community, letter from minnesota, rebecca solnit
yesterday i was grateful for a little reprieve from the icy cold and chicken stew...
today i am looking forward to a new nail color...
i read a good post by rebecca solnit this morning... it said peace and stability are a long way off... but it did offer hope... she believes they are loosing... by they, she means the reprehensible people of the current administration and the people that have arrayed themselves around them... culture is on our side she said... bad bunny is performing at the super bowl half time... bruce springsteen is writing protest songs... republicans in trumpian districts are losing special elections to democrats even as they outspend them 20-1...
When Love Thy Neighbor Is a Cry of Resistance
When fear fragments us and the narrative of individualism has paved the way for authoritarianism, how do we measure ourselves not by what we fear or exclude, but by our capacity for connection and compassion?
this, the central point to her essay, that we become ever more connected as, indeed, we really are, the more they try to drive us apart... it is essential to do this because we are in the midst of a storm of humanity... it could easily get to category 5...
When Love Thy Neighbor Is a Cry of Resistance
The measure of our humanity is not found in isolation but in relationship. Not in dominance but in solidarity. Not in what we possess but in how we care. Not in our ability to other and objectify, but in our courage to recognize that "humans are not the enemy. It's the suffering from delusion, fear, and hatred that takes over and possesses us.
When Love Thy Neighbor Is a Cry of Resistance
But that's not all. Contemporary biological sciences, from planetary ecology to botany, zoology, and neuroscience, have documented that we are all in dependent co-arising, that we are all part of systems and relationships, that each of us is not so much an individual but a node on a network, a plural being whose body is made up of billions of microorganisms as well as what we call human.
last month we organized an evening of soup and friendship... no agenda... just come and have soup... be together... we will do another one this month...
we now belong to two book clubs... we are getting out and being social as much as possible...
i have decided to buy hard copies of the books we read... if it isn't a keeper we will donate to a local used book store that sells them cheaply to raise money for the public library...
i have begun making art again... i have decided not to put any of it out on social media... i will submit to local opportunities... national ones too... but opportunities that come with openings and gatherings... i will build whatever email list i can with people i have actually met and interacted with...
my instinct in these times is to build community...
lithub.com continues to publish letters from minnesota writers and creators...
Literary Hub » Letter From Minnesota: We’ve Been Here Before
I recently dreamed that an elder and her husband reminded me that we have been here before. Indeed we have experienced numerous instances of violence whose lasting effects continue to the present day: the land was violently taken from Native people; chattel slavery and lynchings visited upon African Americans; the “yellow peril” and other anti-Asian policies against Asians; violence against Jewish citizens; and numerous acts of xenophobia against Somali, Arab, and Latinx immigrants who came to America in search of a better life. Through it all, we have remained resilient. We are still here, and I believe we will get through this moment.
i like these letters from the front lines... first person accounts... not distilled through the news...
some photographs from this morning...
