I’ve spent years of my life in that mind space. I’ve lived in the past. Our ancestors' minds, ideas, thoughts, feelings, preferences, opinions and beliefs have flowed from them into me and us. Their pleasure and pain can become ours without our permission. We can be haunted by history. 

We can exorcize ourselves and support others, too. We can bust the old ghosts of misogyny that rattle their chains when we look in the mirror. We can invoke the sacred names of white witches as we make our voices heard at city council and school board meetings and the ballot box. We can show them how we burn.

I spent the first 22 years of my life around guns in the swing state of Pennsylvania where schools closed for the first day of buck and doe season. I experienced responsible gun ownership and felt safe around them. After my grandfather passed, I arrived his the service just in time to participate in a 10 gun salute. When I visit home, I stay in the family hunting cabin filled with rifles and handguns, but there is not an assault weapon in sight. I’ve had a concealed carry permit. 

I’m not anti-gun. I’m pro common sense. I’m anti anyone-can-have-any-kind-of-gun-they-want, anytime they want. I’m pro “with great power comes great responsibility.”

I DO believe in hope — and not passively. I believe in hope supported by faith actioned into being by beings willing to do things differently. I do not believe in new-age manifestations or that we can afford to spiritually bypass politics because everything that touches us is political. To say we are “above all that” is practicing privilege. I believe in women – and the men who respect and support women – who have earnestly held our elders’ wisdom sacred for so long and that now is the time for women’s wisdom to be elevated.

What is happening in Gaza strains the limits of human understanding. How could this happen? What must have already happened to create the conditions that would allow this to happen?

Asking questions like this is normal –and also potentially dangerous. Normal because as humans we want to “wrap our (logical) minds around” situations that seem beyond our ability to fathom. Dangerous because to do so can come with costs to our mental health.