Right here in our bodies, in our defense of our right to experience joy, in the refusal to abandon the place where we have been most completely invaded & colonized, in our determination to make the bombed & defoliated lands flower again and bear fruit, here where we have been most shamed is one of the most radical & sacred places from which to transform the world.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the power of reclaiming joy and healing in the face of oppression and destruction.
Aurora Levins Morales highlights the importance of reclaiming joy and beauty even in the aftermath of trauma and colonization. It suggests that the wounds we carry can serve as a foundation for radical transformation and healing, encouraging individuals to cultivate life and vibrancy in places that have been damaged, both physically and emotionally. By embracing our experiences and the rights to all feelings, we actively contribute to changing the world for the better.
In practice
A speaker at a social justice rally may use this quote to inspire activists to find empowerment in their experiences.
Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.
What is required to face trauma is the ability to mourn, fully and deeply, all that has been taken from us. Only through mourning everything we have lost can we discover that we have in fact survived; that our spirits are indestructible.
It's not about changing people; it's sometimes about changing a situation. How can we build an even better situation for them?
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.
If the culture you have is radically different from an 'experiment and take-risk' culture, then you have a big change you going to have to make - and no little gimmicks are going to do it for you.
The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that.
By aspiring to join the mainstream rather than figuring out the ways we need to change it, we risk loosing our gay and lesbian souls in order to gain the world.
Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?
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