Rain Perry

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We begin with music, get inspired, and — at the bottom of the essay — use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Welcome back, everybody!

This week, I was going to write about Jimmy Carter. He’s the perfect kind of person for this newsletter, with his commitment to making the world a better place, propelled by a Christianity rooted in service and humility.

I have fond childhood memories of a Carter Presidency that was both transcendent and beset by challenges. But it’s his post-Presidency life that truly impresses, as he and his beloved partner Rosalynn devoted their lives to service to others via Habit for Humanity and The Carter Center.

But what can I say about him that others aren’t already saying very well?

So this week I’m going to introduce you to a different politician I’m very excited for you to meet: my aunt Francie Jacober.

It’s 1977 and my dad has run out of options in Marin County. He’s broke and needs a place to land, so Francie, his next-younger sister, does what she’s done with many lost souls over the years: offers to take him (and his preteen daughter) in. We pack up the VW and drive to a ranch in Southwest Colorado, where we live for a year with Francie’s family — hippie farmers growing crops and raising 120 head of black faced sheep.

Here’s a picture of a family reunion not long after we arrive in Colorado. Everybody looks miserable because, as I recall, it was hot and the kids were over it. I’m in the blue & plaid western shirt next to Francie, in the pink dress, who’s wanting to get it over with.

After the reunion, my first vivid memory of life on the ranch is the haying season, where local farmers take turns pooling their labor and equipment to get everybody’s crop in. I recall the men making their way through the field behind the combine, hoisting heavy hay bales with metal hooks onto a flatbed truck in the sweaty summer heat. I remember their wives in the kitchen laying out a massive potluck lunch of ham and biscuits and potato salad and jello.

My dad and I stayed for my 7th grade year, then moved on down the road to Southern California. Francie and her husband eventually got divorced but stayed friends and both moved up to Carbondale, where her sons and daughter blossomed into cowboys and teachers and river guides themselves.

Francie, my dad, and their three sisters grew up in a suburb of Cincinnati, then all set out for fascinating lives. In Francie’s case, it’s been a life filled with incredible adventure and accomplishment. College in Boulder, a detour to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, hitchhiking solo to Yosemite to join her boyfriend, later-to-be-husband, Jock at the famous Camp 4. Francie and Jock did a couple of first ascents in the Peruvian Andes, then spent a summer on a trans-Pacific sailing trip in a boat that capsized (rogue wave? whale?) and lost its mast. Francie has been a midwife, a ski instructor, a rancher, a knitter, a canner of vegetables, a singer of songs in the living room, an award-winning teacher, manager of a small business (Fat Belly Burgers), a river guide, an Outward Bound leader, co-founder of Colorado Wilderness Experience (a month-long backcountry program for teenagers), and a mom to my four cousins and now grandmother of nine. She’s a superwoman from another era, for sure.

What I don’t remember her ever being is politically inclined. I mean, she always expressed strong opinions about politics but she never showed any interest in running for office or anything like that.

Then about five years ago a Pitkin County Commissioner’s seat came open, and my cousin Tai told her she should run. (In California we call that job “County Supervisor” and it’s a very powerful role — where the rubber of decisions that affect our daily lives truly meets the road.) In her mid-seventies at the time, I suspect she initially scoffed at the idea. But her biography makes her uniquely suited to be a leader in Pitkin County, which encompasses the agricultural land and wilderness backcountry of the Roaring Fork Valley and the ritzy resort town of Aspen, a place of many conflicting interests. She’s profoundly practical, devoted to the environment and her community, deeply caring, and tough.

So she ran. And she won.

And then, after four years in office, last fall she ran for re-election. The big issues this time were affordable housing, highway safety, and whether to modernize the Aspen Airport. She won again — this time with 74% of the vote.

You can meet Francie here!

The point of picking Francie is the same as it has been for previous People of the Week. She found herself rising to the occasion to do something significant, and discovered that she only needed to be herself — with her own unique life experiences and set of skills — to do it.

Music

We always have music in this newsletter, so here’s the choice for this week. On Francie’s ranch I had plenty of chores to do (watching my young cousins, hanging laundry, mucking the stalls), but any free time was filled with music — playing it or listening to it. She had a great record collection, and I’d dreamily inhale The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Wonder. “Is that Paul or John?” I asked Francie as she churned the butter or something like that. “John! Obviously!” Francie yelled back from the kitchen. Francie was a big part of my musical — and life — education.

So the song for this week is from an artist I listened to a lot that year at Francie’s, back when she was in Fleetwood Mac: Stevie Nicks. This is from later, after she went solo. Ben Lee and Ione Skye posted this video on their substack a couple of days after the 2024 election and it’s just so, so lovely to watch this beautiful, spontaneous, backstage moment.

Join me for “A Habit of Hope” Zoom

Ready to join with other folks for a zoom gathering to reinforce our habit of hope? I’d love to have you!

The next session is this coming Monday, January 6, at 5 pm PST for about an hour. Here’s how to do it:

1. Email me to let me know you want the zoom link.

2. Read this draft of a little planner I’m developing with the components that (in my view) make up a habit of hope. This week be discussing two of them — “serenity” and “grief.” So just start thinking about how those two ideas are showing up in your life right now and we’ll simply go around the circle and discuss.

In-Person Gathering

We will be gathering soon in person as well, to do creative stuff together. More on that soon!

What You Did

When I started this newsletter, I said that it would always be free but if you wanted to subscribe of course I’d be delighted, and that I’d donate half of my income from this substack to a mission-aligned cause. The first month, November, I got my first annual subscription of $80 (minus fees), so I donated half to CAUSE, which fights for economic justice in the Central Coast.

In December, nearly 20 people opted for a paid subscription, and most paid for an annual plan. So for December I’m delighted to be sending $663.86 to Democracy Docket, “the leading digital news platform dedicated to information, analysis and opinion about voting rights and elections in the courts.” Thank you!

And again, thank you, so much, for subscribing, and please feel free to pass this on. And if you’re interested in my work as a performer and songwriter, come visit my website!

xo Rain