Taps

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who inspired you 

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who you want to get to know better 

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who made you laugh 

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I’m lying facedown on the carpet in the large conference room.

There are some 65 bodies arranged in a tight circle. Most with their heads down, eyes closed, and thumbs up. The room is silent, apart from a solo Grade 12 caller, instructing with what comes next.

It’s a massive game of Heads Up Seven Up, but the role of the seven (or more) who are ‘up’ has a bit more at stake.

A closing act of a two-day conference on peace and justice. The room, mostly high schoolers from schools in town, along with a couple groups from abroad.

A recurrent theme of the weekend has been the notion of critical hope. A much-needed counterbalance to ‘hokey hope’, whose dismissive tone signals everything is ‘just going be all right’, blindly optimistic.

Critical hope, on the other hand, exists through understanding and unpacking systems of oppression, how they interfere with justice, and what tools might be employed to dismantle.

It is real, substantial,

empowered.

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who is brave 

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who made you feel safe 

With my thumb first extended, forehead nestling into my forearm, and stomach to the floor, first worries invade my brain and consume me

what if nobody taps my thumb

Imposter syndrome is real.

After a few minutes, however, I am literally, then metaphorically touched, moved by the number of people who recognize, who help me to feel seen.

Did I really do that?

Yeah, I guess maybe I did.

So, safety.

First.

And now that I have this feeling, my thoughts shift to others.

What if someone doesn’t get tapped at all?

That would feel so lonely

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Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who pushed you to think differently 

After a few cycles and different tappers, I realize that I haven’t had a turn to be the person with eyes open, circulating the room, looking for folks to recognize

But then, I get one.

If you haven’t had a chance to be one of the tappers, please open your eyes, stand up, and follow the prompts

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who introduced you to a new concept

I shake my head and blink my eyes awake. There are a lot of us left, we make eye contact and smile at each other as we silently weave the circle, tapping here and there, seeing those who, for the moment, do not see us.

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who made you smile

And any doubts about whether everyone will feel seen, included, or loved, disappear.

Tap a person’s thumb with gratitude who made you feel hopeful about the future

As I wander here and there, circumventing, I hold up. Step back. Marvel at the young humans in this room, seeing one another, sharing joy, and spreading love

I feel a sense of hope that, in these challenging times, escapes me more often than it should.

Then,

I remember

The world is not the news, and the news is not the world.

And there are way, way more of us, than them.

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