moments of joy and de-lights take focus and attention. The Monet colors of the sunrise on water; the sunlight angle causing the ice on the tree branch to catch fire; the fluffed, fire-engine red cardinal and his mate with her pumpkin-orange bill; finding a reason to make someone laugh.
I hope you are looking for these as you do what you can to stand up in the face of the onslaught.
It is heartwarming to see the Minnesota neighbors stand up, deliver food and blow their whistles against the ICE raids.
Peace to us all.