Page 188 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

I am brazenly resisting the laws that would keep this medicine out of the hands of the

people. I will not police myself i.e. I will not buy into the culture that says I must regard

the medicine as criminal. I am an open practitioner of forbidden medicine—a

homeopathic witch! My relationship with the authorities is personal; i.e., I am face-to-face

with someone who would jail me and openly defiant. This is in contrast to the ways in

which I have to be hidden in order to survive my persecutors in the recurrent dreams I’ve

had since Trump came to power. In this dream, I step out of being the victim of

persecution and I am smilingly taunting my persecutor that I will resist his authority until I

die. Resistance is this: a personal act of defiance that stems from a refusal to be

dominated. And the willingness to die for this refusal. Standing up entails courage—the

willingness to master the fear of death. It’s not just a matter of changing consciousness

but of actions in the world.

In a sense, the medicine is the resistance itself—for it is the resistance that heals our

helplessness and fear. The healing of our democracy will not come about without this

resistance to the tyranny of Trump and his enablers.

This is the dream I return to when I need to remind myself to live with my fear in a post-

Trump nation as gracefully as I can. And to resist in whatever ways I can the fascist

advance. For me, given the constraints of my life, that resistance has to do with writing

as clearly and forcefully as I can about Trump and fascism, guided by the wisdom I have

received from my ancestors.

The Jewish sage Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlav said, “The entire world is a narrow bridge.

The most important thing is not to be afraid.” I don’t think he meant that we should not

feel afraid, but rather that we should not let fear overtake us. We should not be cowed by

our nightmares. We should not let fear propel us to jump off the bridge or to push each

other off.

The great theologian Abraham Heschel said: “God is waiting for us to redeem the world.”

May we find a way, together, to strengthen the narrow bridge of this world that so

desperately needs to be redeemed.