“It is important to do things you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

A few weeks ago in Washington, D.C., I attended the Making Their Mark forum—an experience that felt, in many ways, like stepping into that idea. Not because it was unfamiliar, but because it asked for something more: deeper listening, greater patience, and a willingness to hold complexity without resolution.

“There is something radical about being patient,” said Emily Rales. I have been thinking about that ever since. In a moment that rewards speed, visibility, and reaction, patience can feel countercultural—yet it is often where meaning lives.

Andrea Bowers offered another lens: “I make art for the revolution.” And also, “It is my job to use beauty and aesthetics to change minds.” Her words stayed with me—not as declarations, but as invitations. What does it mean to believe that aesthetics are not separate from impact, but a pathway to it? She spoke, too, of “egosystems versus ecosystems,” a distinction that feels increasingly urgent.

Chelsea Clinton reminded us, “The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves really matter.” It is a simple idea, but one that shapes everything—how we lead, how we see, how we move forward.

Throughout the forum, I found myself thinking about the women also present in this week’s newsletter: Judy Chicago, Claire Tabouret, and Sarah Hoover. Each, in her own way, is engaged in the act of reframing—of expanding what is visible, what is valued, and what is possible.

And then there was Komal Shah, who co-organized the forum alongside Cecilia Alemani (both of whom have joined me on About Art—Komal on Episode 205 and Cecilia on Episode 132). At one point, Komal said simply, “Thank you for caring about it.”

It struck me how rarely we pause to acknowledge care—not as sentiment, but as action. To care is to pay attention. To stay engaged. To believe that what we do, and how we do it, matters.

Perhaps that is what connects all of this: patience, storytelling, beauty, revolution, attention. Each requires a willingness to do something that may feel just beyond reach.

To do the thing you think you cannot do—and to do it anyway.

Photo: Artists Marilyn Minter and Joan Semmel

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