When you grow up in a religious culture that convinces its members that everyone who believes and lives differently than them has been deceived and doesn’t know the Truth, it’s easy to see how half the country has been brainwashed to believe cold, hard facts are “fake news.” Tr*mp’s America didn’t develop overnight.

His followers were primed by the evangelical church, which teaches that the world is against them and that it’s the sworn duty of its members to never waver in their certainty, even when they can’t explain their beliefs.

I moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a small town in Tennessee the summer before 8th grade. When I opened my U.S. History textbook, I noticed something weird. My TN textbook detailed the Civil War in complete contrast to my IL textbook. It sounded like a totally separate event. It was the first time I ever heard the Civil War referred to as “The War of Northern Agression.”

It was the first time I ever heard the phrase “The South will rise again.”

It was the first time someone had ever called me a “Yankee” and meant it as an insult.

To extinguish the plague of racism in the United States, white folks first need to address the whitewashed version of Christianity upon which the US was founded that (1) underlies our broken system of justice & (2) signals our complicity in acts of violence against black bodies. Whitewashed Christianity is what enables white folks to go unchecked in their ignorance, as they echo phrases like “I don’t see color” with a false sense of moral superiority, while carrying on with their casual, everyday racism fueled by their “color blindness.”

Me, an ADHD enneagram 7, making contact with every possible surface post COVID-19 just because I can

I’ve been thinking a lot about my body’s resistance to what is happening all around us right now.

My innate fight/flight/freeze response to this global trauma. The startling jolt each morning of our present reality.

My body’s desire to escape and find safety. How that jolt throughout my heart, my mind, and my body—while still fiercely present—dulls a bit each day.

How the initial grief at empty streets, citywide closures, and extreme social distancing measures is morphing into something else:

Numb acceptance.

About 4 years ago, I embarked on a 3 week silent retreat. No phone, no music, no books, no tv, no distractions of any kind, and no contact with the outside world (aside from one hour a day with the therapist facilitating the experience). While it was one of the most transformational experiences of my life, it was also brutally painful and devastatingly lonely.

Since many of us are facing unprecedented amounts of alone time and isolation, I thought I would share a few things I learned from my experience:

My wife and I moved to Chicago last week. We’ve been self quarantining for the past two days. Today, we slipped out briefly to pick up our dining room table and walk our dog. We stayed as far away from other people as possible. We are isolating and practicing social distancing, not because we are afraid of getting sick, but because we recognize the severity of this situation for immunocompromised individuals and our society at large.

Yesterday marked one week since we moved to a new city (Denver --> Chicago).

Three days ago, I started my new job.

Two days ago, my whole team went remote until further notice. In some ways, it’s a strange time to be in a brand new place.

I began to develop a new routine I really enjoyed and just as suddenly, it was interrupted.

Yet, I’m thankful.

My company is amazing. My team is incredible. And the opportunity to work remote is a gift.

To all those for whom the holidays are feeling neither merry nor bright, I see you. If your hearts are brimming with loneliness, sorrow, or dread, you are not alone. I am reminded, tonight, that the stable, in which Mary groaned with pangs of birth, was a gathering place for those on the fringes - not a respite for the chosen, honored, or revered.

For the past two decades of my life, people have told me that I apologize too much. I would usually respond with another apology. Now I make a point to say "Thank you." instead of "I'm sorry." for things that do not actually warrant an apology. i.e. "Thank you for your understanding."
"Thank you for your patience."

OR

"That sounds really hard and I hate to see you suffering." rather than "I'm sorry," which implies some sort of responsibility and forces the other person to say, "it's okay," when it's not.

This article by @andrehenry is so important. It is a gracious - yet firm - much needed assessment of how seriously the @RELEVANT audience should take the stories that have recently come to light, as well as how important it is to hold Strang accountable. Thank you, Andre.

https://twitter.com/travelsoflucero/status/1176576105760923651

Personal growth which aims towards any purpose other than the growth process itself is something else altogether. For one truly committed to growth has no other goal in mind.

I hope, for the sake of Strang and all impacted, that personal growth precedes public face-saving.

Okay enneagram world - I have a question for you.

As an ennea 7, I feel most emotionally seen & understood by the 4s in my life.

I feel like our emotional cycles most closely resemble one another’s bc while they’re deep in feeling pain, I’m deep in the misery of avoiding pain. Have any other 7s/4s had this experience or nah? Also. Here is my exchange with a very close 4 friend re: our bondedness. Any 7s feel this?

I’ve seen the usual “my gun will protect you from a crazy person’s gun” posts and the thing that baffles my mind & weakens my heart is that anyone who carries a gun has the intent to shoot to kill.

That is why people carry guns - to use them on other people. I don’t understand. I honestly cannot bring myself to the brink of imagining what it feels like to carry a weapon you know can end a life if fires directly at them. On some level, I understand self preservation, but not the killing instinct it takes to carry a gun around all the time just in case.

Here’s the thing: these shootings are not the product of mental illness. They are the product of grotesque racism, xenophobia, homophobia, bigotry, and are fueled by the damning, violent rhetoric from the man inhabiting the highest seat in the nation - the presidency. Myself and most of my closest friends deal with depression, anxiety, and a whole host of other experiences on the spectrum of mental illness on a daily basis.

We haven’t killed anyone.

I rolled my eyes when I first saw that Marianne was running.

I laughed at some of the memes in the last debate.

And last night, my eyes widened and my jaw hung open as I saw folks on my feed throwing legitimate support + defense behind her. Not only is she incredibly problematic and harmful to the disabled community and those dealing with their own mental health journeys, she also convinced members of the LGBTQ community that positive thinking was the answer for their AIDs diagnosis.

Been thinking about Newton's 3rd law over the past couple of weeks - for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And I can't help but wonder if so many of us in the LGBTQ+ community feel things so deeply & intensely bc we repressed all our feelings for so long. And that while there is a beauty to this newfound honesty and access to the full spectrum of human emotion, there is also something rather brutal and unforgiving about its intensity. It seems to catch so many of us by surprise and comes in unexpected waves.

Today, I came across some journals of mine that are more than a decade old. I was struck by sadness and deep pain as I read my own words from several years ago. Because they are so devastating, I do not wish to share an excerpt, but I will say this...(thread) The first 2 decades of my life were marked by so much fear & self-deprecation. Fear that I would get it wrong, would be found out (for thinking women are the most magical humans on the planet, which I’m happy to boast about now), that I would not be able to survive my own story.

Hi Kavi! I really appreciate this question and the spirit of it. And I certainly understand the confusion of that seemingly easy step not being an accepted norm. I would like to share some thoughts about why that is hard for people, not just in relation to this conversation.

https://twitter.com/notkavi/status/1150073302083198978

As a Certified Professional Coach, much of my work involves supporting my clients by equipping them with the tools to shift their disempowering beliefs to empowering beliefs.

This shifting process is key - because our beliefs are always propped up by other beliefs.

Hi new followers! 👋🏽

I’m guessing you’re here because a tweet I didn’t think would see 30 views somehow made it to your screen.

Strange. But, welcome!

If you’re looking for semi-controversial/somewhat viral tweets on the reg, don’t get too excited. That’s not why I’m here. But honest, thought-provoking questions that challenge our accepted norms, random funny RTs, and some theological musings - those are pretty consistent.

Few things about me:

1. I am life coach & brand storyteller & love helping folx find language for their experiences + ifeas.

Unpopular opinion: Sometimes I feel as if the majority of the Christian LGBTQ+ community expects faith leaders to adopt an affirming theology overnight - when in reality, it took most of us several decades to become affirming of ourselves. When these faith leaders disappoint by taking baby steps that do not include full affirmation, I have observed a collective villainization of their entire character, which seems both uncharitable and hypocritical.

It's the first Monday of June, aka Pride month, and I want to take a minute to share why Pride matters to me and what this month is about for so many people.

*clears throat*

A thread... Pride is a protest, a celebration, a declaration in which those of us who identify as LGBTQ+ get to celebrate the fact that we are *still alive* and that we get to take up space in a way that acknowledges our unique experiences, incomparable courage, and undefeatable spirits.