I thought to myself, last week – “if the unthinkable happens in the American election, I’ll do a video about the gym as sanctuary” – but it was an idle thought, really. I didn’t plan anything. I scripted and prepared to do a video about food.

But then the unthinkable happened, and it has been scarier and more traumatic than my brief idle speculation allowed me to realize it would be.

I’m a Canadian, so there’s a tissue-thin level of distance between me and what’s happening, what’s going to happen. But I’m not so ignorant of history to think it couldn’t happen here, or that the violence targeted against minorities won’t spill over the border some. People I care about are American. One half of the team that makes these videos is American. America still has its hands on the rudder of the Western world. Life just became a lot more difficult and a lot scarier for millions of people.

I wrote this on Wednesday night and we filmed it on Thursday morning. I almost broke a few times when recording it. The years ahead won’t be easy. I will miss the illusory comfort of the last decade or so. It will be exhausting work, trying to hold the line, to hold on to as much progress as we can.

That’s why it’s important to keep a sanctuary of some kind (without retreating into it wholly).

* * *

Some links:

ACLU: https://action.aclu.org/donate-aclu
CAIR: https://www.cair.com/donations/general-donation/campaign/#/
Lambda Legal: https://www.lambdalegal.org/donate
Planned Parenthood: https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/
SPLC: https://donate.splcenter.org/

There are many other deserving places to give money, and many other ways to organize and be strong for each other.