Why We Cling To Power

... and why it can feel like nothing ever really shifts.

The idea here is that people have limited windows in which they can accomplish certain things. There’s a “window” for life, which is probably give or take 80–90 years for the healthiest among us, and then there’s a “window” for athletic achievement, which is typically 14 to 40 or so, relative to sport. There are “windows” for career success attainment, usually 20s to 50s, but that “window” is narrowing with the rise of ageism.

Probably the biggest “window” that drives a lot of decision-making is child-bearing, because while the whole narrative of “you should do this at 30” is kinda cooked books (my aunt had a kid at 42, and Savannah Guthrie appears to have had her first kid at around that age), many women still hit about 29, see their friends posting baby shots on The Gram, and think “I am behind.”

Look at politics too. Mitch McConnell became Majority Whip in the 108th Congress, then was re-elected to that post in 2004. In 2006, he was elected Senate Minority Leader. He held that until 2015, when GOP took control of the Senate. He had a nine-year window where he was outflanked power-wise; now he’s in power, for the Senate, but that could literally end this upcoming January. So he has a window of power and being able to get stuff through.

So how do windows impact power and activism?