Michaela

Reality is changing and your ideas have to change. Don’t get stuck in old ideas.
--Grace Lee Boggs. 

Michaela turned seventy today, and we had a celebratory lunch. Michaela was a revolutionist in her youth, a follower of Jimmy Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, ardent civil rights activists who became advocates of nonviolent political action. In the past decade Michaela has been drawn to Buddhism, which doesn't always sit comfortably on the bedrock of her commitment to justice. Last night an interview was published in a blog written by a young journalist curious about how a Buddhist views antifascism. We talked about the interview and asked what non-violence means in a violent state built on genocide and slavery, and why, if non-violence is such a great tactic, it has made so little progress in ending white supremacy. We certainly don't advocate violence, but we embrace conscientious compassion and we are examining its intersections with antifascism. I’m not sure I entirely agree with all I said in the interview--as soon as it was published I began arguing with myself, and I am a lot less certain about some points than I sound in the interview--but it was helpful to talk about it with Michaela. 

Michaela is also a poet, and I asked her if I could make a photograph of her and post one of her poems, to honor her 70th birthday. This poem about power and winning fits perfectly with our lunchtime conversation.


Winning
by Michaela McCormick

Above all else
the people in charge like to win -- 
elections, contracts, praise, the pot of gold --
always and in the end, power.
They've been winning so long and so big
that now we're running out of things to win,
except the power to destroy us.
Running out of water, coral reefs, forests, bees,
and air clean enough to breathe.
Running out of enough sense among those in authority
to reign in their hubris and greed.
When all of their appetites are satisfied,
and they have eliminated the competition from below,
will they still want the spoils?
Will they grow bored and lazy?
Will they turn on each other, as they have so many times before?
Maybe that is our surest bet, our salvation.
Maybe that's what it will take
for us to learn that we can only win together.