Last night, Cillian, Tadgh and I heard Terry Tempest Williams speak at UAA, as part of the Bartlett Lecture Series. Williams was gracious, passionate, well-spoken. Brandy recommended last year that I read her book An Unspoken Hunger, and it's been on my bedside table since then, unopened; I'm inspired to read!
Some tidbits from her lecture and the follwing conversation:
"Don't worry... There is just enough light shining on (your) next step."
"Think about what you love, think about what you want o give. And do it." (Do it with the people you love and with whom you want to make community.)
"We must see our denial of this truth for what it is: madness." i.e., The real power lies not in oil rigs but in the unstoppable ("untrimmable," says Mary Oliver) beauty, connectedness, strength of LIFE.
On having meaningful conversations with the 'other side': "How do we bypass rhetoric? Stories." When we tell stories, we create relationships. And relationships are not something we can ignore.
How can we deal with the huge change that is necessary for healing a broken world? "Be present" and pay attention to community.
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