Who Has the Power to Do What You Want

It’s a snowy January day up here in Maine. I recently learned that my state’s 100-Mile Wilderness stretch of the Appalachian Trail can be so brutal, hikers say, “No Maine, no gain.”

Soon, I’ll go walk the dog on the beach (we’ll save the 100-Mile Wilderness for another day). Then, I’ll make some cookies – nutrition pucks, my friend calls them. You dump the veggie drawer of the fridge in with maple syrup, peanut butter, and cinnamon. They are, I admit, an acquired taste.

But first, a reflection from last year: a lot of people’s hope got pickpocketed.

For many of us, when we weren’t looking, bad news came along and stole our belief that something better was possible.

There will be more bad news this year, as there is in any year. But there will be good news, too.

There will be Davids standing up to Goliaths. People choosing morality over money. Recoveries from terrible illness or accident. Strangers helping strangers.

The trick is not letting the bad news rob us of the redemption in the good news. Because our belief that something better could be possible is the wellspring of our power.

When I start work with a new client, the question we kick off with is, “Who has the power to do what you want?”

Is it a local issue? State? Federal? Once we’ve identified what level of government, then we burrow into who in that level is the person to approach (hint: it’s almost always someone in elected office - as opposed to unelected bureaucrats - since elected officials are directly accountable to voters).

But there’s a less technical answer, too.

Who has the power to do what we want is almost always, in no small part, us.

We don’t have the power to bring a bill to the floor or cast the deciding vote on it. But we have the power to believe that the status quo could be kinder, gentler, more just; then channel that belief into strategies that get others - including politicians who can bring bills to the floor and cast deciding votes - to believe, too.

When it comes to developing those strategies, it helps to know three of the most powerful words in policymaking, how to make your voice heard with politicians, and how to get a legislator to yes.

Our charge is to be a fierce protector and a good steward of that belief. To feed and nurture it. Whether with hikes (which need not be 100 miles to be useful) or nutrition pucks, reading more poetry than news, seeing live music or playing music, sledding, pottery, time with four-leggeds. Whatever fills your cup up.

Joy, poet Toi Derricotte wrote, is an act of resistance.

The work is to not let cynicism, despair, heartbreak pickpocket our belief that something better could be possible from us when we aren’t looking.

I had a distant cousin who was good news in human form: she radiated belief in you, enthusiasm for you, love just fountained up and out of her. Another relative talked about needing regular doses of this cousin.

So yes, there will be more bad news this year. There will be good news, too. And here’s an often overlooked truth: The good news doesn’t just happen out there in the headlines. Any one of us, on any day, can be good news, too.