Elder. Patriot. Warrior.
In the the turmoil of our times, assassination attempts, faltering candidates, political language full of fear and spreading hate, where do I stand? How do I stand? What will sustain and hold me?
And you?
Fierce Love.
What’s LOVE got to do with this time—with you—with me? Is “love” any help confronting the lies and hate and legal insanity?
Yes. Useful. Essential.
Fierce—a radical passionate living commitment to action
It is easy to dismiss the “love” word.
So overused and diluted it masks the force needed, the force essential, to see us through whatever collapse, struggle and rebirth we will experience.
Fierce Love.
bell hooks wrote All About Love . It reclaims and renews meaning, the passion, the intelligence of love. As she says “…the search for love continues—even in the face of great odds”.
The book rises from her observation that we are in a time and in a nation in which people are afraid to love. Afraid to give oneself fully to a person, a purpose , because of the fear of being hurt, of the risk, the pains of disappointment. “Love” is for the weak, the sentimental, the naive, hopeless romantics. The failures of this sentimental love are in 1000’s of songs, stories, shows in every media.
The love she explores is a fierce love, a thoughtful, aware, strong commitment to the core of our shared humanity, and to life. Fierce Love strengthens and honors each life and the relationships among us.
Fierce Love is action.
Action that nutures,supports, creates, affirm LIFE.
Fierce Love is an intensification of life.
Love is --can be—our response to the hunger we all feel for connection, for relationships based in authenticity, energized by what Caribbean poet Aime’ Cesaire calls “…the hunger,the desire,the need for a more profound and ensouled culture”.
Walked over to visit my neighbor,Andrea, as she watered and weeded her side yard. She is a yoga teacher. Gardener. In her 40’.s. Some months ago her car, a KIA suv parked on the street right beside her home, was broken into. Windows smashed . Blood drops on the seat. Ignition wrecked. The attempt to steal it failed. Not sure why. She is still traumatized. We live in a better off and safe neighborhood yet she said “Im afraid to go out outside alone—I think about it.” she meant—just outside her house.
Then she said—looking around—everyone is traumatized. By the uncertainty felt local and national and global. The meanness, the out right lies, and the never ending tragedies of Gaza, Israel, Yemen, climate—and…
Choosing Fierce Love is to chose life—and to confront all that will cripple,gag, even end life. Life—in all its multiple glories, complexities and manifestations.
Fierce Love is the antidote to the lying hypocrisy , the blaming and shaming, of much speech now—political,cultural.
Fierce Love is action to courageously imagine the America that is NOT YET.
Fierce Love knows that power must be linked with love to realize the dreams, the world we imagine and yearn for.
Over 80—and choosing Fierce Love? From the 8 decades of the this body?
Fierce Love begins with my full acceptance, gratitude and joy that this 80 year old body allows me to care and create and write this. Here’s a recent self sketch I noodled.
Ok, DaVinci did it. He is honoring the body in all is wonders and beauty, proportion and symmetry. I don’t look quite like this—but i share his wonder and am amazed at just being alive. And knowing it.
Yes, Fierce Love , the choice energizes me, makes me laugh, increases pleasure and joy even as some VIP makes a statement so crazy, so anti-life, that I want to—-(BLOCKED)—him.
Fierce Love is to keep making the choice to say Yes to Life In Spite of Everything. Frankl’s lesser known book. His best known is Man’s Search for Meaning. YES is one I keep close and recommend often——and always will. Surviving Nazi Death camps, staying in Germany in the war rubble of 1946-47, he always chose to say Yes,to not give in to the circumstances or to to those who wished him dead.
Dr Martin Luther King, on Love.
You—reading this—have power. Your voice, your choice—to speak, to vote, to help, to—do what you know needs doing.
Love in action—fierce love means to face the real, to tell the truth.
A truth is we are faced with a politics growing in power without love that is anti-life, anti-democracy. Resmaa Menakem’s s powerful book, The Quaking of America, names what we are facing—without any blinkers or euphemisms. The rise of fascism in America. This is real. One quote from the book—all are documented—
“When do we get to use the guns—how many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people? Speaker at Trump Rally, 2021.
Facts—and practices we can choose to learn from and —as he says—
We must all stand together, arm in arm, body by body, in the streets of America.
We can argue policy later.
Today we must begin creating a living breathing ant-racist culture
The book is full of practices, insights,resources. I strongly commend the section called the Five Anchors.
The Five Anchors (p 139 and ff) —faced with the national trauma, the latest hate speech, Resmaa gives us 5 anchors to use, to practice, so we in the never ending trauma we can carry on, acting from the best place we can be at that time. In brief here—but I urge the book for you—
Soothe—quiet mind ,calm heart, settle into body
Pause—notice the sensations,vibrations you feel—not just react. notice.
Accept and tolerate the discomfort—don’t deny or flee
Stay Present in body and mind.
Metabolize any energy.
These anchoring practices can help you stay flexible,engaged and present .
For me this means to notice what I feel at a Ted Cruz or Rumpy comment on Kamala Harris (and they are pouring it on now) —and “metabolize” I take to mean—use the energy in Fierce Love Action.
Whatever your age—our work is to courageously and creatively imagine the America that is wonderfully, amazingly connected. A few of us formed WOW, a White on White working group, to explore our own practices, blind spots, courageous acts—and to keep learning—to act to make that fully just, fily inclusive society real in daily practices. One hour,one event,one program, one action at a time. Whatever we can do.
A rising force on creating surprising connections is Braver Angels. Intentional about creating dialogue between Red and Blue, and beyond. Check them out.
https://braverangels.org/
Braver Angels
Fed up with today's politics?
There is a better way.
We are doing something about it. Will you join us?
Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide for the good of our democratic republic. As we head into the election, we’re bringing together “We the People” to find a hopeful alternative to toxic politics. The American Hope campaign is equipping Americans across the political spectrum to work together and demand the same of politicians from both parties.When all voices are heard, civic renewal grows.
Citizenship is the common thread that connects all Americans. We are a nation bound not by race or religion, but by the shared values of freedom, liberty, and equality. When Reds, Blues and Others work together, the entire country benefits. Our movement is the guiding force that's helping Americans work together again.
"As a conservative voter, I came to Braver Angels broken-hearted and deeply disillusioned by the hurtful division I was personally experiencing. I have found in Braver Angels a safe 'political home' for authentic, civil and curious discussions."
– RITA C. (RED), ARKANSAS
https://braverangels.org/
And this from Meg Wheatley, one book in a series of building the practices, the muscles, the commitment to a fierce love in these times . Love in action—my words not hers. Berkana Institute – Whatever the problem, community is the answer. She is training warriors—people who commit to the actions of compassion,truth,sanity, and to act with generosity,creativity, and kindness. I am taking it.
Berkana Institute
https://berkana.org
Fierce Love—chose it!!
Elder. Patriot. Warrior.
A final word from a cherished philosopher—who always makes me smile—
George Booth
Excellent challenges. From stellar thought leaders like you. Thank you