a new slick leaf unfurling like a fist to an open palm

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me.

-Instructions on Not Giving Up | Ada Limón

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Like most kids of a certain age and disposition, my daughter has experienced the early days of 2020 in a cloud of Frozen-themed...well, everything. We're not a household that buys branded toys and clothes, so we've so far escaped that whole thing, but movies and music abound all the same.
For those of you not yet familiar, Frozen 2 is a little bit...deep. The main theme of the movie is a story about colonialism and reparations, and it kind of goes from there, with a particularly devastating scene in the middle that serves as the backdrop to Anna's big number, The Next Right Thing.
My friend and Parent Rap co-host Sara also hosts a podcast called A Soft Place to Land, which consists of 12-minute-or-so episodes ruminating on things that have felt meaningful and brought joy to her (so, dear readers, I think you'll probably enjoy it, and you can consider this a hearty endorsement). The second episode, Volcano Day, has a really poignant little moment in which Sara explains that, in time travel stories and in life, she sees those "starfish" moments as acts of defiance. Even if we know it's not going to change the problem, even when we know it's not enough, and perhaps because we know both those things, we do it anyway.
I admit to having felt a little bit defeated by the world and by life and by, you know, *gestures at the whole situation right now*. This probably doesn't surprise you. The situation is so far beyond anything we can really comprehend that it feels easier to just swim down.
But Sara's little comment about defiance really felt like a recharge. We need to remember our starfish as acts of rebellion. As steps toward making right. It doesn't have to be a plan, but it can still be a strategy. We can use every choice to say "no. I'm not ok with that."


“That's your first hint that something's alive. It says no.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two