Category: Politics

It feels like a time to rage

by The Blyss Catalyst, posted in Politics, Uncategorized

(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.

#standforlove #andvotingisanactoflove #bytheway

Yesterday Told Us Some Things

by The Blyss Catalyst, posted in Politics, Uncategorized

30013132557_1b1e6962bc_hYesterday told us some things.

Yesterday told us that telling our stories of trauma and abuse is a disgrace if it inconveniences a powerful man. Most especially if it intercepts a partisan agenda.

Yesterday told us that requesting an investigation of our abuser is ludicrous and shameful and only turns everything into a circus, a sham. How dare we.

Yesterday told us that if we can’t recall explicit details of our trauma like date, time and location, it’s as if it didn’t happen.

Yesterday told us that throwing a tantrum, refusing to cooperate, lying, shaming those questioning illegal and wicked acts, undermining, insulting and mocking the questioners, and ping-ponging their own questions back onto them like an evading child is apparently acceptable behavior of a person in one of the country’s highest and most influential positions. That acting in a way that wouldn’t get you hired at Arby’s may still get you a lifetime role of making critical decisions for the entire nation, impactful on generations to come.

Yesterday told us that even though only about 3-4% of reports of sexual abuse are fabricated and even though a victim’s story is corroborated, she will no doubt be met with disbelief because, you know, her abuser seems like such a good person on paper.

AND…

Yesterday told us that there are still heroes amongst us. That there are good, decent, brilliant, powerful guardians of justice that will not back down to the majority rule.

Yesterday told us that there are still champions of integrity in our government who will execute every tool that they have and fight to the bitter end on behalf of those oppressed voices, and they will not stop until justice is restored.

Yesterday told us that it is NEVER too late to turn the seemingly inescapable tides of injustice around. That as long as you have a will to fight for what’s right, it ain’t EVER over. And fuck the rules and your stupid gavel.

Yesterday told us that no matter who you are, no matter what official and appointed powers you have or don’t have, that all you need is a voice and a stand to change the course of history. You don’t need a plan or special clearance or a certain platform or resources or to hold a significant position. Just your voice. Just your stand.

Yesterday told us that decency and justice aren’t a partisan matter. They’re a human one. That if you search your soul, it will guide you to what’s right and if a true patriot you are, you will heed that call even if dare flies in the face of your party. Yesterday told us we are more beholden to our soul than our party.

Yesterday told us there IS still hope on the horizon, evident in those on the right side of history. And wouldn’t ya know, those from BOTH parties are hanging out there. Fancy that.

Yesterday told us there is still fight in us yet. That together if we keep standing, keep voicing, keep coming forward, keep VOTING, keep not shutting up, and keep ministering those values foundational to the nation that we still so clearly love and honor so very much, then ain’t nothin’ over. The fight is still worth it.

Terrified, traumatized and all, our civic duty compels us to the stand.

Grieve First, Then Rise (also titled: how the GOP unwittingly became our accomplice)

by The Blyss Catalyst, posted in Politics, Uncategorized
This is the face of deep deep ache. My own. My ancestors. A lineage of those who died renouncing what may have just been reinstated tonight. This is the pained expression of a pulpy lump of faith lay slain. This searing river down this anguished face — these are their tears too. Dear God, [Half-] America. What have you done?
Simply this:
You broke– no, pulverized my heart. You ripped its stuffing out.
You deflated Love’s expanding dream. Tore into a hopeful innocence just nearly on the mend.
You made a mockery of those who’d shed their blood, starved their bodies, made an exodus from their homelands in hopes of securing even one of the rights you now put at risk.
You fed us the opiate of ignorance, in place of the soul-food to which a spreading bulk of us have grown accustomed. You lulled a large sum of us back to sleep, when we’d only just begun to awaken; tricked enough of us back into the trance of the monger that the lot of us got dragged too, fully conscious and clawing at the tarmac. Back to a place we worked SO. DAMNED. HARD. to evacuate.
You made every unconsented-to man right whomever laid their vile hands on us, the sacred women who raised you, nourished you, sent you off into the world hoping you’d live into the men we needed you to be for the world. You spit right in the face of the great Motherhead to whom you owe your very breath to.
You made every racist, misogynistic, bigoted, hate-laden remark permissible by a nation. A nation closely watched by the world, a world who must now be tisking its tongue at our regression and repugnance. It had such high hopes for us. It wanted to take us with it, into an innovation-sustained, brilliance-based future. You made us a facsimile of our own cliche that we’ve been hard at work dismantling in the eyes of the global community….{My Dear World, beloved sister-brother nations, I…don’t yet have the words…this for another day.}
You made it okay to esteem our country a locker room – the kind, no less, which would never yield a champion of any kind of order. You casualized communication, only the very foundation for this whole human paradigm, from which all else arises. (So yes, remarks are a big FUCKING deal. And NO, not all men talk like that. And more would stop if they were held accountable for how NOT okay this is and how damaging to their own society).
You resurrected every last bully from our haunted pasts, and peeled back the healing we’ve done to leave those fools back there.
You said we’ll put up walls but build no bridges. You said we’ll use alienation as our defense, contempt as our offense. You said let’s make America great again, but failed to inform that your version of great was sans honor and decency. Was replete with venom and violation.
You sent us back 50…100…500 years. Back to dark, deplorable ages where violence with body and speech isn’t an answer but the programmed go-to nonetheless.
You made every persecutor a proxy hero, every unevolved man of entitlement and privilege but no honor whomever took pleasure in humiliating those with lesser status, the status quo.
Half-America, you are not the motherland I know. Not the home in my heart that protects and nurtures me and gives space for my necessary voice. You have made nothing great again. And he will NEVER be MY president, not ever.
But, Divided America, you have also done something else, despite yourself. Against your own sordid agenda, you’ve incited an uprising of magnanimous proportions, a conscious awakening in response to this blow. The love revolution soon fires back at your behest, brighter and more blazing than you are prepared for, relinquish any doubt about that.
So thank you for your inadvertent partnership, for your part in shaking awake the required powers that’ve lain dormant too long. You sent a quake of devastation through half a betrayed nation…but now watch us surf that wave, dear, unwitting conspirators who have another thing coming. We may feel this hot slap now, but a face-slapping of the consciousness order reverbs much louder, and deeper into the future.
Those who side with Love will rise, fierce and beefed up with more resolve than ever before, and it will be because of you.
But first, I mourn. As all rising women do.
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