Head Cold Thoughts

It took me a long time to emotionally accept that I don't have energy for all the things I feel interested in or guilty about or responsible for. I don't have the energy to write on every cause I believe in, I don't have the energy to learn enough to write about some of them in a way which would justify the energy you, my sweet and erudite reader, must spend to read me. Our energy levels are limited, some days more than others, and we have to consider how best to allocate them.

For me that means not writing about topics I know little about, even if they are important topics. It's good to belong to the audience and to learn what others are saying. (It's also OK, say, not to want to drive in the rush hour traffic in New York City, even if you are a goddess. Because it is not worth the energy sacrifice it requires.)

All this has political implications, of course. Are you spending your energy in the best possible way? This way depends on each individual, but thinking about what you like and dislike among various political forms of activism may sometimes reveal to you where your energy sinks might be. A particular form of activism may not be inefficient in general; it may just be inefficient for you. You may not dislike the activity because of its inherent nature but because it exhausts you faster than other types of activities. Unless it is the very thing in which you excel your energy might best be employed in other ways.

Taking this small thought to the rest of our lives could produce some fascinating findings!