One of the earliest lessons we are taught as children is that two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because your sister hit you doesn’t mean you get to hit her back. Just because your brother overturned the Monopoly board doesn’t mean you get to break something on his desk.
When we get older, we are told that things are complicated. There are narratives, and claims, and history, and disputed tactics, and counter-tactics, all in the name of justifying retribution and power plays.
The great tragedy of humanity is that we have all the abundance necessary to live in harmony and choose not to. The worst of our leaders ply the dark arts to enforce hierarchies, profit from division, and feast on the carnage.
But the great yearnings of humanity–for equal rights, freedom from oppression, safe harbor from violence, the right to self-determination–will never be stifled. And without them, peace cannot exist.
So much of writing involves encoding our principles within a fictional world because we bristle at the one that currently stands. Anyone sensitive enough to the Earth’s vibrations that they’re driven to put pen to paper aches to set things right. Particularly on days like this, in times like these, it’s hard to know what to say or if anything can or should be said at all.
I believe it’s the role of writers to be attuned to first principles, to bathe in shades of gray, and to flesh out the realm of the possible. Everyone who writes fiction, no matter their seriousness, puts down a marker on the world that exists and illuminates the ones that could be breathed into existence. But it scarcely feels like enough.
Sometimes the world’s ills are not as complicated as we’re told. The only cures–whether in Palestine, Myanmar, Sudan, DR Congo, or anywhere oppressed people yearn to be free, including those struggling within the United States–are equal rights and the dismantling of artificial hierarchies.
If only writers had more than candles on a dark path to light the way forward.
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Art: Detail of The Repentant Magdalen by Georges de La Tour
“to bathe in shades of gray…”
This is the finest thing I’ve read in a long time—not only is it true and moving, it’s also clear, succinct, and beautifully written. I think I’m going to read it over and over again, and each time I’ll find more to praise.
Thank you, I appreciate it!
If only we had more than candles to light the way. Exactly what I’ve been thinking lately. Thank you.
Glad to hear it resonated!
Beautifully put, Nathan. Thanks for the encouraging message. We need it.
Thank you!
Bravo ~ Beautifully written, and so needed.
I appreciate it!
Thank you for this, Nathan. It truly resonates. The ‘dismantling of artificial hierarchies’, indeed.
Well said, Nathan. Thanks.
In my memoir “The Last Time You Fall” I have to deal with a situation that challenged all that I believed. Do I get revenge or do like Teresa begged me to: Forgive those who had driven her to the brink of suicide. She’d done a lot of forgiving in the years before we met and ended up teaching me how to as well.
Thank you Nathan, your blog is a highlight.
Very calming to read. Thank you!
Thank you for being brave enough to put this message out into the world. Too many with platforms like yours are afraid of alienating those they feel helped get them up there. But we absolutely need voices such as yours to stand up for “equal rights, freedom from oppression, safe harbor from violence, [and] the right to self-determination…” If any one of us loses our right of self-autonomy, then all of us do. We must speak loudly in the face of oppression, if for no other reason than to inspire others to do the same. So thanks for standing up and speaking out when so many with capable voices remain seated and quiet.