Poems and Quotes:
IF THE PATH COULD SPEAK
Beneath these words rests the awareness of generations.
And of generations.
And of generations that have come before.
The awareness that each one of us is a vital part of the earth that we call home,
is of the wind, the rain, the fire.
And so inherently belongs.
If the path could speak, it would say:
“We must assert that which exists deep within us,
namely, a sense of kinship with all those with whom we share the earth.”1
On repeat.
In every language.
Unceasingly.
— Rhonda V. Magee, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Strengthening Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Penguin RandomHouse: 2019):
“Three plagues, three contagions, threaten the world.
The first is the plague of nationalism.
The second is the plague of racism.
The third is the plague of religious fundamentalism.
All three share one trait, a common denominator—an aggressive, all-powerful, total irrationality. Anyone stricken with one of these plagues is beyond reason. In his head burns a sacred pyre that awaits only its sacrificial victims. Every attempt at calm conversation will fail. He doesn’t want a conversation, but a declaration that you agree with him, admit that he is right, join the cause. Otherwise you have no significance in his eyes, you do not exist, for you count only if you are a tool, an instrument, a weapon. There are no people—there is only the cause.
A mind touched by such a contagion is a closed mind, one- dimensional, mono-thematic, spinning round one subject only— its enemy. Thinking about our enemy sustains us, allows us to exist. That is why the enemy is always present, is always with us.”
-From Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński
