How to Stay (or Get) Inspired

"It's no coincidence that 'aspiration' means both hope and the act of breathing." Writer Ted Chiang

For years, I've kept a Google Doc with a cut-to-the-chase title, "Inspiration." It's a storage shed of quotes and poems and clips, in a variety of fonts and font sizes, all jotted down sloppy fast so I wouldn't forget them.

"Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible." Activist/Author/Academic Angela Davis

Keeping our spirit intact is a fine challenge under ordinary circumstances, which these are not. Throwing in the towel, averting our eyes, hardening our heart, doubting our efforts matter so not bothering with them; easily and quietly, the spirit can slip down these slopes.

"Resistance is first of all a matter of principle and a way to live, to make yourself one small republic of unconquered spirit. You hope for results, but you don't depend on them." Rebecca Solnit

Giving up, giving in, walking away – that's just what the powerful want. And politicians take our silence, our inaction as consent.

No, no. Again, no.

Or, as Dana Carvey put it in his George H.W. Bush impersonation, "Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture."

So it seems useful - it seems prudent - to keep inspiration close at hand. That word inspiration comes to us from the Latin meaning to breathe or put life into (Ted Chiang, you are so on it!). It helps my internal pendulum swing more in the direction I want, instead of the direction the world could pull me.

"Hope is not naïve, hope grapples endlessly with despair. Real, vivid, powerful, thunderclap hope, like the soul, is at home in darkness, is divided; but lose your hope and you lose your soul, and you don’t want to do that, trust me, even if you haven’t got a soul, and who knows, you shouldn’t be careless about it." Playwright Tony Kushner

That "Inspiration" doc is an effort to be careful with my soul, to provide the basic maintenance it needs to stay in the fight.

I use a Google Doc because I can add to it, and access it, anywhere. It could be a folder in your email, a physical notebook (ahhh, a thing of beauty that!) or a file on your desktop. You'll know what form works best for you to keep it a living, even breathing document that you're always adding to, going back to, relating to.

Drop in lines from the book you read before bed, the idea you heard on a podcast ("When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us," I heard poet John O'Donohue say), the turn of phrase a friend used. The unsung beauty of this document is that it orients us towards that which inspires, could even compel us to seek it out.

If a weary part of you is raising its hand, saying, "This is just one more thing to do on a plate that's too full," I hear you.

I'd only offer that this collection of inspirations, for me, at least, is like sleep - everything is a little easier with it.

In our toolbox for meeting the moment, there are the concrete political actions we can take (a few of my favorites here and here and here). And then there are the softer power actions (a few favorites here and here). We can add gathering up inspirations to that list.

One last thing: don't keep these inspirations to yourself, spread that love around! Our collective soul needs this right now.

While the deck might seem stacked against us, I think poet Charles Bukowski got it right: "We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us."