My apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. It has been a hard week. For me, for my friends, my community, for the country. I don’t plan to discuss politics much on this site, but I will say to anyone reading who is hurt or afraid, I will stand by you. You are important, you are valuable, you are loved. This world needs you. Be strong.
And I will quote from an email that I sent to my family just a few minutes ago:
This week I am focusing my love on my Jewish friend who can’t sleep because she is having nightmares of people coming for her children, on my Muslim friend who asked me to reach out to her parents because they are feeling hurt and alone, on my gay friends who fear that their marriage will be invalidated, on my friends who fear for their black and brown children while the KKK marches, and on my daughters who are expected to respect a man who will be the leader of their country but who does not respect them as human beings.
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Next week I get up and start working to be the change I want to see, but right now I have some people to hold close and reassure that I will stand by them through whatever comes next.
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I will stand by you. I will not be silent when I see injustice. I will not turn away.
I did not write for two days. I had no words, and I certainly had no energy to devote to my books which seemed suddenly, utterly unimportant. But I opened up my laptop today. I will try. The world needs more art, more love, more creativity. Studies show that reading fiction builds empathy by forcing us to see through someone else’s eyes and Heaven only knows that we need more empathy right now. So I will do my little part.
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I love you all.
Category: Book News
I got nothing written on Tuesday or Wednesday either. I intended to write while watching election coverage and then was too stunned and nervous to write anything. And I’m not American, so I am not directly affected the way you are. All I could think of was that there are 4 people I know off-Internet who voted, 3 of whom are family and all are directly affected by the bigotry of the campaign. Two are my husband’s dual citizen cousins who are children of a lesbian, one is their step-mother, and the other is my honourary “little brother” – a gay young man who recently became old enough to vote (and spoke at the DNC, actually!).
Here is to a more productive weekend and working on books to build a better, more caring world.
Hugs to you, friend. American or not, we’re all in this together.
Good luck with your writing this weekend. I hope it gives you some peace.