This is stunning - powerful both in word and craft. Thank you feels insufficient, but I offer it with humility in getting to sit at the feet of your testimony.
I can’t even make it all the way through one of your pieces without finding something I need to pause and really chew on before continuing!
Today’s -- “Consumerism tells us that one, in order to be significant, must be famous. But in the deep knowing that comes from our Creator, we remember that our existence is proof enough of our value. The anonymous ancestors propelled us to life as much as the names we know. We are not our ancestors—only because we wouldn’t be here if they weren’t here first.”
Thank you for calling this to our attention. It’s so true. So in-our-faces. And something I needed reminding of.
“dissatisfaction, conspicuous consumption, and scarcity, and absolutely demonizes people who are poor” -- yes, all of this.
And some of it is so prevalent it’s almost the very air I breathe and hardly even noticed when I breathed it in and breathe it out. It’s one of my current prayers now that I may be shown (in my life and my business dealings) how to breathe out without breathing out these things . . . or at least how to breathe them out less.
Which reminds me that one of these days I need to (hope to) write about living with our complicity and finding the hope that comes from owning it. (Deep topics, lol!)
A little late reading this because I was in D.C. last week. Thank you for the gift of your words. Thank you for teaching me so much over the years. And thank you for your friendship.
I'm humbled that the day after you wrote these words but before I'd read them, I was experiencing the truth of them by getting to tour the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture again. I thought often of our Be the Bridge group and the things I learned. And I lamented once again the countless deaths whose cause (either directly or indirectly) come down to racism. And I'm thankful for the small role that I can play in ensuring that erasure loses some of its power to be a tool of oppression as I listen, learn, remember, and speak up.
Love you, sister! Thank you again for your wonderful, powerful, prophetic voice!
Thank you for sharing this.
This is stunning - powerful both in word and craft. Thank you feels insufficient, but I offer it with humility in getting to sit at the feet of your testimony.
I can’t even make it all the way through one of your pieces without finding something I need to pause and really chew on before continuing!
Today’s -- “Consumerism tells us that one, in order to be significant, must be famous. But in the deep knowing that comes from our Creator, we remember that our existence is proof enough of our value. The anonymous ancestors propelled us to life as much as the names we know. We are not our ancestors—only because we wouldn’t be here if they weren’t here first.”
Thank you for calling this to our attention. It’s so true. So in-our-faces. And something I needed reminding of.
“dissatisfaction, conspicuous consumption, and scarcity, and absolutely demonizes people who are poor” -- yes, all of this.
And some of it is so prevalent it’s almost the very air I breathe and hardly even noticed when I breathed it in and breathe it out. It’s one of my current prayers now that I may be shown (in my life and my business dealings) how to breathe out without breathing out these things . . . or at least how to breathe them out less.
Which reminds me that one of these days I need to (hope to) write about living with our complicity and finding the hope that comes from owning it. (Deep topics, lol!)
A little late reading this because I was in D.C. last week. Thank you for the gift of your words. Thank you for teaching me so much over the years. And thank you for your friendship.
I'm humbled that the day after you wrote these words but before I'd read them, I was experiencing the truth of them by getting to tour the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture again. I thought often of our Be the Bridge group and the things I learned. And I lamented once again the countless deaths whose cause (either directly or indirectly) come down to racism. And I'm thankful for the small role that I can play in ensuring that erasure loses some of its power to be a tool of oppression as I listen, learn, remember, and speak up.
Love you, sister! Thank you again for your wonderful, powerful, prophetic voice!