Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored
Alice WalkerRead
During my years of being close to people engaged in changing the world I have seen fear turn into courage. Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebration. Because whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that.
Interpretation
The quote conveys how relationships and shared experiences can transform negative feelings into positive actions and connections.
Alice Walker's quote reflects the profound transformation that can occur when people unite in their efforts to effect change in the world. It emphasizes the idea that shared experiences, even those rooted in sorrow or fear, can lead to remarkable courage and joy when individuals come together in love and solidarity. Ultimately, it speaks to the power of community and the belief in the goodness of one another.
In practice
In a motivational speech about social activism.
Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored
June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.
On a spiritual level, it's as though with my sighted eye I see what's before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what's hidden. It's illuminated life more than darkened it.
I think 'The Color Purple' is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.
How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed?
One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything.
The longer it takes to respond to a major development or crisis, the higher the chance of violence being seen as the only answer.
Caught in a racial uproar, people make all sorts of promises to make amends. Whatever they do tends to be heavy on symbolism and light on lasting change.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it.
Change based on principle is progress. Constant change without principle becomes chaos.
A genuine transformation that results from sustained concerted effort is long lasting because it has a firm foundation.
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