Thoughts on Caring #1

My previous post, which discussed my word for the year, caring, ended with a quote from the book Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba: “It begins with care.” It seems there is a war over words these days, so I wanted to take a moment to put the word radicalize in context here. The title is an abridged version of Kaba's quote: "Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”

So, with the aforementioned movement to tell a single story about someone who uses a particular word or term (i.e. DEI, SEL, woke), it is critical to ask people what they mean by a specific word. Context and historical knowledge of how words have been co-opted to fuel political movements and marginalize people are vital. With this in mind, it is critical that we enter conversations with curiosity rather than assume we understand how someone feels.

One of the quotes about caring I posted on Instagram this week (below) is one that I think about daily. It is difficult to make a case that we genuinely care about humanity when the inhumane conditions we witness pass without a second thought.

How does this quote make you feel? As Resmaa Menakem notes in My Grandmother’s Hands, “We need to ground ourselves, touch the pain or discomfort…This requires building a tolerance for bodily and emotional discomfort and learning to stay present with it.” Without this, we will only continue to perpetuate harm to ourselves and others.

I am going to end with the quote below on caring, which I posted yesterday on Instagram. Do you have any thoughts or quotes on caring that you want to share? I would love to hear them!