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Quote by Venessa Vida Kelley

“You do not remember your family?' ...'Tití tried to find them after the storm...[E]veryone figured my family got washed out in the rapids with the hundreds of other boricuas who disappeared.' Río held himself like he was bracing against a chill. 'You speak as though it does not pain you.' 'I ain't gonna cry about it,' I said, tucking San Cristóbal back into my shirt. 'You can't change what happened. Better to just accept it and move on.' 'Benigno.' He brought himself upright again. 'Do you mean to say you do not cry?' ...'What does that matter?' 'It -matters,' he insisted. 'Salt water has healing properties. That is why our tears are made of it. Why should you hold them in?”

Quote by Venessa Vida Kelley

Book:When the Tides Held the Moon
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When the Tides Held the Moon

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Venessa Vida Kelley

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“For people who feel disrespected and unseen, politics is a seductive form of social therapy. Politics seems to offer a comprehensible moral landscape. We, the children of light, are facing off against them, the children of darkness. Politics seems to offer a sense of belonging. I am on the barricades with the other members of my tribe. Politics seems to offer an arena of moral action. To be moral in this world, you don’t have to feed the hungry or sit with the widow. You just have to be liberal or conservative, you just have to feel properly enraged at the people you find contemptible. Over the past decade, everything has become politicized. Churches, universities, sports, food selection, movie awards shows, late-night comedy— they have all turned into political arenas. Except this was not politics as it is normally understood. Healthy societies produce the politics of distribution. How should the resources of the society be allocated? Unhappy societies produce the politics of recognition. Political movements these days are fueled largely by resentment, by a person or a group’s feelings that society does not respect or recognize them. The goal of political and media personalities is to produce episodes in which their side is emotionally validated and the other side is emotionally shamed. The person practicing the politics of recognition is not trying to formulate domestic policies or to address this or that social ill; he is trying to affirm his identity, to gain status and visibility, to find a way to admire himself. But, of course, the politics of recognition doesn’t actually give you community and connection. People join partisan tribes, but they are not in fact meeting together, serving one another, befriending one another. Politics doesn’t make you a better person; it’s about outer agitation, not inner formation. Politics doesn’t humanize. If you attempt to assuage your sadness, loneliness, or anomie through politics, it will do nothing more than land you in a world marked by a sadistic striving for domination. You may try to escape a world of isolation and moral meaninglessness, only to find yourself in the pulverizing destructiveness of the culture wars.”

PoliticsEmotionMoralityTherapyBelongingResentmentPartisanshipPartisan PoliticsUs Vs Them
Book:How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
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“Mr. Freeman: Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag...The next time you work on your trees, don't think about trees. Think about love, or hate, or joy, or rage -- whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling. When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside -- walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know.”

DeathEmotionDepression
Book:Speak
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