Welcome to the weirdness! Each week, you will receive from me playful, uncanny, or chaotic snippets designed to prod your curiosity out of its hiding place. I want you to stay active and oh-so-human in a world that profits from you being scared, passive or numb.
This week, it’s about the practice of hefting- especially if you want to create action.
What’s hefting?
It’s about your fit in the world. I came across the term (as a verb) in North Yorkshire, to describe someone who is settled in their location (“She’s properly hefted there!”). It can also be used unkindly (“She right hefted!”), but for today’s side-jaunt, it’s about your place, knowledge and fitting in.
Still confused? Here’s the dictionary definition.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Synonyms of heft: A) weight, heaviness B) importance, influence
North Yorkshire / Scots useage
To heft: to accustom animals to a new pasture by herding them repeatedly to it, until they are habituated to the location and no longer stray.
Everyone gets hefted to a certain degree. It’s not just sitting in a location; it’s the intimate knowledge of that place. In a field, it’s knowing where the boggy bits are and swerving the thistles. In a supermarket, it’s knowing where the eggs are kept is, or what the cheapest option is for buying nuts (weirdly, the same product in different packaging will cost you more from the deli section than from the home-baking shelf. Yes; it’s nuts).
Here on Substack, it might be a thread of your favourite authors in one place or the best person to visit for an expert opinion. It’s about where and how you spend your attention.
Intentional hefting for humans
So, why does this matter for humans? Well, everyone wants to change the world, or at least leave their mark on it. The trick to doing so without being evil or burning out is…hefting.
It’s twofold.
The first is systematic. If you want to have a real impact in this world, it means showing up consistently. To do that (without burning out), it means you need to have a community to draw on. This is true no matter what path you are pursuing - political, creative, charitable or business. If you want to change your immediate area, you can often do so in a matter of months, but since you live there, the pushback will be felt immediately as well (and there’s often pushback, even if it’s a positive change as it’s something new). Hefting in your community can literally be gaining weight as your presence and worth accumulates. You become the person people turn to, or hear of. Rosa Parks bus protest in the USA took off, partly because she was so well known across various groups in her community. In Ukraine's 2014 Euromaiden protests, the capital's main square became the protest community with its own kitchens and security. Organisation brings weight.
The second is memory. Since humans are story telling animals, hefting also works when you plant yourself in the mind's landscape. Comedians, entertainers, singers, journalists and politicians who know how to speak all live here. It can also be visual - think of guerrilla gardening, Banksy, flash mobs and silent protests. Standing out in a way that can’t be ignored doesn’t cost money or time, but it does cost courage. Your heft here is to become memory. Which again, is the weight of attention of the many.
How will you leave your mark? Community, place, mind or memory? Where will you draw from for strength?
Happy hefting!
A post very relevant to things that are meandering through my mind at the moment. Great timing X