Give up pretending.
Everything, you know,
everything, sooner or later
gets eaten. Little fish,
big fish, no difference—
the world’s mouth
is on you. Outside the personal,
it even has a certain glory.
When the mouse, in its last
short dash to the grain,
feels the great rush of wings,
in the flash before
the crushing beak descends,
it is finally, luminously, airborne….
―Lynn Ungar
What is worth giving your life to feed?
It’s so easy to fill those moments of waiting—for a friend to arrive, for the doctor to call you in, for your turn in line at the grocery—with texting or Facebook or email, with something trivial to fill in the gaps. But sometimes it’s worth just waiting. Seeing what’s around you. Allowing things to happen at their own speed and simply noticing as they occur.
What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you while you were waiting?
There’s a well-known article about white privilege by Peggy McIntosh (PDF) which talks about the ways in which each of us carries around an invisible knapsack of privilege—unearned benefits we gain from being white or male or able-bodied or any number of other categories. It’s rare that anyone has every possible privilege, and it’s rare that anyone has no privilege at all. The privileges don’t mean that we are bad—or good—but it’s helpful to recognize both what you carry around as a matter of course and what others might not have gotten.
What do you see in your knapsack of privileges?
“Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.”
―Desmond Tutu
What are you willing to forgive in order to gain a new beginning?
What a daring way to travel, to simply request of the world at large that you be taken somewhere in the direction of where you want to go. Trusting that the people you meet will be the right people, that the road you take will be the right road. Of course it isn’t safe. Really, what journey is?
What are you willing to put your thumb out there for, ready to take whatever comes?
