Waiting for a revolution? Start with yourself.

It's not original, or even compelling anymore to say that we're all being too normal given the circumstances of 2026. And I know I don't need to paint a picture of what it's like to live a normal day in this timeline, but it is humorous, almost: eating a 25-dollar slop bowl for lunch on a too-hot Wednesday in April on the asphalt behind the corporate office, scrolling through the latest news, 90% of which is more horrible than anything published the day before, is precisely what the majority of us experience as daily life. Law doesn't seem to apply to the wealthy, but slams down harder than ever on those who can't afford to defend themselves. Artificial intelligence trumps inner-knowing and critical thinking, and we are all but held at gunpoint to use it for everything while we consciously watch it destroy local environments across the country.

No one wants this. But no matter how loudly we scream it from the mountains or frequently we watch the phrase ricochet across social media, nothing is going to change until there is a serious, damning financial incentive for governments and billionaires to make it so. Depressing? Absolutely. But nonetheless true.

Part of what makes this timeline one where we must all choose to compartmentalize, to hypernormalize, to laugh so we don't cry, is that very fact and the aftermath that comes from accepting it as truth: there is often not a lot to feel hopeful about. To take a line from Mary Oliver's Don't Hesitate: "There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed." She's right. It's true. Some things really are going to be lost forever. And as we age, we seem to always learn the hard way that the "good guys" don't always win. Maybe we don't make a dent, even when it seems like a pretty easy ask.

There is a very specific thing the vast majority of the world is asking for, and the sophisticated word for it is reconciliation. The pattern is as follows: the people who've caused the most damage acknowledge that they've caused damage. They feel genuine remorse, then they repent and change their behavior. They understand why the change was necessary, continue to show a permanent shift, and then, eventually, trust is restored.

Rather than simply asking, now, I should say the entire world screams for reconciliation, but without understanding what the word means or how it is achieved. As the "good guys," we think it should be simple. But our problem begins with the mindset that because the biggest, most powerful and most resourced won't even complete the first step of acknowledgement, there is nowhere else to go. The needle will never be moved. It must come from those at the top and trickle down. But that system has never worked - not for politics, not for the economy, and certainly not for morality. Why should we wait on those who have proved time after time to be the most morally bankrupt to do the work of accountability? The problem with waiting on the world to change is that if we keep side-eyeing everyone else, we'll never stop shifting our own feet.

I'm not saying you're the problem - but you've got to stop believing in a system that has never yielded favorable results, and see where the patterns occur more locally, literally beginning with yourself. You've got to stop ignoring the dusty corners of your own life where you haven't acknowledged your wrongdoings, haven't sat with your own guilt, haven't apologized or changed your behavior. Because if we haven't done it, why are we pointing fingers?

Of course the AI overlords are more evil than we are. Of course this administration is covering up crimes more heinous than we can likely imagine. But to think that they will be the "bigger people," that they will be the first to admit their wrongdoings and do the long, deep, confronting work of reconciliation with the rest of us is not only unfathomable, but also insulting.

It insinuates that we as a collective don't have any power, and thankfully history has proven this to be untrue. Look no further than Stonewall, or the Arab Spring. Or perhaps most notably, the Zapatistas movement from 1994 onward, where community members of Chiapas, Mexico, essentially stopped waiting for the state and built autonomous local governance structures, schools, and healthcare within their own communities that have kept them thriving to this day. In every one of these revolutions and many more alongside them, common folk were able to rise up against their oppressors. It was never a single dramatic moment, over and done with as easily as it began. It is always unglamorous, imperfect, and yet sustained local organizing that creates conditions where change becomes inevitable.

But sure, I can concede that we're not there yet in this neck of the woods. We're too comfortable. Our oppressors keep us just happy, just busy, just distracted enough that we either don't feel it's worth the trouble to overcome them, or we don't see the problem at all. We've perhaps been gaslighted into thinking we don't really have it that bad, so we might as well just shut up and keep it moving. We can tell ourselves the same story every few days, but we know the truth every time it comes back to smack us in the face: there is a better world. And if we want it, we are responsible for making it happen.

So instead of relying on the literal worst examples of humankind to do it first, start inward. What does it look like to reckon with ourselves? It's the same pattern as before: acknowledge when and where and how we've gotten in the way of our own ability to thrive. Feel remorse. Change the pattern (which will take time, lots of it). Stay consistent. Keep the promise to yourself. Rebuild trust.

And with our closest friendships, partners, and family? Acknowledge when and where and how we've created rifts, made threats, neglected their needs despite knowing better. Apologize sincerely. Work to correct our course. Keep our word. Rebuild trust.

And with our local community? Rinse and repeat.

I don't want to downplay how long this work takes for it to be genuine and sustainable. Most of us will never even right that relationship to ourselves, much less be able to move outward into the larger expanses of our lives. That's not said to make it seem like even more of a pipe dream; I only say it to contextualize just how massive this global reconciliation would have to be, and maybe that it isn't reasonable, right now, to expect the entire world to follow suit. This doesn't fix everything, but it's a good start. Mary Oliver, in that same poem, did mention that "sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world." So at the very least, allow yourself to be that something.