Day after thoughts

I have to begin with disclaimers.  I am a privileged individual, a white, college-educated child of white, college-educated parents, who grew up with piano lessons and all the trappings of suburban childhood.  I have a job that, frankly, caters to other privileged people, and I can afford to have that job because I have the privilege of sharing a household with another privileged individual whose skills are highly marketable.

Further, I am not, by nature, a political person.  I have a distrust of group projects of all kinds, and politics strikes me as the biggest group project of all time with the most unlikely cohort of partners working for the most important grade ever.  I don’t like things I can’t control.  Also, I live in fear of rejection.  I prefer to work quietly by myself in the corner hoping for the approval of the great evaluator in the sky.

However, the times require that I speak up and speak out, even if I am not one of the oppressed, even if I am not as knowledgeable as I’d like to be, even if I am bad at it.  What is happening is way more important than I am, even if I have to speak through the lens of my personal experience and self.

My country has chosen a new president who appalls me.  To some extent, this will not change my daily experience of the world (see above disclaimer about privilege).  I will still get parking tickets, buy Girl Scout cookies, exercise, read books, and eat organics. 

I will also have new responsibilities.

I need to build my community.  We are divided, and some of us seek to divide us even more.  I need to take responsibility for building connections.  I need to build up the easy ones with friends and family, and the more challenging ones with family and strangers.  I will be writing more about how over the next days, but here are some quick thoughts:

I will listen. 

I will say what I think.

I will stand up for the oppressed in conversation and I will work to end oppression.

I will share what I have.

It’s a start.