Further to my "Choose kindness" post of yesterday, here are a number of hopeful, helpful and challenging posts that buoyed my spirit today.
Every one of us who has the ability to affect change, who has the opportunity to affect change, has the obligation to affect changes in their community to reflect the society they want. And we all have that ability, whether its impact is small or large. Just like every vote counts, every action matters."
~ from "Another Way" by Trevor Twining
Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things you can know beforehand."
~ by Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark (via Sherry Galey on Facebook)
I think it’s important to separate the unimaginable from the unacceptable. The election result was not unimaginable, but here is what is unacceptable: using our hard won rights to trample the rights of others. And here is what is within our power: the citizens who, by race or birth or wealth, have long been granted greater security and privileges in our societies, now have the responsibility to stand up for their fellow citizens. You no longer have the luxury of silence."
~ Madeleine Thien, novelist, winner of the 2016 Governor-General Literary Award and Scotiabank Giller Prize, from Chatelaine.com (via Sherry Galey on Facebook)
So, I have a big question for you. It's a question I've heard you ask countless people for countless years. Can you love now? Can you?? Well, you had better, because that is what the world needs right now. It doesn't need you frozen. It doesn't need you defeated. It doesn't need you passive. It needs you engaged! It needs you kind! It needs you present! So take that breath, get the fuck out of bed, do whatever you have to do to process this shit and be that love!!!!"
~ Seane Corn, on Facebook (via Moira Saganski on Facebook)
We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it—whether it’s writing a check or rolling up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump presidency so we fight for the families that aren’t. We fight for a woman to keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly for equality—not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but for equal opportunities. We stand up."
~ Aaron Sorkin, Oscar-winning screen writer in a letter to his daughter, from vanityfair.com, (via Dorian Anderson and many others on Facebook)
I woke up with the first sentence of the following poem in my head today. It's from a 1927 prose poem by Max Erhmann called "The Desiderata" (desired things) that used to hang as a poster in my sister's room when we were kids. Different lines have resonated with me at different times in my life, for different reasons. Today, it's, "Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story." Although it could be, "Avoid loud and agressive persons, as they are a vexation to the spirit." ;-)
Full spoken word version here.