Jumpstarting an Abundance of Good
I once worked for a Congressman who signed every email to me the same way: “Thanks."
A friend of mine worked for a Senator of the same vintage: “Can you add the Ambassador's complete bio to the briefing binder for tomorrow’s hearing? Thanks.”
Gratitude is not the coin of the realm in the United States Congress. Or our politics generally. The Congressman and the Senator were anomalies.
If you are wondering what to do these post-election days, you couldn’t go wrong thanking someone.
See a woman picking up campaign signs? Call out a thank you.
If your elections went off without a hitch, call your town clerk (who administers elections) to thank them for a job well done.
If a candidate you like won their election or re-election, find a way to thank them for choosing to be a public servant in a time when it’s not at all easy to be that. Write an op-ed in their local paper, post on social media, make a "THANK YOU, POLITICIAN X!" sign and stick it in your yard.
Did the daughter of a friend work on a Senate or House race? Send a thank you text via your friend. Or record a video about how much you appreciate her countless nights of eating cold pizza in a windowless Holiday Inn room for the good of democracy.
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Most Congressional offices have sky-high staff turnover. Politicians can be real grizzly bears to staffers. But the Congressman I worked for and the Senator my friend worked for had staff who stayed year after year.
The longer a staffer stayed, the more expertise they developed to work the levers of power, and the more legislative wins the politician put up. As Robin Wall Kimmerer put it, “Appreciation begets abundance.”
Staff longevity wasn’t because the politicians signed their email with thanks. It was because that gratitude laid bare a decency of the heart.
It’s true that democracy is freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to have a say in how we’re governed, and more. It’s also true that democracy does best when those who choose to do the often thankless work of safeguarding these rights are thanked. It encourages them to stay in the work, which means they deepen their expertise, which means they can put up more wins for our rights and freedoms.
Appreciation begets abundance.
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