You know, people often ask me why my social media profiles describe me as a "former activist." They read my writing and think, "that's activism!" It isn't, not in the sense you and I evidently think about the word. I don't march in the streets anymore. I don't phone bank anymore. I don't do letter-writing campaigns anymore. I don't network much, not like I used to when I was a real "activist."

All of those things are good things to do depending on where we are in our lives and what we're capable of.

But you know what? You write books, you teach students, and you impact the word you live in. You're working FOR a more positive world, which in essence IS activism.

I don't call myself an activist, but I got a phone call from the publisher of the LA Blade the other day. They run my columns a few times a month, and he wanted to share a story with me about how my recent column about transphobia on the UK political left made an impact at the recent Labour Party conference.

Writing that column took me several hours over the course of two or three days, and I did not think of the writing process as activism. I was just expressing myself sincerely about matters I care deeply about.

My motivation to do that was pretty much the same as when I used to drive my elderly next-door-neighbor to the grocery store when winter storms were bearing down. I did both tasks because I care and because I can. Each task makes its own little impact on the world.

You probably make more of an impact than I do, because you reach and work directly with more people. Whether you call that impact "activism" or not is a matter of style and preference, isn't it?

You do good, and that's what matters.