Tag Archives: voting

Agency and Archery

Yesterday, I wrote about kinetic energy and potential energy and how both can be seen in the image of an archer pulling back on a bowstring. By pulling on the bowstring while pressing against the rigid curve of the bow, the archer amplifies the potential energy of the weapon, all thanks to the magic of math and angles and physics and stuff.

Every element of the machine has an effect on the outcome. Is the bow made from stiff oak or rubbery yew? Is the string linen or rawhide or polyethylene fiber? Are the archer’s muscles tired or fresh? Does her breath make her wobble or do her hips make a steady base? Is her elbow at the correct angle to amplify the power of pulling back, or does some force dissipate? Are the fletching feathers on the arrow in good shape and positioned for maximum aerodynamics? Does the wind blow?

Which part of this machine is truly powerful? Is it the arrow with its piercing metal tip? Is it the curved bow–just a piece of wood with a string tied to it? Taken separately, the bow and the string and the arrow are harmless. It’s when they work together that they can feed a family or end one. They are tools for converting potential energy into kinetic energy and converting deer into dinner.

Artemis (later Diana). Goddess of the hunt.

Artemis (later Diana). Goddess of the hunt.

 

And that brings me to the idea of AGENCY. Agency is the ability of a person to act for herself. A child has less agency than the parent. A person who refuses to vote surrenders agency. Financial independence supports agency. Systems of control, like racism and sexism, try to strip agency from others. Energy is one thing–agency is quite another. We can expend all the kinetic energy in the world, but does it lead to or stem from agency?

Think again about the example of the bow, the arrow, and the archer. We spend so much time paying attention to ENERGY. The bow thrums with potential energy; the arrow slices the air with kinetic energy. These tools have energy, but only the archer has agency. Until the archer decides to nock the arrow, and takes aim, and pulls back, and releases…the bow and arrow are useless.

Forget about the energy and the noise and the angles. Forget that your muscles may be tired or the wind might be high.

Go vote. It’s your agency and a lot of people fought long and hard for you to have it.

On another note: Have you ever wondered why British people make a rude gesture by holding up a reverse peace sign? Two fingers up with palm facing in and fingers slightly curved? In England, it’s called “flicking the v’s” and it’s similar to Americans shooting a bird. Those are the two fingers you use to pull a bowstring. English archers destroyed the French at Agincourt, so legend has it that the defiant sign for “piss off” hearkens back to English soldiers waggling those two fingers to remind the French who won. It’s an expression of agency AND archery!

FDR’s Second Term

The first time I ever voted was in the presidential election of 1992. Lines stretched around the building and we were told to expect waits of several hours. It just added to the excitement for me.

I was a couple of months into my first Real Job. I even remember what I was wearing on that momentous day! A black wool pencil skirt, a creamy satin blouse with long puffed sleeves, a gold scarf tied around my waist, black stockings and black pumps (we had only recently escaped the 80s).

This was before smartphones, kindles, ipods, so there wasn’t much to do in the line besides wait. Me being me, I struck up a conversation with the couple in front of me. A husband and wife, retirement age, African American. Neither was taller than my shoulder. He wore a flat driving cap and she wore her glasses on a gold chain. Somebody’s grandmama and grandaddy in Columbus, Georgia.

“This is my first time voting! I’m excited.”

“Oh, that IS good to hear!” he said. “We never miss an election.”

“What was the first election you voted in?”

She looked at him and he looked at her and they both did a little recollecting. She snapped her fingers and said, “FDR! Yes, that’s right. FDR’s second term.”

We spent the rest of that long wait talking about the history I had learned in books and they had influenced with their votes. I’ll never forget those two citizens and how their simple dedication to using their votes taught me about the responsibility and joy of being an American citizen.

I hope you’ll make time to vote today. It hasn’t always been a right. It hasn’t always been easy. But it has always been important.

It's just so much TROUBLE to give women the vote. Why bother?

It’s just so much TROUBLE to give women the vote. Why bother?