Be Offended

I haven’t posted much lately because I don’t know how to say the many things on my mind, and in my heart, without drawing attention away from those who deserve and need the spotlight right now. I do know one thing though: the only thing that feels right is to feel hurt, confused, angry, and deeply offended by some of the things I read every day.

It feels right to sit in this moment and feel desperate for change.

It feels right to look at everything I have, and to second-guess the privileges that have carried me to where I am, and also to cry out at the things I love about myself that have held me back from where I want to be.

It feels right to embrace actions and stances I don’t fully understand, and to open my mind and consider why they make all the difference to someone else’s life experience.

It feels right to look at the sum of all these parts, and feel deeply offended by how we got here, and find ways to heal these divides.

I’m sure we’re all receiving blowback from friends and colleagues about how an opinion or political post has offended someone, like it’s a cardinal sin and we should immediately walk back our stance for someone else’s security. I think that time is over. Offend, and be offended. Use the power of everything around us to question why you’re offended, and why someone else can’t afford to feel that way. Speak your truths, because for all of those you offend, you inspire so many more, like me. Because, as a society, we can’t solve a problem until it offends us and, instead of blocking or looking the other way, we all work together to change it. And yes, that might mean that the most privileged of us have to give something up.

We can’t heal our society until we decide we want to be healed.