Simple reminders of our connectedness can work wonders

I believe we can still make waves even if we don't all agree on how to get there yet

Right now in 2025 I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people are hungry for a revolution.

This, I hope, shouldn’t come as a surprise. We’re all tired of the lies, the bullshit, the torture, the pain, and the massive dump that’s being taken on regular folks on any given day.

But I think we’re also hungry for more than that, too.

We’re hungry for lasting change, and we’re hungry for an outstretched hand and someone to say “I know how you feel. I feel the same. Let’s focus on moving this tiny little piece of our world just a little before we start to worry ourselves with shifting the mountain of shit that’s piling up in front of us at an exponential rate.”

I went to the Montana Folk Festival over the weekend. It draws thousands of people every year, and this year was no different.

But what struck me this year was how joyous the crowds were. How so many people were dancing and exploring and singing with a purpose, almost like we all knew that this world hasn’t been normal for any of us lately, and damnit we’re going to make up for it during these three days in Uptown Butte.

Maybe that energy will make an impact in more ways than one this year.

Really, when you think about it, change doesn’t start with a grand gusto — it’s always a few people who take a few steps, followed by a few others who take some more steps and so on and so on and so on until before you know it, the powerful are scratching their heads wondering where their momentum went.

Maybe I’m naive, and maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I feel like every day we get closer and closer to the tipping point where enough of us are ready to spread change like a wildfire.

What was remarkable about the Folk Festival this weekend was how peaceful it was. How open everyone was to trying and hearing new things. How little everyone around us seemed to care about things like what party you voted for in the last election, what your thoughts were about gun control or abortion, or how many times you signed a Change.org petition in the last 18 months.

None of that really, truly, matters to people when we’re not all crowded around our phones, doom-scrolling about the latest awful event happening in the news.

It’s not that those things don’t matter and the simple solution everyone needs to do is to simply “NOT SCROLL YOUR PHONE ANYMORE!” because let’s be honest, that’s not realistic.

It’s more the idea, a simple one, mind you, that what it means to be human still is pretty universal. When we hear good music, we start to bob our heads, we start to feel it in our bones and we can’t help but feel like we’re having a good time, no matter what we just read about on Politico or the New York Times that morning.

You’re a sack of meat and organs and bones just like the other folks. You’re unique, yes, but you’re also a person with the same flaws and feelings and strengths as almost everyone else.

We CAN open ourselves up to change. Try to open yourself up to accepting those who you’ve never met can be done if you don’t let anything get too in the way of our natural need for human interaction.

Most importantly, remember that having your mind blown by something usually means that that same thing likely has a big impact on others, too. And where we don’t agree, we can at least recognize that our human DNA opens us up to the same stimuli than not.

We can work with that. It’s small, and it’s simple, and it doesn’t feel like it might solve a lot of problems, but, finding a kernel of connectedness sometimes is more than we feel for long stretches of time, if you’re anything like me, at least.

But, if you can remember that if thousands of other human beings who you’ve never met can be just as inspired by a Pakistani band named Khumariyaan as you are, maybe there’s other things we agree upon as well.

Things like hope — a hope that we can survive and thrive again but at the same time feeling fear about how fast our country has taken a hard turn into unchartered territory that maybe we need to back the fuck out from.

I think the No Kings Protest and the 50501 protests before that, attest to this idea. But, it’s deeper than that too.

We can survive by taking care of each other.

We can survive, but we need to remember that we’re not in this world alone.

That it’s OK to reach out to people who are struggling and ask them if you can do anything for them.

It’s OK to admit that you need help, too, sometimes.

You’re not alone, I promise you this.

The music in your life might be bleak right now, but, I promise you, the sad songs can’t last forever.