EARTH & US:
Valarie Kaur, People’s Inauguration
Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger, is a young mother, lawyer, and activist who started the “Revolutionary Love Project.” I believe she is a prophet for our times!
Her book reveals her personal journey from woundedness to heart-centered empowerment, grounded in her Sikh faith. Right after Biden took office, she held an online “People’s Inauguration,” calling for a needed transformation into a true people’s democracy. Speaking with visionary passion, she introduced the key concepts of her map for transformation, with personal stories and interviews with inspiring leaders, many of them people of color.
There are three parts to Revolutionary Love: Love Others, Love Opponents, and Love Ourselves. Discover where we are at any moment on the “Revolutionary Love Compass.” (See above.) Each part has three practices. Every day for ten days, a different action or quality was the focus.
So these are my “Cliff Notes” from a very full ten days…broken down into three separate posts. Please visit www.valariekaur.com and see especially the “Learning Hub” and “Educators’ Guide” — all free resources for people eager to learn more and get involved. Valarie also has inspiring YouTubes with thousands of viewers.
Part 1: Love Others, See No Stranger
Day 1 — Wonder
The People’s Inauguration requires cultural renewal and affirmation of the worth of each person, and a recommitment to our core values. What are we moving away from, and towards? What is my relationship with fear and grief? How can I help others heal, and rebuild the country?
To see no stranger, remember that the other person is “a part of myself that I do not yet know.” Wonder and curiosity open us to learning and understanding the unknown person.
We must see the humanity of our opponent, in order not to become like him. The warrior sage goes from resisting injustice, to re-imagining our institutions. The human race will be in transition for the next 25 years. By the end of this long labor, people of color will outnumber whites in the US… it is time for the birth of a multiracial democracy. We must anchor ourselves in love for this long labor. How did our ancestors grieve and persist?
The story of white supremacy tricks us into judging. But love is a labor for those in harm’s way, says Valarie.
Honor our rage; it protects what we love. Valarie’s mother raged over her daughter’s violation (by a family member) and this showed how much she loved Valarie. Protective aggression protects what we love. We must process our rage in safe containers and harness it for nonviolent action. Our rage is not for vengeance, but to reorder the world. “Listen to our rage like a symphony.”
Grieve together, be brave with our grief and the grief of others. Core practices of loving self and others require building emotional resilience in order to listen to an opponent. Labor for justice with love and joy. Love is not an emotion, but a labor we do in community, for one another, and also for our opponent. 3.5% of the population can catalyze a mass movement for transformation. We need others to help us process, to make us laugh, and to support us as we grieve. Summon ancestral help: Rev. Martin Luther King, Grace Lee Boggs. Live in such a way as to become a good ancestor someday.
Joy is the gift of love; it returns us to what is worth fighting for. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects what we love. Love is a revolutionary force for justice.
Heart to heart work is required to create the Beloved Community.
Day 2 — Grieve
Grief is the price of love. The more we love, the more we grieve. Grieve together as a human family.
Aggression is unresolved grief. We must process our own grief and rage before we can help another person.
We let others’ grief into our hearts, feel the pain of loss. Keep our heart borders porous. We can’t fix the loss, but we can help carry it. Being brave with our grief deepens our capacity to love. Grieve over the assault on BIPOC, be present to their pain, that creates deep solidarity. Who we weep with determines who we fight for as sisters and brothers. Shared grief is an act of revolutionary love.
Gain intimacy with your own grief. Explore grieving over injustice as a tool of transformation and solidarity. Listen for what is unsaid. Breathe together. No-one should grieve alone. Take their hands and say, “You don’t grieve alone.” Feel grief in your body. “What does my grief invite me to do?” Grieving together leads to organizing. Now, there’s a critical mass about re-imagining the police; city after city is taking funds from police departments and putting the money into assisting the homeless, substance abusers, and mentally ill.
A Truth & Reconciliation commission would mean admission of crimes against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in this country. Whatever was labeled “foreign” has been criminalized. In the name of American “exceptionalism,” many atrocities have been and are still committed.
“Whose story have I not let into my heart?” What if we knew the parents whose children were taken from them at the border? Grieve and pray in solidarity.
Homework: Reach out to someone carrying grief, and ask how they are. Listen, allow silences. Don’t try to fix. Be fully present. How does their grief touch my own?
Wisdom journal: What did I learn from grieving, what do I need to be brave with grief? What did I learn about the other person and myself?
Najeeba Syeed, a Muslim, works to decrease gang violence in L.A. “Grief is our collective bridge to Divine Source,” she says. We hold the intention of binding our hearts together. Grief is a social and spiritual discipline. It’s vulnerable. Witness grief and the violent systems of oppression that cause it.
We must mainstream the capacity to grieve in community rituals; make time and space for grief! Deportation is like a death, too. Grief is nonlinear, it comes in cycles. Grieve and empathize with our children over their losses, hold them; otherwise they may go into anger.
We must tend our own wounds before tending those of our opponent. “Opponent” is not fixed, like “enemy.” It’s more fluid — sometimes our spouse or child is our “opponent” in the moment. How do we share our common grief with people we disagree with? (e.g., white supremacists mourning the loss of “their” country and dominion by whites.)
Day 3 — Fight
We fight for others, alongside others, with nonviolent discipline. Fight for those outside our own circle. The enemies are systems of poverty, racism, militarism. Sikhs were warriors. “You are brave,” says our inner wisdom. Live in your fullest power, laboring for justice, in solidarity. Step toward a community that needs you. Notice intersectionality of oppressions: being Black, poor, rural, queer, female. Be an accomplice. Ask your inner wisdom: What is my sword? What is my shield? Who is my community?
Ai-Jen Poo, Director of National Domestic Workers Alliance: This organization is all women of color, many immigrants. Organizing works! Domestic workers’ bills of rights have now been passed in 10 states. Women are leaders. Domestic workers, undervalued, underpaid, insecure, are on the margins, and there is wisdom on the margins. “Take the next best step, together.” We need a human “infrastructure” of caring for children, elders, and the disabled.
Caitlin Breedlove, of Southerners On New Ground (SONG): Whiteness has been synonymous with domination. We must start with indigenous wisdom, Black liberation, and women of color, inviting white accomplices. There’s a crisis of trust in leadership. We must claim and celebrate each small victory, every relationship built or strengthened.
Who is on my periphery? What small step can I take? Activists, don’t overcommit or overwork! Frenzy destroys our inner wisdom. Ask: What’s breaking my heart? Stand up for others.
Coming next: Part Two, Love the Opponent