Thread by @monaeltahawy

I am finally writing that essay on grief and grieving. Those of us who did not die, and who live in places lifting lockdowns, must prepare to take our individual grief out into the world and find our place in communal mourning, all while being urged and cajoled into "happiness."

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1366208524485853184

We need a global grief strategy.

I worry that the magnitude of the loss--more than 3.5 million dead by #COVID19--is heavier and more searing than we are prepared for.

cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

I barely have the words myself. But I am trying to stitch them, and my heart, together.

Coming here. feministgiant.com

"In Egypt, there were always 2 professional women mourners present at a burial who were representatives of the goddesses Isis & Nephtys. To be a mourner,the women could not have born children.Their body hair was shaved & the names of Isis and Nephtys inscribed on their shoulders"

Those in countries where lockdowns are being lifted will be urged to "go back to normal" and governments, corporations, CEOs etc will be more invested in profits than in time to grief.

Those of us who insist that our loved ones who have died of #COVID19 are more than statistics will collide head-on with governments, corporations, CEOs etc who see both the dead and the living as only numbers and statistics.

And you might think you can run away from grief, but it will find you. I wrote about my grief anniversary: I refuse to emerge as if unscathed. I insist that we all be scathed, that we refuse to be the people we were at the start of the pandemic. feministgiant.com/p/essay-fallin…

Grief and trauma are sneaky shits. They know our subconscious is full of holes. They know where to kick and where it will hurt.

And they return every November to remind me that the Mona that I once was died in November 2011 so that the Mona I became could survive.

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