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But art—any art—tends to do more than just save you. Art doesn't pull you out of a raging river and leave you on the bank. Art grabs a blanket. Art gives you body heat. Art picks you up and finds help.
When I started writing this newsletter, one of my goals was to find more joy. This may sound surprising to you. I highly doubt anyone here would describe me as a joyful person or promote my work as a great way to start your morning on the right foot. My poetry isn't Grape Nuts.
But art—any art—tends to do more than just save you. Art doesn't pull you out of a raging river and leave you on the bank. Art grabs a blanket. Art gives you body heat. Art picks you up and finds help.
A lot of people stay here, at this point, in their art. It's easy to wallow. To think about getting back in the river. To drown again. It's even easier knowing art is with you. Some people just take advantage.
But if you continue past the point of salvation, if you let art do its job—art will heal. It might take a long time, and you might not ever notice what is happening, but little by little, art will patch your wounds, tell you a small joke and make you laugh, grow with you, give you peaceful mornings, and before you know it—art is telling you a story about joy.
But that's not what is happening, not in this newsletter and not in my art. I keep getting sidetracked by America. My heart keeps breaking with what the American people have chosen. And you can bristle at that statement and tell me "not all Americans blah blah blah", but the end result is the same. We chose this. And if we didn't choose it, then we let it happen and that's worse. You see how that's worse right?
Joy is becoming elusive. Because the thing about me is that my joy is not dependent exclusively on my own situation. I think about everyone I love—all the time—and I know now, the importance of collective liberation. If we're not all free, none of us are. This is very different than the Christian concept of "freedom in Jesus". Freedom in Jesus is ambiguous lip service that can mean whatever white people want it to mean. Collection liberation is Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. It's a real thing we can do. That we can fight for. That we can attain.
