A tireless warrior for civil rights, law professor Sherrilyn Ifill was the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In her Substack Newsletter posted shortly before the inauguration  “THIS IS IT: FACING TRUMP 2.0,”there was an existential roadmap that sustained me over the first 100 days. Ifill compared our battle to that of Jack and Rose on the Titanic.

“But like Rose and Jack, we have goals as well. To survive personally and nationally, with the remnants of democracy still in place so that we have a platform on which to build a new, stronger, healthier democracy. Our other goal is to stay together. We can and must do both.”

Ifill also suggested what we should do in the first hundred days. Craven, Hubbell, Siskind, and Snyder further validated her advice. And, while 5Calls, pressuring Congressional representatives, and calling out untruths was essential, it was the paragraph on sustaining our emotional selves that I have “leaned into” the most these first 100 days.

Ifill said, “Many of us are fighting powerful exhaustion and an ongoing measure of shock that this giant, seemingly unsinkable state-of-the-art democracy (however flawed) can really be about to sink. That exhaustion and disbelief can lead to paralysis … I have encouraged people to lean-in to art, and nature and family and spiritual practice. Establishing a regimen of these things that you will engage and absorb regularly over the next four years is critical. An exercise schedule, morning meditation or prayer, monthly museum visits or concerts, a book club, monthly family dinners, Netflix nights, leaning into your favorite sports team. All of this can help ensure that you are regularly oxygenated throughout what I can guarantee will be moments that will take our breath away in their cruelty and audacity.”