This week, I had planned to write about the proliferation of poorly written female characters, as a contrast to last week’s article about Leslie Knope, and how it is something that we need to get better at.

But.

As I imagine many of you are after last week, I am stretched pretty thin. I don’t have the spoons to write that article. Instead, I want to talk about good things that are happening. They do still exist, although sometimes they’re hard to see. In no particular order:

First, something that’s exciting to me on a professional level in addition to a personal level: the state of Illinois has just passed a huge bipartisan bill that supports the implementation and expansion of clean energy use. This bill has the state on track to get at least 25% of its energy from renewable resources by 2025. I just started a new job at the Illinois Solar Energy Association, and all the new colleagues I’ve met have given me hope that, at least on a state-by-state level, things are being done combat climate change.

Second, cheese exists. Some ancient human saw that the milk had gone bad and decided to eat it anyway. Isn’t that a freaking miracle? It was so easy to die before modern medicine, and yet we took the chance that whatever had made the milk go bad wouldn’t kill us, and it PAID OFF. A++ for human ingenuity and unbelievable capacity for risk-taking.

Third, the unbelievable upwelling of support for everyone who is threatened by the new administration. If I live in an echo chamber, at least it’s one that shouts its support for each other not only across the vast reaches of the internet, but also in real life. There are people who care, and people who are doing something about it. Millions of people have gone to protests in the US and around the world. The attendance at the Women's March on Chicago alone was at least 250,000! There are record numbers of donations to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and other organizations that provide for the disenfranchised. People are coming together.

Fourth, the internet. It is magic. You can access the collective knowledge of the world on a device that fits in your pocket! It has certain downsides, of course, but as any good fantasy geek knows, there are always consequences from using magic.

Fifth, dogs. Just dogs. And cats. Animals in general.

There’s language and music and art. There’s chocolate. There’s little acts of everyday kindness. There is still good here. We just have to look for it, share it, remind each other that it’s there.