Making Change Step by Step

Change can be almost unbearably slow

• when a child struggles to go to sleep,
• when a teen 'forgets' to take out the recycling,
• when I get judgmental for the thousandth time even though I know better,
• when a neighbor is having trouble finding a job and you know it would be easier if they were white or straight or male or conventionally beautiful,
• when clerks at the local store follow black teens around suspiciously,
• when schools in white neighborhoods have twice as much money per pupil than schools in predominantly non-white neighborhoods (and taxes are actually much lower),
• when women still routinely earn less money than men for the same job while also doing more housework, parenting work, and emotional work in the home,
• when the highest courts in the land are stacked for the patriarchy,
• when people of color have the same legal rights on paper but completely different 'rights' in the neighborhood, on the road, and in the courts.

And we aren't in control of how this actually plays out even as it's heartbreaking and infuriating, we can do something. We can remember that we are on our way somewhere--that our kids and our culture are growing up and they need our help!

Just as we nurture our children's best selves and our own, we  nurture our culture. We choose day by day, moment by moment,  conversation by conversation, and vote by vote, the world that we live in. We can't give up on this messy world until it reflects the world in our hearts and souls.

Are you voting? Do you know the local candidates? Let's vote for change.

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