Speak Right On
A book is usually a one-sided affair: only the author reveals her thoughts and feelings. The airing of readers’ reactions typically is left to book groups. But not now, not here.
With this blog I want to hear what you have to say. Though I will use Speak Right On as a springboard and reference point for my blog entries, you don’t need to read my book to join the conversation.
Just speak right on, from the heart.
“He who does his best for his own time, lives for all times.”
African proverb
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"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." Marie Curie
Many people have written about the presidential election results. In lieu of repeating here ideas that surely someone, somewhere has already expressed, I'm going to share a bunch quotes—cherry-picked, because I want to put my energy into constructive statements of compassion and real possibilities of change. And I want to give my gratitude to my husband, Andrew Neighbour, who endlessly brings beauty into my life, especially through his photographs.
FaceBook post, November 9, 2016
It's been a hard day. A surreal day. There's an energy in NYC that, to me, feels reminiscent of some time after 9/11 when I very first moved here. There's a sense of shock and defeat but also a connectedness. I saw a lot of kindness today and a sense of shared experience. I feel lucky to have been in NYC on this day. I myself was kinder, gentler today. . . . This is an opportunity to trust my fellow human beings and my adult self instead. This is a chance to become more deeply grounded in my own inner authority because the authority in power does not feel like my authority.
Mind Exercises (newsletter)
The truth is, thoughts are only concepts and have no power unless we give it to them. So, in the simplest terms, whenever we try to fight, control, or sweep negative thoughts under the carpet, we are actually causing ourselves more suffering. . . . we actually limit ourselves and stay locked into the past. Our decisions and projections become fixated and immovable. This preoccupation with how real we think our thoughts are, actually cause us to miss opportunities to be present and happy.
Live performance at the 10th annual Bob Woodruff Foundation benefit for veterans, reported in The New Yorker by Sara Lawson, November 6, 2016
There's no greater contribution you could make than to be a public-school teacher. . . . What we need you to do is make children know math. Wow. Do they want to know math? They don't want to know it. You make them know it against their will.
Reported in The Daily Kos, by Leslie Salzillo, November 10, 2016
Back to real life. I went up to my home town the other day and ran into my gym teacher, Stan Nelson, looking good at 96. He commanded a landing craft at Normandy on June 6, 1944, and never said a word about it back then, just made us do chin-ups whether we wanted to or not. I saw my biology teacher Lyle Bradley, a Marine pilot in the Korean War, still going bird-watching in his 90s. I was not a good student then, but I am studying both of them now. They have seen it all and are still optimistic.
A statement to his fifteen-year-old daughter, published in Vanity Fair, November 9, 2016
The battle isn't over, it's just begun. Grandpa fought in World War II and when he came home this country handed him an opportunity to make a great life for his family. I will not hand his granddaughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men. Your tears last night woke me up, and I'll never go to sleep on you again.
The New York Times columnist, November 11, 2016
The job for the rest of us is to rebind the fabric of society, community by community, and to construct a political movement for the post-Trump era. . . . I've been thinking we need a third party that is social/open. This compassionate globalist party would support the free trade and skilled immigration that fuel growth. But it would also flood the zone for those challenged in the high-skill global economy — offering programs to rebuild community, foster economic security and boost mobility. It would integrate the white working class and minority groups by emphasizing that we are all part of a single American idea.
Master Mingtong Gu
Shared in an email from the Chi Center, November 11, 2016
This current, collective experience is not just about one person or party or this moment in history. It is about many things, including the opportunity we have right now for individuals and humanity to come together, learning and healing our longstanding discord and misunderstandings, together.
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