(when Kavanaugh was voted into SCOTUS)
I know it feels like a time to rage. To seethe. To want to knock some evil-souled, dictator-worshipping, archaic and patriarchal, mothereffing fascist teeth out. Your (our) disgust & outrage is valid. And potentially useful. I trust we all know how to channel them productively & non-maniacally (eh hem, VOTE in the midterms!). But I want to take this moment to say: Remember that your Love is more powerful than your hate. And more necessary at times like these. Love doesn’t have to displace your very valid rage but it could be honored alongside of it and equally utilized as a mobilizer. And what there is to honor is that Love is at the core of any upset. It is your Love — of people, of justice, of this country, of this world, of this life, of your values, of truth, of Love itself — that would ever have you upset at circumstances that controvert what you know as truth and goodness.
Now I’m not trying to be some airy-fairy, do-gooder voice from la-la land here. I’m guilty of mentally shoving my fist far down some well-deserved, patriarchal throats an embarrassing amount of times these days. But if I stop to take a breath and a pause, and I center myself within the uproar to see & feel what’s really there, what I come to is my broken heart. And the only reason a heart breaks is because it loved a thing. And still does.
Now what to do with such a realization? Honor your hurt but then act out of your love. Take an action from what it is you stand for and love. We must resist spilling our rage all over those who are the inciters of it, or supporters of that which incited it, for by now we know that not only does that not work, it causes an even greater divide and gives power to those on the opposing side, and not the good kind. The kind that fuels them with all the more insistence to fight your stand. They won’t listen past the rage. Mismanaged rage & disgust and vehement hate is what led to the sad state of “us versus them”, fierce tribalism we’re in, in the first place.
Mother Theresa said: Don’t invite me to an anti-war demonstration. I’ll never do that. But invite me to a pro-peace rally and I’ll be there every time.
Let’s speak from what we love, act from what we love, speak and act from the values we love so much, and stand more for what we are pro than what we are anti. And maybe it won’t win the war overnight, but it’ll certainly fuel us with the power to keep standing, perhaps in a more sustainable way than hate ever will.
I know I myself fail at this all the time. But it’s an effort worth keeping at…and standing for.
The Blyss Catalyst 