In the early morning, when the weather cooled down to the fifties and Marcus Garvey stilled, I opened my bedroom window and listened to Canto Two of Nabokov’s Pale Fire…and its intimacy and nuance brought my heart back to a softening place.

I think when we’re fighting against overwhelming injustice, we have to remember what we are fighting *for.*

Not just life, that is just the starting point.

But all the beautiful things that can spring from lives lived boldly and without needless fear.

When you get disheartened, and you’re worried about the current state of affairs,

remember:

FIRST, that these are not current affairs; for some cultures, this has been going on since European foot stepped onto this continent;

And SECOND, that the boots on the ground, the people in the streets are using their bodies to tell you the truth…

Not the truth you learned in textbooks,

Or on the nightly news,

Or from politicians,

But the truth that the value of life is absolute and not dependent on where one was born or in the melanin in their skin…

they are the manifestation of hope. They believe that they can bring about a better tomorrow. One in which all of us can experience this wondrous thing of beauty without the constant intrusions of fear and anxiety.

The don’t fight for an end. They fight for a new beginning.

Hope is everywhere. It is an act of revolution in itself. Be a co-signer to this new covenant. Help birth the new world with your strong will and your soft heart.