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Garrett, thank you so much for this. You called it, you put incisive words to this uneasy, pervasive, conflicted feelings-bundle, which our culture has taught us to have no idea how to name, let alone discuss.

So this is the second paragraph, where I feel the need to offer something we could do, something I want to commit to, that would be helpful. But I don't know. I've been learning and reading and talking and listening, and I just...don't have a clear picture of a path. I'm walking, but it feels the way Portland's skies look right now. (There's a ridgeline immediately behind my house. It's not visible.)

Which is, on the one hand, okay? Another wrong thing our culture has taught us is that we have to have an opinion on everything right away. I'm very good at opinions, and I'm trying to get over that. And on the other hand, all these questions you raise are absolutely immediate. So: I don't know. I'm listening. No closing words.

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Jeez I'm grateful for this reflection. Thank you. What I love the most is the way you give yourself permission to not be settled, to not offer an answer, but just to be... trying right now. In That feels pretty profound and right at a moment such as this.

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