DO YOU EVER GET FRUSTRATED . . .
with the news cycle? It can feel like just that . . . a cycle, reminiscent of the proverbial hamster wheel that tires you out while getting you nowhere.
We have to remind ourselves that although the woes of the world are not new - and they repeat with an alarming frequency - we must find ways in which we can make our mark and contribute to the world. We can resist, uplift, find joy, and break down the structures that oppress people, all efforts that make room to erect the scaffolding to support one another.
Last week, we talked about this idea in relation to the image of the spiral, a concept Taylor had heard on a podcast, but the transcript had not yet been made available for us to confirm and quote it...this week we are happy to share that it came from Sonya Renee Taylor by way of the Finding Our Way podcast with Prentice Hemphill:
. . . there's a way in which I've been experiencing what feels like a loop, but it's not a loop, but I feel like I'm almost exactly where I was around that same time that we spoke almost two years ago, and the only difference is, and I think this probably is true for the collective. My hunch. The difference is a lot of the terrain looks similar. The question is, can we see it from a higher vantage point? So it's not a loop, it's a spiral, right? So it's actually, we're not going in circles, but...there's a new awareness that we have now. So that...point that looks familiar, we can see it more expansively. I can see it more expansively than I did two years ago, but in a lot of ways it feels very similar, very familiar, but I feel very different.
We've been thinking about this a lot the past few years - the ways in which our prior experiences, and knowledge gained in the interim, can change the way in which we mobilize. Instead of being ashamed of old behavior, or overwhelmed by the density and intensity of systems and crises, we can feel grateful for the new perspective. If there is a positive that comes from pain, it's that when you know better, you do better.
This week, while there continue to be countless causes to champion, our minds and our hearts are with the women of the world, who deserve and continue to fight for bodily autonomy. We are with the women of Iran who protest Mahsa Amini's murder, trans women, and everyone who fights for a women's own right to choose what she does with her body, whether that is to wear a hijab or not, carry a baby or not, and express herself in the way that she so chooses.
With hope for a good and sweet new year,
Tay + Dor
photo by William Trevaskis for GFJ Stories
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