in october last year i organised a fundraiser with
, who generously offered her time to run an interactive session she called OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN: the myth of separation.kerri’s session was moving, monumental, transformative. below is a piece i wrote during the session following her writing prompt: “they are killing children”. with so many words in my drafts, waiting to become substack posts, none feel as important as these, none feel as relevant as those i wrote last october — words that feel more relevant now than when i first wrote them:
27/10/2023
dazzling sun, dusty
”they are killing children”
tenderness as a way back into oneanotherness, a starting point so clear, so necessary, sought by all mammals. this myth of separation only moves us away and away and away from ourselves, further into the mania, the sleep deprivation, the unimaginable parts of ourselves that show up when we are pushed to the edges of our beings. behind these closed doors and double-glazed windows i sit. i can shut myself away from the heartbreak and horror, but in doing so i too am removing myself from the tenderness and the care that i need in the raising of my family, in the growing of this seabed that is my soul, in the softnesses i encounter in my learning to be in and of this world. i can ignore, i can save my soul from the suffering of this world, but i too will suffer. i will suffer because coming together is the way we heal, coming apart can only be a cracking, an opening, a dividing, and one of our own doing, of our society's doing, that removes us from reality, moving us into an imaginary space where we can fool ourselves into accepting this myth of separation. we cannot have it on our terms. we cannot say i need more support from my government or from society or from family or friends while refusing to acknowledge the rupture of life and families in other societies and countries. we are earthbound, mammalbound, peoplebound. light dark light again.
So beautifully expressed and apt ❤️
Beautiful x