We are drops in an ocean, and you can't beat back the waves

 
From: "Ravi Chandra, M.D., Psychiatrist and Writer" <hello@PROTECTED>
Date: September 2nd 2024

 

(Maybe there's Buddha, Buddha-lite, the UnBuddha, and Dr. Pepper.
I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper .... or wouldn't you like to have an RC Cola too! lol.
I can't believe it's not Buddha!)

Hi all,

This is my first newsletter since the tumultuous weekend of July 17-20. On July 21, President Biden announced he was stepping down from his campaign, and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been running with it. That same day, I held my first Postcard Party for Democracy, Mental Health, and Social Well-Being. I've now held 7 parties with a total of about 50 volunteers. We have sent out 6700 postcards from the Blue Wave Postcard Movement, and addressed 300 more for the Environmental Voter Project through Elders Climate Action. There's a partial list of more ways to be involved on my Substack post here, "What is Psychological Voter Suppression?"

7000 postcards, part of a 12.5 million postcard movement since 2020 (12 million thru Blue Wave, at least 500K more through EVP).

One of the two teenage volunteers yesterday noticed our collective stack of cards, and said, “see - the stamp adds just a little bit of thickness, but when you stack it all up, you can really notice the difference.”

May it be so.

Kids know what’s up. Individually we are just drops, but together, we are an ocean. And I don’t think you can stop the wave from rolling in. But everything depends on mass effort and mass psychology. We’ve all encountered the status quo in various forms, and we all embody the status quo in some way. I’d like to believe that electing democrats and promoting democracy can allow us to keep that part of the threatened status quo intact, so we can work on the deeper changes needed. And I really fear for the worst should Trump/Vance and the GOP prevail.

I will have one more postcard party, date TBD upon room availability. I will only need 10 people to finish off the remaining postcards in about an hour or so. I’m thinking that will be the weekend of September 21. Let me know if you might be able to make it. (These EVP postcards are supposed to be mailed on October 15.) Let me know if you can make it on either that Saturday or Sunday. A reminder: Blue Wave posts an 8% activation rate, and EVP posts a 1.3% improvement in voter turnout. Each targets low propensity voters, and EVP adds marketing data to reach the environmentally concerned low propensity voters.

Because of the Postcard Parties, I'm doing a fundraiser to support SF Love Dojo and my writing.

If you’d like to support my writing and compassion work through SF Love Dojo, you can do so in four ways:
 
1. Buy an “I’m with Collective Genius” t-shirt  for $25 - this riffs on Daniel Kwan’s statement at the Oscars last year that genius arises from the collective :)
 
Collective Genius logo.001.jpeg
 
2. Donate directly to SF Love Dojo, a 501c3 nonprofit, either through the PayPal giving fund or sending a check made out to SF Love Dojo, Inc. at 1734 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94131.
 
3. You can also support by becoming a free or paid subscriber to my Substack, which consists of my posts at Psychology Today and East Wind eZine, sometimes with added commentary. For a sample, here’s my latest:

Donald Trump could be the UnBuddha, the personification of Dukkha and self-centeredness itself. And our antidote is the Beloved Community.

Lastly, before I get to the posts, I was on Liana Kerzner's "It's Not Therapy!" podcast on Ageism:

Ageism - Why You Should Care At Any Age - Apple Podcasts and Podbean.

Here's a roundup of all my PT and East Wind posts:

Psychology Today

and from East Wind eZine

MOSF 19.8: “Didi”: Insecurity, Dissociation, Cringe, and Sense of Self (EAAPAAO Part 6) (August 5, 2024)

Sean Wang’s debut feature “Didi” provides a layered look at Asian American, specifically Taiwanese American, boyhood and interiority, complete with cringe and dissociation. It’s a great companion piece to this summer’s “Inside Out 2.”

MOSF 19.9: Society Keeps the Score: Family Trauma, Estrangement, Cutoffs, No-Contact, Alienation…and Post-Traumatic Growth (Part 1) (August 8, 2024)

A recent article in the New York Times explored the work of Patrick Teahan, a popular online advocate of family cutoffs and no-contact. Others worry about the effects of alienation and estrangement. Family trauma frequently affects BIPOC families, as well as all families, and society keeps the score. This essay explores nuances from social media cutoffs and blocking to our national and international dissociations.

MOSF 19.10: Society Keeps the Score (Part 2): From Psychic Cutoffs to Belonging (August 20)

A controversial New York Times article highlighted the work of Patrick Teahan promoting no-contact cutoffs with family in cases of trauma. But there’s more to the story. A precis and extension of my last post here.

 

Phew, that's all for now! See you again next month, or hopefully some of you might wish to keep more granular tabs on me through Substack.

Warmly,

Ravi

 

 

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