Marching in May

I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s on old Disney animated films- damsels falling in love with their captors, whitewashed depictions of “barbaric” foreign places, women giving up their voice for a man’s love - not the values I want to share with my own kids. Those movies stuck with me though, and I’m pretty sure I could sing you every one of those Disney song’s despite the other ways I’d prefer to use that brain space.

Here we are decades later. It is a hard moment to be an American who cares about other living beings and our beautiful earth. As every day’s headlines, and Heather Cox Richardson’s emails pop up in my inbox- I can’t stop thinking about this one scene in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

It’s a scene at the end of the movie where Ursula, the octopus sea witch blackmails Triton to give her his magical staff. She gets so drunk on her new power she begins to grow and grow into a gigantic version of herself. She flashes lighting, begins a destructive storm, and stirs up the waters so that the old sunken ships lying on the bottom of the ocean start to rise to the surface. Ursula’s tentacles whip around haphazardly and destructively. Eric (the prince) climbs on one of the old ships and steers it right into Ursula’s bloated body, mortally puncturing her as she shrinks and withers back into the sea.

Every headline I read feels like Ursula growing bigger and bigger, the power hungry, egos and greed inflating ever bigger- the tentacles of violence and harm whipping around indiscriminately, the country groaning as the bones of our white supremacist past get pulled to the surface and exposed.

No, I’m not waiting for Prince Eric to come save us all, instead I’m picturing all of us, finding our way to our neighbors, and chosen families, and local communities getting in our massive fleet of little boats and collectively moving together in the same direction to end this once and for all and move towards building the America that is still waiting to be born.

Today is May 1st. Over a million people are expected to rally and strike around the country as part of May Day Strong. Is it enough to beat the tentacles of power and greed that keep destroying people and systems meant to protect people? No, not in one day.

But that’s not how this works. Before the Women’s March in 2017 I had never attended a significant march, or rally, strike or protest. I had thought of myself as political, and actively engaged in “making the world a better place.” but marching with all those thousands of people all those years ago, ignited something in me. It put forth a vision for how I could be less alone and live a life with more integrity and community. It felt so good, it pushed me to be so much more courageous and go so much deeper with my own understanding and actions than I ever would have ventured.

We all need to feel part of something bigger, to make the more courageous choices, to take the risks that are going to be asked of all of us to stand for the world as we wish it to be.

So here is the new limited edition print in the We Gather series. It’s called We March and is inspired by all the marches that have helped us find our voices and our places in the struggle for freedom for all.

We March prints are offered as a very limited edition of just 28. Hand printed in warm brown and sky blue on striking red paper, they are easily framed in a standard 20” x 20” frame. Each print is unique, individually numbered and signed by me.

Learn more about We March prints

So wether you are out with the masses today, or not spending money with Amazon and the big corporations, or making your own courageous choices for building a new world- it all matters.

Here’s to finding our voices, and our people, and our boats, and marching together towards a future where all can thrive.

With love,

Jen