12:59am June 17, 2014

I have, by the way, learned some interesting things, as usual.

From people who are afraid to set their little packages down in public, lest they get the sort of response I get.

But who exchanged packages with me in private, several times.

And we talked about forbidden things, things you’re never, ever supposed to say in the echo chambers.

It strikes me how harmless the forbidden things are.

They won’t harm anyone. They certainly won’t kill anyone.

But, being forbidden, someone will make a case that they are harmful or deadly.

For everything I say that other people aren’t saying, there are tons of people who are afraid to speak up. Who have their own truths that go against what the echo chamber says truth is supposed to look like.

I will go on wishing for a world where we could all share our little packages in public. Where we could gather round and pass them around the circle.

Where we could talk about the practical, ethical, and social implications of our experiences. All in a spirit of exploration.

Not in an attempt to figure out who we can mock and belittle, next.

Not in an attempt to figure out the next idea to rip to shreds.

Not so that we can sit there on a hair-trigger, waiting for someone to say the wrong thing so we can explode at them in a satisfying way, letting them know all the ways that their actual, lived experience is something that will harm or kill others just by its very existence. Or that their actual, lived experience is somehow meaningless compared to our own hardships.

But really, seriously, in the spirit of discovery and curiosity, and love, and hope, and meaning.

We can do that, one day. Outside the walls of the echo chambers.

One day, there will be enough of us, that we can take on the hate and the mockery and the personal attacks, and neutralize it. And go on doing exactly what we were doing, unhindered by it.

Maybe there already are. Maybe there is a way to do this.

All I know, is that every time I write something that results in getting really weird flames… I also get private messages from people I don’t even know, telling me about themselves, telling me they cared what I had to say, telling me that the work I went to wasn’t meaningless. I can’t thank all those people enough, or the ones I do know. Especially lately since the family emergency, I’ve gotten so much help from those little private messages. It means a lot to me.

So thank you to everyone who has written, either about my family or about their own stuff. And when it comes to the stuff we have to write in secret, I hope one day we don’t anymore. One day we can exchange little packages much more openly, without having to worry who saw which person do what.

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