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Thoughts on the 2024 U.S. Election

How I feel about Donald Trump winning his second Presidential term today over Kamala Harris…. is influenced a lot by line dancing. 

Hear me out, ‘cause this seemingly unconnected thing might hold the seed of the solution to everything.

My husband and I have gone country western line dancing multiple times a week for over three years now. We’re regulars at our local clubs - we start each night by hugging and greeting the dozens of people we dance with each week. We throw huge line dancing parties at our home, where over a hundred people are invited. People notice when we miss a week. People genuinely care about us. 

Many of those people are Republicans who support Donald Trump. Many are gay, lesbian, transgender, poly, crossdresers. Some are gay people who support Donald Trump. There are old and young, folks with lots of money and folks who can’t afford the glass of wine in front of them. Liberals and conservatives. People whose families came from a different country five generations ago and people who immigrated here five years ago. 

We don’t talk about politics. We just have fun dancing together and getting to know each other. I can’t think of a single other place in my life that is filled with such diversity, where we all get along despite our differences. 

I think it’s because we’re connected by the dancing. It makes us see each other as HUMANS first. Humans, with beliefs that come from our lived experiences. Humans, struggling to thrive in this world and make the choices that are best for our loved ones.  Humans, who see the world in a very different way from each other, not because any of us are evil or ignorant or rotten… but because we’ve all lived different lives from each other. 

Let me be clear about my beliefs: 

• I support a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body

• I support LGBTQIA+ rights

• I believe immigrants are the bedrock of this country 

• I believe what scientists have been saying for decades about climate change

• I support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color’s rights

… and I also see absolutely zero benefit in demonizing the people who voted differently than me. Or refusing to befriend them. Or excluding them from our parties. From what I can see, all that does is further divide us until we’re all in complete silos, only hearing and being validated by people who believe the exact same way we do. 

I’m a beyond-college-educated, upper middle class, Asian-American woman living in Los Angeles, CA and my best friends are a gay couple who have been together for over 30 years.  When I greet a line dance friend who is wearing a Christian cross necklace and American flag-gun earrings… I think we both understand that our politics might be different.

And despite that, I believe my line dance community would absolutely help me in a time of need. With their money, food, hours and energy… and that’s something important. Something human underneath all the politics that gives me hope. 

So I’m incredibly sad and disappointed and frustrated and confused today about the election results. I so wanted hope to win out over fear. And the one thing that is making me feel better right now is CURIOSITY. 

1. Why REALLY did the majority of voting Americans choose Donald Trump? 

2. What do I not understand about their lives and beliefs and fears, because of the privileged place I am in?

3. How do we see more of each other’s full humanity, because this us-versus-them bullshit is really hurting us all

And finally… what can I do to fight for women’s rights and gay rights and trans rights and immigrant rights and people of color’s rights, in a way that doesn’t continue to divide us?

(I also realize that I’m in the incredibly privileged position of a cisgender, heterosexual, conventionally attractive, female member of a model minority who is highly educated, not reproducing, and currently paying a mortgage on a single-family house in Southern California. If you are in a more vulnerable position and you are fucking angry or disgusted or afraid or despairing… you deserve to feel that.) 

I might look back on this later and feel really different. But for now… the only thing giving me hope is embracing our messy, stupid, fearful, trying-as-hard-as-we-can, halting, painfully slow, human stumbling towards progress and love and courage. 

-Shinah (Nov 6, 2024)

Finding God in Laziness

It’s been a month since I decided to come back to my business, Crooked Calligraphy, in a completely new way.

(Read the business manifesto I published on February 15, 2023.)

Here’s something my unconscious revealed to me today: This experiment is WAY more important than I realized.

I NEED to do this business experiment because I NEED to know THAT there is something else out there taking care of me, other than myself.

It’s like a trust fall with the universe… if I let go of the productivity, the “value add”, the to-do checklists and laundry baskets… will I still be ok?

As I type this, I feel myself starting to cry because this isn’t just a BUSINESS experiment, it’s a RELIGIOUS experiment.

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I’ve held on so tightly for all my life. Gripping the wheel like I was in charge of steering the entire bus of my security and well-being. Surely if I got up from that driver’s seat and laid in the backseat to play video games, the bus would crash, flip over and spontaneously combust.

And now as I’m typing this, goddamnit, I’m realizing how similar this all sounds to the whole “Jesus Take the Wheel” idea.

….And that makes me go “ick” because I went to a very dogmatic, Baptist Christian elementary school and I witnessed a lot of hypocrisy and hate.

But this idea of mine is NOT new, for crying out loud. This idea that we need to let go of control; that our feeble, rationalizing, socialized, pre-frontal cortexes can’t possibly see all the solutions.

I need to believe that there’s some kind of magic in this world. Whether that’s called divinity or source or the universe or nature or just the whole of our bodies taking in and processing more millions of bits of data than our “logical” minds can know…

This past year hasn’t just been a “break from business” or sabbatical or even a well-deserved “rest and recharge.” It’s been, and continues to be, a radical act of FAITH.

"Beating" the Algorithm

I posted about my “New Instagram Energy” on Instagram yesterday and got this comment in response:

So… HOW DO WE WORK AROUND THE INSTAGRAM ALGORITHM?

The short answer is… WE DON’T.

Trying to “work around” the Instagram algorithm makes Instagram the boss of you. And doing things a certain way, begrudgingly, because your boss demanded it… well, that doesn’t usually lead to a healthy, long-term relationship with that behavior. Your creativity and soul fire WILL slowly die if your only goal on Instagram is to beat the algorithm.

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But here’s the longer, more nuanced answer, which I’m still building faith in:

Trying to “beat” the algorithm automatically sets up an adversarial relationship with Instagram.

Like, you have to outmaneuver it to get what you want.

Because you’re RELYING ON IT TO GET WHAT YOU WANT.

I used to pick up my phone dozens of times a day to check how my posts were doing. To get that little dopamine hit of likes, comments, DMs, attention, praaaaaaise!!!

In other words, I wanted Instagram (and the real human PEOPLE on it) to FEED ME ALL THE TIME.

It felt like being chained to a slot machine that I kept feeding my hard-earned fucks into and occasionally, I would get showered with validation and think “YES! I WON!!"" But most of the time, I just felt bitter and resentful at the number of likes and comments I was getting. And yet I couldn’t walk away. I couldn’t stop feeding the machine. I was addicted.

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And that fucked-up relationship doesn’t just stop when you close the Instagram app.

If this is the energy you’re approaching Instagram with… it’s probably the energy you’re approaching the rest of your business, and all of your potential customers, with.

The energy of:

• This is all so unfair

• There are only a few winners in business and I’m probably not going to be one of them

• My work isn’t good enough to stand on its own, so I better do all the latest tricks to get more visible

• It’s more important to do it the “right” way than the way that truly feeds my soul

• There’s never enough (followers, likes, comments, DMs, customers) so my biggest goal is to get more, more, more

• I don’t trust that my best customers are out there, so I have to work really hard to convince everyone

Most creative entrepreneurs are on Instagram trying to get “seen” by the biggest number of people because they think that will bring them success (somehow).

When really, the thing that will make the biggest impact is getting seen by THE RIGHT KINDS OF PEOPLE.

People don’t buy handmade creations, works of art, calligraphy courses, etc. because they’re made by perfectly polished, algorithmically-ideal companies with massive marketing budgets.

I mean, are you really going to compete with Target or Michaels?

Customers buy from creative entrepreneurs BECAUSE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR.

>>>>So, what if the biggest priority is isn’t figuring out the algorithms, but figuring out how cultivate the juiciest, best, creative ideas inside your own self?

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Like I said, I’m still building up faith in this whole idea.

So here’s the new, more trusting relationship with Instagram that I’m trying out now.

It’s basically the exact opposite of the shitty slot machine. I pour value and humor and insight and beauty into my people, who happen to be on that app, and expect NOTHING in return. Because I don’t need Instagram to feed me anymore.

The act of creating feeds me. The ideas and insights I have because I kept all of my fucks… that feeds me. The knowledge that I’m putting value out into the world… that feeds me.

And ironically, that energy ends up ATTRACTING just the right kinds of people. The people who get so much value out of the free stuff I feel inspired to share, that they can’t wait to pay me to get even more value.

…….I have faith that this approach will work. That’s why I’m trying out this CRAZY-ASS EXPERIMENT.

I’ll keep you posted on how it’s all going.

With Love & Hope,

Shinah