Thanks for this, Cindy. Like you, I tend to think (hope?) that many of the people who supported Trump did so out of (a largely mistaken) sense of fear, or because of misinformation, rather than from malice (or darker urges), though I'm not sure if this is actually true or not. But I love the concrete questions you pose here.
Oh, thank you for sharing this link! I hadn't read this pieces yet, and I'm glad I have now. I haven't read much George Saunders, but reading your writing about his work makes me want to. That pull quote from Saunders! "Find out what makes you kinder, what opens you up and brings out the most loving, generous and unafraid version of you — and go after those things as if nothing else matters." Yes.
Hmmm... I like Weil's thinking here. "Invent" new institutions “exposing and abolishing everything in contemporary life which buries the soul under injustice, lies, and ugliness.”
I suppose Europe had to completely rebuild after the wars anyway. Perhaps this is the task that we all do, whether our institutions are intact or not, we keep reinventing them, digging out the ugliness that seeps in and replacing it with beauty. Institutions seem to need regular gardening, weeding, replanting. And we each have a little plot in the giant patchwork.
Cindy, this writing is gorgeous. I am experiencing these emotions and struggles to understand right along with you, even to the details f having an infant at the first inauguration (which makes it impossible not to track the time precisely) and to coping through amateur art (pottery for me :) ). I may have read Simone Weil in college, but never with breadth or depth and this is prompting me to seek her out.
Thanks for this, Cindy. Like you, I tend to think (hope?) that many of the people who supported Trump did so out of (a largely mistaken) sense of fear, or because of misinformation, rather than from malice (or darker urges), though I'm not sure if this is actually true or not. But I love the concrete questions you pose here.
I wrote (somewhat obliquely) about the darkness of this election, and the need to push back against the desire for safety and certainty that played a role in it, for the Jesuit Media Lab: https://jesuitmedialab.org/the-spiritual-and-political-wisdom-of-george-saunders/
Oh, thank you for sharing this link! I hadn't read this pieces yet, and I'm glad I have now. I haven't read much George Saunders, but reading your writing about his work makes me want to. That pull quote from Saunders! "Find out what makes you kinder, what opens you up and brings out the most loving, generous and unafraid version of you — and go after those things as if nothing else matters." Yes.
Hmmm... I like Weil's thinking here. "Invent" new institutions “exposing and abolishing everything in contemporary life which buries the soul under injustice, lies, and ugliness.”
I suppose Europe had to completely rebuild after the wars anyway. Perhaps this is the task that we all do, whether our institutions are intact or not, we keep reinventing them, digging out the ugliness that seeps in and replacing it with beauty. Institutions seem to need regular gardening, weeding, replanting. And we each have a little plot in the giant patchwork.
What a truly helpful perspective. Thank you for sharing.
I'm glad it landed with you, Bethany. So grateful for the help we share with each other.
Cindy, this writing is gorgeous. I am experiencing these emotions and struggles to understand right along with you, even to the details f having an infant at the first inauguration (which makes it impossible not to track the time precisely) and to coping through amateur art (pottery for me :) ). I may have read Simone Weil in college, but never with breadth or depth and this is prompting me to seek her out.
Parallel lives! I would love to try pottery, too.
Weil is an imperfect hero, for sure, but I continue to find her so good for thinking with these days. Here's to finding voices of wisdom in the noise.