Working multiple tracks to hold light for others

An acquaintance of mine, educator and higher ed leader Suzanne Wilson Summers, posted a comment on LinkedIn to an article calling on us all to remember history and to heed current calls for action.

Her comment struck me at a moment when I was questioning my own current strategy of action.

“”As a historian,” Suzanne wrote, “I know that this will indeed pass. All things do. The work of leaders is to ask, who will we be on the other side? How can I hold light for others for a future that builds rather than destroys? That work takes discipline and steadfast commitment to a broader vision.” (Emphasis mine).

How can I hold light for others for a future that builds rather than destroys?

The question struck me because I am feeling this tension about my long-term focus on improving community listening, locally. I touched on it in my last post: It’s like the house is burning, but I’m thinking about organizing the next party there.

“How can I hold light?” led me to broaden my scope. And immediately three examples of how that might work came to mind. All are from my network of relationships spanning different communities.

The first example is also locally focused. A long-time colleague and friend is a skilled designer and facilitator of communities that bridge online and real-life spaces. They are the force-of-nature behind a Signal group dedicated to sharing Chicago area resistance and protest actions. [I am not sharing their name intentionally. This group is private and hosted on a secure platform]. The guidelines for the group nudge members to share actions and activities and avoid rehashing news or feelings about the news. This is a subtle thing, but effective. It is based on my colleague’s deep online community management experience and talent. The result is a burgeoning community of folks who are visibly sharing what they actually do, rather than commiserating.

Another example is Beth Salyers. At the beginning of 2025, Beth launched Curiosity Tour 2025, a year-long effort she designed after reflecting on the current conditions post election. “I aim to practice and inspire curiosity in a world driven by algorithms and polarization,” she writes.

Beth’s effort has a very different feel and structure than the Signal group. It is more exploratory. But still, its underlying purpose is similar: To tap into the things that help us focus as we fight through the batshit times. When you read her regular newsletter posts – prompts for each phase of the curiosity tour – it is colored by her personality, her voice, and her way of thinking through the challenges. But each prompt invites you into new ways of thinking about your own situation.

The third example is the community of folks at Asynco. The central focus of the community is navigating and shaping remote/hybrid work. The underlying vibe strongly leans toward promoting the agency of the workforce and giving deep consideration to how an organization’s policies impact people’s full lives. It is a rich mix of folks from across North America, the U.K. and Europe.

What is striking in the current moment is how this community has also enabled collective resistance actions. The Europeans, especially, are fed up with Silicon Valley; the philosophy it represents, the damage that companies it inspires are doing, and the influence of its billionaire leader class. The same vibe that is the foundation of workforce agency led this community to collectively share a set of alternatives to the predominantly U.S. based technology platforms and tools we all use. Folks are moving to new tools. They are resisting with their keyboards.

All three examples share two things in common:

• They are clear-eyed about the current times we live in and do not shy away from being explicit in their resistance to Trump/Musk and their global enablers.
• They leverage their unique talents and expertise to offer ways of acting and resisting.

This led me to think about where I might contribute my community learning and collaboration know-how in small experiments, across multiple tracks, to address short-term actions at a very local level (my focus).

I won’t share ideas here because I want to focus on those things that I actually do rather than what I could do.

I have some thoughts and will reflect on any experiments that I do. It’s definitely building off of the “how might I contribute?” mindset I wrote about in What if everybody’s job is to do repair? But I am also seeing it as more than that. There are ways – and a real need – to plug into existing structures and movements and to contribute talent in that fashion. But in doing additional small experiments we often also find gaps and needs that can be addressed by the talents we bring to the cause.

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The photographs which accompany these posts are taken by me, and show different settings and views of Evanston (where I live). It is a visual reminder that this is the most important setting for belonging and contributing to community; my neighborhood, my city.