Stay At Home S’mores
sometimes the most essential work starts inside
Chapter 44
This was one of the longest weeks in the history of weeks. We went from sourdough starters and banana bread to defunding/abolishing the police in a matter of moments.
The world has been burning for a long time. It’s possible that you have come to understand how hot and how long it has been burning this whole time. Maybe you already knew, were born knowing, were told from the day you first entered the world that it was dangerous to you, in particular. Maybe you’ve been so protected from the flames that you are just now catching on, finally.
This has been a week of listening and learning, if you are white. If you are white, then you have so much work to do inside yourself. So, go protest, go march, go hold your sign, but then go home and do your own work. If there is one thing to continue learning, it’s that there is so much to learn and unlearn, to do and undo. This has been a week of reckoning and, hopefully, awakening that must lead to actual change.
If you are not white, then this has been a week that only you can define.
It is clear that change must come. It is clear who must change. (If it is not yet clear, you haven’t done enough reading and listening yet.) This must be the beginning, the 100th beginning. This must also be the end of a “normal” that relies upon the oppression of others.
Before, when this was about a biological virus, it was clear that “normal” would look very different at the end. Now, it should be clear to everyone that this country has been complicit in the suffering of others since its inception. “Normal” should never be allowed to return.
If there is a moment for comfort available, take it. If there is a moment sitting in all the discomfort and stress for you to come out and seek some sweetness, then grab a cookie sheet, some chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers and turn the broiler on.
Lay down a few halves a graham cracker. Using a kitchen scissor, cut the marshmallows in half and distribute them amongst the crackers. Top each with one or two pieces of chocolate, to your taste and a very very very small pinch of salt.
Pop the whole sheet in the broiler and give it just a few minutes. You’ll smell it. Check it. Take it out once the marshmallows are your favorite level of toasted to burnt.
Let cool. Pick one actionable thing you can do: sign a petition, make a donation, call a government representative, read about the long history of rioting in America and how all of this “destruction” repeatedly brought about change and also repeatedly did not.
Eat s’mores and keep doing the work.