What Can I Do Today?

A recommendation for a menu of useful ideas--and some fun, too

Sometimes you just need someone to hold your hand and tell you everything will be all right. In these hard times, I find I need frequent reminders that worry won’t help—only action will.

I’m sure you’ve already got enough stuff flooding your e-mail, including this substack, and I hesitate to add to the deluge. But I’ve found a good deal of comfort in a newletter called Chop Wood Carry Water. No, it isn’t about pioneer life or homesteading in Idaho. It’s a very practical guide to doing something to help the world.

Chop Wood, Carry Water is a “daily political activism newsletter that comes out 6 days a week. Subscribe for free and you’ll receive a short, encouraging email in your inbox each weekday telling you how you can make a difference by taking 5-7 minutes worth of EASY actions.” The odd title comes from the idea that doing a mundane daily task can help calm and strengthen us when times are hard and unsettling.

It’s written by Jessica Craven, and amazingly, she manages to do it every single day. In her words:

“Sitting in fear, anger, anxiety, or outrage isn’t good for us, and it won’t help save our country, either.

Taking action, on the other hand, changes everything. It’s our superpower, a secret sauce, and the true north we must return to over and over again.

In so doing we will not only soothe our worried souls and remind ourselves of our power, but ineluctably move towards victory.”

And after the pep talk, she goes on to list a long menu of things that you can do, right now. Call this senator, e-mail this Congressperson, send this school board a letter. Here’s a small sample of the stuff she sends out every day.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I want the Senate to pass the Child Tax Credit expansion bill they’ve been sitting on for a month. Why are they delaying on a bill that will help lift half a million children out of poverty? It’s shameful.

She must do a huge amount of research to include this kind of detail:

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I’m horrified that the Kennedy amendment got included in the appropriations package that Congress passed this week. It’s a terrible, dangerous gun policy; these shouldn’t be getting snuck through in must-pass bills. This amendment will put veterans and their families at risk. Is the Congressmember aware that 17 veterans kill themselves every day in this country, and 75% of those deaths are by firearm? Making it easier for veterans with known mental health conditions to access firearms is just deadly.

She has a huge list of this sort of thing every day, which can be a little intimidating, and I certainly don’t ever come close to doing them all. But if you’re looking for practical ideas, she’s a rich source of them.

The fun part is that on Sundays she sends a hearteningly long list of good things that happened during the week. A lot of which don’t make it into the headlines, because as far as the media is concerned the only good news is bad news, because that’s what people click on. But Craven reminds me that there’s a lot of good stuff happening, too. And as an extra motivator she puts a little icon of an ax next to each win that her readers have been working towards.

She ends with this tag line:

OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.

And I fall for it every time. A little flattery never hurts. And we all need a pep talk every now and then.