But it didn't do anything

I'm still thinking about the backlash over the Women's March, folks. One of the criticisms I've heard quite a bit is that "it didn't do anything."  I think this is a critique that depends heavily on how you're defining "doing something."  Did the March result in Trump resigning in disgrace and Congress joyfully passing a slough of legislation that ended inequality forever? Nope.  So I guess if that's your definition of "doing something" then you're right, it's a failure.  I don't think any of the marchers expected that outcome, though, so perhaps it isn't a fair metric.  I keep mentally framing this in terms of my experience as an LDS missionary, so here goes my thoughts.

I served my mission in Baltimore, Maryland.  For my non-LDS friends, know that you don't get to choose where you go, what areas you're assigned to or who your companions are.  You do get to decide how to spend your days, within a fairly limited framework of working toward your goals of sharing your faith with as many people as possible and teaching interested people about it.  You also get to do some community service.

When you come home from your mission you give a homecoming talk to your ward who supported you emotionally and often financially while you were gone.  You talk about your experiences and share the good parts and everyone marvels that you've become a compassionate adult (hopefully).  Many homecoming talks (and triumphant letters home, and reminiscences etc.) focus heavily on baptisms.  That, after all, is your goal -- to teach people about the Gospel and have them decide they love it and get baptized.  Hooray!

Yeah.  Hooray.  If you serve in South America, where there is a pretty high rate of baptisms, hooray.  However, the people of Maryland already have a church thankyouverymuch.  So here are my statistics.  In 18 months I got to go to one baptism of someone that I had taught.  One.  As far as I know she is no longer actively LDS.  I also taught several people who were later baptized after I left the area.  My online sleuthing has yielded a suspicion that none of them are active either.  I worked with many families/individuals who were LDS but were not active, and after meeting with them extensively they returned to full activity.  Aaaaaand then returned to being inactive, as far as I can tell.  Cool! Great job Sister Gilkey! You're a huge failure and you spent 18 months of your life pouring your heart into something that "didn't do anything."

Aww look at little Sister Gilkey off to share the Gospel on a bike! Incidentally, riding a bike in a long skirt = the worst. When there was no oncoming traffic we'd pedal frantically to build up speed (our skirts hiking up with every pump) then we'd let the hem fall demurely and coast so oncoming traffic couldn't see up the skirt.  Yet another small way being a Sister missionary ain't like being an Elder.

The thing is, baptism is a terrible standard for success because it is entirely dependent on someone else's agency.  I can't force people to listen, to care, to believe, to agree, to change their lives.  I can invite, or persuade, or encourage, but their choices are beyond my control.  I knew that even as a missionary and did my darnedest not be discouraged by the fact that I was routinely reporting zeros for my stats (except for the number of people I tried to talk to.  That number was always high...).

Here are some of the things my mission accomplished:

• I changed.  I became more compassionate and loving.  I met people from different economic, ethnic, religious, racial etc. etc. backgrounds and I loved them and tried to help them.  Those changes in me stuck, even if I didn't get anyone else to change.
• I met people that I love and still communicate with and care about.
• I learned a lot -- about myself, about getting along with others (hello being assigned a stranger you have to be with 24/7! fun!), about the Gospel, about self-sacrifice and being happy with less etc.
• I gained important skills that are still valuable to me today.  I'm not afraid of public speaking.  Talking to strangers doesn't freak me out.  Teaching is very comfortable, even relaxing to me. I feel confident in my competence and ability to take care of myself.  I learned how to pump gas (a skill I have not needed since and have therefore forgotten.  Thanks, Oregon! Okay so that one wasn't that useful)
• Perhaps most importantly from a long-term wide-scope perspective, I had an impact on other people's lives that I cannot measure.  It may be that someone I talked to later joined the church and I never knew.  Maybe I gave invaluable comfort to someone in need.  Maybe I helped inspire a teenager to make better choices, or to go on a mission, or to go to college.  Maybe those kids I volunteered with at the Boys and Girls club did better in school because of the time I spent helping them learn to read.  I can't measure that stuff, and maybe it won't be apparent for decades.

Wherefore, stand ye in Holly Places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come;
for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord (Doctrine and Covenants 87:8)
A little missionary joke.

So back to the Women's March.  From a very narrow measurement of effecting immediate legislative upheaval, it did nothing.  But possibly six weeks is not enough time to accurately judge the impact of an action on that scale.  Even without that big picture claim of significance, here are some things we can suggest the march accomplished.

• Many people who had never engaged in any kind of demonstration or political activity besides voting did so for the first time, and not the last time.  Protesting once makes it easier to protest again.
• On that note -- the very next weekend there were many spontaneous demonstrations against the Muslim ban, doubtless with many of the exact same people empowered to give up their leisure time to make a ruckus.  The protest put pressure on the judiciary and the administration to reexamine the order, and it also had a significant international impact of sending the message that not all Americans are Islamophobes.  That's a big deal.
• Legislators are being flooded with emails, calls, postcards etc. from citizens who were never engaged before.  You also see this at town hall meetings which have to move to bigger venues to accommodate crowds who suddenly care about this stuff.
• The March spawned many smaller groups where people are connecting for the first time and sharing their experiences and values with one another, communication that wasn't happening before.

Of course the only thing I can really measure and say for sure are the changes in me, just as with my mission I can really only attest to my own growth.

• I deliberately included my son in making my protest sign, even though he won't remember any of it.  I've started thinking more proactively about how I can including my child(ren) in the political process so they grow up to be good citizens.  
• I've called my representatives in Congress to share my views (and emailed and emailed and emailed).  I make those calls in front of my son.  Then after I hang up I practice key words with him so he has the vocabulary to make those calls.  He's too young to do it, but he isn't too young to start practicing the skills of being a good citizen.
• I went to my first town hall style meeting ever.  It was not easy to haul a toddler to that meeting, and I was definitely in the minority as a young-with-kids person, but we were there.  I had never done that before, but I feel a new responsibility to stay engaged.
• I keep making myself do the hard thing.  Speaking up isn't always easy or comfortable, but it's the right thing to do.  And thanks to the march, I don't feel alone.

In sum: The Women's March very definitely made important changes in our society, many of which we cannot yet measure.  Also, stop measuring your success by things that are beyond your control.  I can't force Congress to conduct an independent investigation into the connection between the election and Russia.  But I can badger the heck out of them.  And I will!

It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy? (Joseph Smith -- History 1:20)