Disclaimer: Messy and lengthy post ahead
Today’s share is a stream of thoughts that encapsulate some of the time that has lapsed since my last entry. A time filled with all sorts of trials and transformations in the most challenging yet affirming ways.
In a snapshot:
I was released from my 9-5 job in October
Our first IRL communal gathering was soul-nourishing
MAY ALL EMPIRES FALL
For the past year, two of my most closest friends and I have been piecing together a sacred gathering for our community to be in ceremony and celebration with one another. We named this experience Divine Tropika and the process of birthing this vision into fruition became a labor of love, unlearning, communicating, releasing, and trusting the flow of how everything was gonna go.
As we were nearing the day of the event, something catastrophic and unimaginable unfolded.
SIDENOTE
I’ll share more about points 1 and 2 in a future post.
In this span of time, a full blown genocide erupted and continues right before our vary eyes. Waking many of us from our western slumber to the ongoing crises that have been underway for decades.
Crises fueled and funded by our allegiance to the comforts we’ve been accustomed to in our bubbles and ways of life. Crises that have provided the smart devices nested in our pockets and on our desks that connect us to the world 24/7. Crises that have led to the occupation, violation, and subjugation of massive amounts of people from Palestine to Sudan, from the Congo to Armenia.
All of which are connected to the movements that have been calling us to stand with those demanding the freedom of the people and the lands impacted from centuries of colonialism and imperialism from the Philippines to the Kingdom of Hawai’i to right here on Turtle Island.
Some Actions We Can Take:
Download the 5 Calls App to call your reps and demand they advocate for a permanent ceasefire.
Visit www.ShutItDown4Palestine.org for more actions to take.
Learn about the calls for boycotts and the urgent actions listed by the BDS National Committee.
Also, when I go grocery shopping I’ve been checking the brands I purchase on Boycott the Witness to see their involvement in the occupation of Palestine. (Thank you to Melanie who also informed me that Sweetgreen is a no no too)
🌎 The Global North has much to atone for
The Global North is propped up on horrid histories that have yet to be atoned for. Its quest for domination by any means necessary has come at the expense of the lives, livelihoods, and dreams of so many. Its constant extraction, manipulation, and dehumanization has targeted beings who do not fit within the confines of the constructs of whiteness, those who are not part of the wealthy elite, those living with disabilities, and those with identities that challenge binary societal norms.
I’m not sure where I’m going with all of this. All I know is that there’s much connections to be made from current events playing out in strategic ways that mimic, and at times, seem like direct copies of historical events from timelines before.
🔁 History doesn’t repeat itself, people do
I forgot who I heard this from, but the quote “history doesn’t repeat itself, people do” has stuck with me all these years. It makes me think of the ways we, human kind, keep finding ourselves repeating patterns and making choices we already know leads to our demise.
Where violence garners national attention and punishment is dolled out in oppressive and ostracizing ways to teach us a lesson while the very systems that have led to the violence and those upholding it mostly go unchecked.
And if they do get checked, it leads to subtle reforms that still allow the violent systems to persists. Leading to yet another vicious cycle of violence, uproars, punishment, illusions of change, and right back to where we’ve been since the founding of this country of division and delusion.
It can be quite maddening to see this constantly and consistently play out time and time again. Sometimes its looks different but the foundation remains eerily familiar. And then when we see it play it out in our personal lives, it’s as if everything we’ve learned or unlearned has gone out the window.
Even when we are at day 56, witnessing ethnic cleansing and clear displays of human rights violations from our smart phones, many folks in positions of so-called power are still more willing to debate optics and talk data points rather than demand a permanent ceasefire. Many folks in positions of so-called power are so loyal to extracting the land for oil and resources that line their pockets. Oh, how heavy must their conscious be.
Or are they conscious free?
What a time to be alive and witness so many of the beloved actors and artists who yield much societal influence go mute during what the biased western media outlets have called unprecedented times.
❌ May I stop placing people on pedestals
A couple weeks ago, I saw a clip that caught my attention of this series called the “The Morning Show.” That clip led me to binge watch all three seasons on a site I shall not name as I don’t plan to ever have an apple+ subscription.
Watching the series in order, was like reliving the past three years in various ways. The show is centered around news anchors, their producers, the execs, and the stories they choose to deliver both on and off camera. It was pretty fascinating in the beginning to see a bunch of career obsessed beings doing whatever it took to stay on top of an empire they sadly believed in.
Centering themselves in a relentless pursuit of self-obsessed and self-defined success fueled by a deep sense of entitlement and delusion. Where they demanded and declared their worth every chance they got and expended so much resources just to control their narrative and be portrayed exactly how they wanted to be seen.
After the first season, the storylines began to feel stale and pretentious.
Yet I continued to watch.
A part of me felt entertained seeing a bunch of overprivileged white folks go through their self-indulgent meltdowns and vows to undermine each other. And then you start to see the patterns of how this world in which the writers built created an environment where heinous actions received little to no repercussions and were actually afforded protection by those in higher positions of power because it served their bottom line — profits.
Their deliberate choices were depicted as “mistakes” while the impacts of their actions had far reaching implications for everyone else. Especially and specifically for the characters of color.
Sound familiar?
If the show was going for a realistic reflection of our society, then they sort of achieved that. I say sort of because the storylines still felt very contrived.
Although more Black and People of Color actors began appearing on screen, their roles we’re written into obscurity with back stories that felt more like afterthoughts. Which was pretty evident in the episodes that reflected on the uprisings and unlearning’s of 2020 and throughout the pandemic.
In all three seasons, it was clear that the show was always going to center the mostly white cast. Anniston, Witherspoon, and Crudup along with the other white folks that made up the executive team and investors had ample amounts of airtime. Even Anniston’s producer played by Duplass, had a thorough storyline that I’d argue other characters were just as deserving of and had more interesting stories to tell.
I write this reflection because it reminds me of how superficial and surface level change has been in this country. And I say that not to disregard or dismiss the impactful contributions made by beings whose sacrifices and actions have afforded us the rights we have today. Inherent rights that some folks like to call “privileges” in an effort to humble us to be more grateful.
To me, this show reflects the stronghold that the internalized ism’s has on our society. Which I don’t even think is the show’s intention with its unmindful storylines that try to make it seem like its aware of societal problems yet is oblivious to see that it’s actually perpetuating it. I’d go into more detail on this but I’ve reached my energetic capacity on this topic.
To wrap it up, the irony of these actors playing journalists who in “The Morning Show” stood up in the name of justice and vowed to be truth tellers yet in reality have remained in many ways neutral and largely silent on the grave injustices happening in Palestine let alone the world is really something y’all.
And most recently, cast member MarguLIES had some vile choice of words towards the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities. Vomiting horrible statements such as:
“…these people who want us to call them they/them, or whatever they want us to call them… it’s those people that will be the first people beheaded and their heads played with like a soccer ball, like a soccer ball on the field.”
“The fact that the entire Black community isn’t standing with us to me says either they just don’t know, or they’ve been brainwashed to hate Jews,”
“These kids are calling Jews colonialists. If you’re gonna go with that argument, kids, then get the f— out of America. Because you were not here first. Native Americans were here first and you owe them a big f—ing apology.”
History shows us and continues to show us that when high-profile white folks, and those presenting white, spew out their inner feelings it’s often defaulted to the ism’s ingrained in their consciousness. I’m speculating here but I have a hunch that many have never really worked on themselves to fully interrogate the way they perpetuate the ism’s they say they fight “tirelessly” against.
Instead, what we often get is a templated follow up apology where halfway through their statement a sentence highlights how much they “tirelessly” worked to combat hate throughout their entire careers.
The more I consume these shows where actors are merely playing a role as a defender of justice but in real life is silent or neutral to the current injustices happening, they start to appear more like caricatures of a human being to me.
But I digress because…
❤️🩹 I am forgiving
Earlier this week I attended a beautiful online session held by the Care Immersion group and facilitated by Pinay-rish mother and mystic,
of the Birth Realm and core member of .In our session, Camille, conducted a cleansing prayer and pulled cards for everyone. The card I received was “I Am Forgiving.” And those words stuck with me all week as I continue to go on this journey of extending forgiveness to the ones I am resolving past histories and stories of.
I’m gonna leave it super vague for now as I continue to process this and practice some ways that can bring forth more forgiveness in my life not only from me but to me as well cause I’m just as flawed as the next person.
Anywho, more on that on a future post. And well damn this entry is getting mad long so I’ll end it with a message I was planning to share on IG and was low key the initial inspiration for this post.
Thank you for reading.
Till next time,
Willa
🌺⚔️🐉⚔️🌺
👁️ We are some messy ass humans
As humans, we can be f*cking messy, contradictory, complex, and perplexed beings. We can be and act emotionally, irrationally, selfishly, and resentfully. We can be so prideful when we are in control and become fearful when the time comes for change.We’ve been taught to project our pain onto others and react to calls for accountability with disdain.
In the same breath, we humans possess the ability to create life-giving beauty, to make amends and practice loving unconditionally, and to imagine and build systems that bridge worlds collectively.
We humans have the capacity to coexist, to co-create, to collaborate, and to cultivate the harmonious world that once was and is emerging once again.
We are all impacted to varying degrees and flawed in various ways that are unique to our personal experiences yet connect to the zeitgeist of collective traumas from centuries of human-made divisions and inhumane decisions.
So the question remains:
Are we willing and able to hold the mirror up to our own selves?
Where we are able to fully interrogate and interrupt the ways we have been operating that are informed by and uphold the constructs designed to keep us divided, misguided, and perpetually polarized within our shared humanity.
None of us including those advocating for the oppressed are absolved from being harmful. None of us including those given pedestals and platforms are absolved from being a bigot.None of us are absolved from being an asshole perpetuating the ism’s that have informed human consciousness since the beginning of human kind.
And regardless of the dogma we have inherited, consciously and unconsciously, we have the opportunity in the here and now to cut these lines of trauma. To break the cycles that have kept us asleep to our transformative magic and to realize the power we hold when we awake from our societal induced coma.
🌺 Closing affirmations
May I continue to wake up.
May my heart continue to open.
May my mind continue to expand.