Done Giving up?
Not done with the world. Done giving up on it changing without us.
I keep waiting for things to change without demanding it. So do you. This isn't working. Worse, it's the whole problem. The hope we're used to floats, feels nice, does nothing. I want hope that does the math, names the power, and moves anyway. 89% of us, worldwide, want real change, not incremental fixes. Almost none of us know that. We each think we're the only one, so we've stopped saying it out loud. Keeping this a secret is costing us. Researchers call this pluralistic ignorance: most of us think we're the exception. We're not.
A school for adults done giving up
The Newsletter is the curriculum. It’s free, 3xmonth. Stories of people who changed something nobody asked them to change. Then it stops being about them, because the next question is what you'd change, if you actually let yourself.
That's what the Story Sessions are for: the school's office hours, Monday morning, every week. Show up, find out which story you've been standing in, and what you want to do about it. €1 a month gets you in, the slots grow as the club grows. This is bananas on purpose. Bananas is the strategy.
This runs on readers, not advertisers. Read free, or join for €1/month and keep the jar of fireflies open.
Part research, part scrapbook. Scissors and glue optional but recommended. Free.
Story Leaders
I used to think change was a massive, untakeable step. Then I met people taking small ones, on purpose, without knowing it would work. None of them had a plan, or waited for permission. That's the only thing between them and me. And you.
I’m Serena, the adult behind all this.
There's a photo of me when I was five, holding an umbrella. It looks like it's raining but it isn't. My grandmother is pouring water from above to create the illusion. I didn't know the difference. I could feel the water, so I stood there braced, holding my umbrella as though it mattered.
We don't just respond to reality. We respond to what we believe we're standing in. How much energy do we spend bracing for storms? Conserving. Protecting. Building systems to shield ourselves from collapse when the storm might not even be real. Someone's just pouring water and we've mistaken it for weather.
Climate collapse is real. Inequality is real. But I think many of us are solving the wrong problem. We're preparing for what we think is inevitable when we could be creating what's possible. We're conserving energy for endurance when we could be channelling it towards imagination.
A child holding an umbrella in manufactured rain isn't wrong, she's responding rationally to her perception. Once you see the grandmother with the watering can, everything changes. Not “How do I survive this storm?” but “What am I actually standing in?” Not because the water stops, but because you realise you have more choices than you thought.
I’m building this right now. Foundation is up, opening windows next. Come with.
93 subscribers
are done giving up!
80% Open Rate
That’s unhinged. I love it.
13 Founding Members
are funding Story Sessions.
2 Activity Books
6 Story Leaders
who changed things.
