We are twenty days into the new year now, and this is my first post. I was so happy to see 2021, and it’s hope, but I had grievous jet lag from last year. And I chose not to put any undue pressure on myself about it. I didn’t have the energy to anyway. In the spirit of Nina Simone, circa 1991, what kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.
In the meantime, a few things occurred. January sixth happened. An insurrection for the sake of keeping racism and hate alive and well, the finale of the Trump era. In the spirit of Nikki Giovanni, circa 2020, and so it comes to this. Teaching your sons to hate and your daughters to fear. Greedy because you don’t know Anything else to be. Finally having to recognize: The only thing you have to offer, Anything…yourself…planet Earth. Anything at all. Is your white skin. How sad. How sad. …Today is the inauguration of the Biden/Harris administration.
A little over a week ago, Facebook reminded me that it’d been three years since I launched this space. Realizing that I have continued to plug away at something I created gives me satisfaction. I must take this time to thank those here, journeying with me—cheers to another year of this. I’ll often read the graceful words of Toni Morrison, or Michelle or Barack Obama, or another genius person I admire, and think, I wish I were that smart and poised with language on paper. I’ll even sometimes feel a little heart-broken that my words will never be that influential. Nevertheless, it always gives me that inspiration to be better at this. And so that’s the work I have ahead of me this year.
Twenty days in, and as all of us step out of one four year era into another, being better looks like it is all of our work. Xo.
