Possibilities
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The November issue of Quest will be completed and mailed long before we know the outcome of the most important election of our lifetimes. It is hard for me to write about possibilities in this context. It is August as I write this, and COVID is continuing to wreak havoc, the uprising centering around the state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown people continues with no sign of abating, and of course there is the ever-present danger of the effects of climate change. It almost seems a forgotten afterthought on some days. “Oh yeah, climate change,” I think every now and then.
One of the ways I keep from plunging headfirst into despair is through reading. I gain strength and inspiration during these times from Black activists, and literature by Black authors. One of my favorites is Octavia Butler. Butler. One of the best science fiction writers who has ever lived, she wrote Afro-futurism and books that center Black female protagonists. The book that is most often cited as prescient of modern events in the United States is her Parable of the Sower. In it, the United States is a failed state that is being run by corporations and there are fights over water. The main character, Lauren, is an 18-year-old Black woman who leads a group of survivors north in search of a place to call home that has water and relative safety. Through the book, Butler offers ways to think about how to navigate horror by building community and by caring for our earth. It is through community and working together that humanity has any hope of surviving and thriving.
Possibilities are limited by our imaginations and by systems that seek to oppress some and privilege others. I imagine and hope for the possibility of communal care and a world where we don’t put people in cages, where we practice transformative justice and don’t leave anyone behind. To those reading this who are part of our Worthy Now Prison Ministry, know that you are affirmed in the fullness of who you are and how you show up in the world. You are not forgotten.
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