In her autobiography Leila Khaled writes of taking inspiration from Che Guevara’s dictum, 'We must grow tough, but without ever losing our tenderness.' John Berger would go on to name 'undefeated despair' as a quality of Palestinian life that no vocabulary could find a word for: it is something lived between moments, when social and political transformation remains out of reach, yet the refusal to be cast out of humanity is steadfast. With tough tenderness and undefeated despair as my companions, I’d like to think through the different forms these stances might take, recognising the role of care and play, as well as the need to withdraw, rest, recuperate and grieve. The latter as a time and space, I suggest, are not necessarily a turning away from criticality and solidarity but may well be its vital conditions. Thinking and playing with the figure of the minnow, let’s imagine what tough tenderness and undefeated despair might look and feel like. And why minnows? When minnows detect a threat, they flashmob around it. In these tiny communal movements, the contours of what is unknown can become more legible. It is this figure of hope as a form of revolutionary and somatic mutual aid, and which is not quite optimism, that I’d love to invite you to explore with me.