“Whether we help change systems of privilege depends on how we handle the belief that nothing we can do makes a difference, that the system is too big and powerful for us to affect. The complaint is valid if we look at society as a whole, because we aren’t going to change it in our lifetime. But if changing the entire system through our own efforts is the standard against which we measure the ability to do something, then we’ve set ourselves up to feel powerless. It’s not unreasonable to want to make a difference, but if we have to see the final result of what we do, then we can’t be part of change that’s too gradual and long term to allow that. We also can’t be part of change that’s so complex that we can’t sort our contribution from countless others that combine in ways we can never grasp. The problem of privilege and oppression requires complex and long-term change coupled with short-term work to soften some of its worst consequences. This means that if we’re going to be part of the solution, we have to let go of the idea that change doesn’t happen unless we’re around to see it.”
—Allan G. Johnson (via wretchedoftheearth)
June 2013
“We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.”
—Hermann Hesse (via flowing-air)
pet peeve: people adding “-ess” to words that dont need it and never historically had the suffix in order to make it “feminine”
leopardess
paladinessdragoness
wolfess
chihuahuaess
wolfess
it flows off the tonguefjgjfkgfdconfess, the feminine form of a conf
