Do What You Can: A Call to Action

As we head into a new year, we’re aware of the growing number of uncertainties we’re seeing in our industry, our community, and even within our own four walls. For folks with a predisposition to be worried about the future, it’s sometimes hard not to feel powerless in the face of big, sweeping challenges—especially as individuals with limited resources.

Eight years ago, many folks who espoused progressive values championed the idea of #Resistance. Their motivations for feeling this way were myriad, though the hours spent doomscrolling or retweeting or screaming into the virtual void did not change the course of much of anything.

During this same period—from 2017 to 2020—we were experiencing a personal crisis in our home when a code violation in our condo building forced the NYC Department of Buildings to turn off our gas. Our condo board reached an out-of-court settlement, the developer begrudgingly pledged to retrofit the building to get us back into code compliance, and we believed that this would be a problem that could be solved in the matter of months.

It was not.

For much of that time, we felt helpless. We knew how small we were, even as a united front of 12 units in our condo building and getting anyone in city or state government to look more closely at the challenges we were facing turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. In a lot of ways, we had believed in the “system,” which had done right by us up until that point, but when this saga continued to drag out and the State Attorney General, City Councilors, and everyone else we tried to get support from led to collective dead ends, we realized we’d have to solve this problem for ourselves.  

During the journey that led us from Brooklyn to The Berkshires, we continued to cling to a quote that was attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, which comes from his autobiography: “Do what you can with what you have where you are.”

This became our personal rallying cry as we left the city behind, put down roots in this new region, and opened to brewery in 2023.

The first two years of this business have been overwhelming in both positive and negative ways. We’ve achieved some levels of recognition and support that exceeded our expectation, but the challenges of rising costs of ingredients, trying to revitalize a struggling downtown, and the physical and mental toll of getting a new business off the ground have often worn us down.

After a short break to get some rest and take a step back from the day-to-day, we’re leaning into 2025 with a renewed dedication to the message of “Do What You Can.”

What we like about this call to action is that there’s no pressure being put on delivering a specific outcome, nor is there a requirement that anyone give more than what is humanly possible. From one day to the next, what you can do might vary, and that’s okay. But the emphasis is on personal agency, on effort, and even if the actions are small, they’re better than giving up or giving in.

So while we don’t know where we’ll end up by this time next year, we’re inviting the community (both here in Pittsfield and across the internet) to channel whatever anxieties, frustrations, and other strong emotions you all might be experiencing and look for ways that you can turn those into positive actions. We know doomscrolling and clicktivism won’t get us there; it’s time to mobilize, work together, and show up for one another to support the things that matter most to us.

For the rest of this month, we’ll be hearing from several community leaders here in The Berkshires with some practical tips for how to get involved. And over the course of the whole year, we’ll be collaborating with and highlighting all sorts of individuals and organizations who are helping us effect positive change.