one word frees us of all the weight and pain in life

This has been a weekend of big questions and big feelings.

What do you do on "Independence Day" in a nation that has only ever used its supposed ideals as a shield rather than a roadmap?

What do you do when people you theoretically would more closely align with politically give in to hate as a tragic natural disaster strikes?

How do you maintain your humanity? Your heart? Any semblance of softness as the world continues to demand dehumanization?

How do you fight not to lose yourself?

How do you respond to a ceaseless onslaught of injustice, greed, and cruelty?

I certainly cannot answer every question for everyone.

For me, I essentially whittled down my worldview to this:
1. Love is my lighthouse--the guiding principle for everything. More love is always better.
2. Every human is the only authority on their own life & they deserve autonomy.
3. Do no harm, take no should.

What this ends up looking like in my life is bearing witness to the immense pain in the world.

I have wept for and/or with Reem, Khaled, Hind, Bisan, Motaz, and thousands of others. Deep, gut wrenching sorrow. I have broken down over trying to meet arbitrary retail goals while atrocities are being committed.

I have raged against injustices.

I have allowed myself to feel and sit with more pain than is possible to process. And I chose to press into it. Not in a sadistic way, but in the most human way I could. A way that said, I have to try to process this. I cannot choose to look away and pretend it's not happening.

And I made the mistake of letting it overwhelm me. In some ways it should. The tragedies of the world shouldn't be bitesized snippets on social media that we doomscroll through at brunch.

They should change us.

But

We can't change them if we never reemerge from the pain. If we numb it. If we give into hate.

Luckily for me I had people in my life who were willing to say hey, you still have to live. What you are meant to do in and for the world cannot happen if you lose yourself to the pain.

So, I say feel it. Feel it in the depths of your marrow. And then figure out how to face it.

I can't fix everything. I deeply want to. I want everyone to understand that caring about others is critical.

I want everyone to realize that sacrificing our own humanity to be "right" or to "win" a contest in a rigged system will not get us anywhere.

I want everyone to understand that these imaginary systems of how the world is run can be remade in ways that honor humankind and nature.

Squander and exploitation don't have to be the norm.

We don't have to destroy ourselves and everything around us.

We don't have to meet hate with more hate.

We can meet it with incredible tenderness and love.

And not in some hippie dippy way. Real, genuine, powerful love.

Love that shouts bombing children is atrocious and the perpetrators will be held to account.

Love that says even if a child's parents voted for a malevolent fascist, that child does not deserve to die in a natural disaster. Those parents do not deserve to mourn their child.

Love that declares callousness is cowardice.

Love that asserts softness and sweetness are the results of constant commitment to sonder.

Maybe I'm too sensitive and too much of a dreamer to make a real difference in the world.

But I'll never accept that.

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love."
- Sophocles