Journey 1: Introduction

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You’re listening to Shameless Honesty. I'm Amy Marshal. This is a special series of episodes I've called “Journey,” where I'm recording what I'm learning from those who live at the margins of power and privilege—whether by faith, race, gender, orientation, ability … or in the intersections. These are folks who have long been reaching out to others with love and are changing the world one relationship at a time. I'm excited to see communities coming together, and I'm so glad you're here!

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The United States just had a Presidential Election where many people voted to retain the familiar social order. That's an idea I got from Jason Herbert's podcast Reckoning (Episode 5: How Do You Deal With Your Family When They Vote For Fascism?). I think anyone who reads history can understand societies that don't evolve cease to be. So, what do we do about that?

I'm not the right person to start a movement. And, honestly, the movement has long since started. I am just now beginning to see how much I need to catch up. This is my journey I'm sharing with you, because maybe you need to catch up, too.

Here's one thing I believe right now. The only way to make a lasting difference in the polarization and divisiveness that have become so glaringly obvious over the past decade is meeting one individual at a time in love. It’s slow and it’s messy and it’s not the only front on which the battle wages, but this is my overarching goal right now: Learning how to love better and to seek a future of “we” rather than “us versus them.”

Before I go further, I want to be extremely clear. Some of you right now are literally fighting for your lives or supporting those who are struggling to keep living with this country as it is right now. If that is you, do whatever you need to do to be safe. Cut off relationships, stop following the daily news, move to another state or another country—whatever gets and keeps you and your people alive and healthy is your priority. 

This is for the rest of us. For the Mama Bears and the allies and the friends and the family who've got what we need right now and can leverage that stability, along with the other resources and privileges we have, to pursue meaningful change for us all.

I'm starting my journey with Valarie Kaur's book See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. I was first introduced to Valarie's work on the podcast Faith for Normal People. Her own Sikh faith leads her to love everyone as she does her own self, which sounds very much like the commandment from the Jewish Torah, repeated in the Christian Gospels, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I encourage everyone who is interested in learning more about how love inspires community action to take a listen to “Wisdom & Love in the Sikh Tradition,” and come back next week when I'll be sharing what I learned in the first part of See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur.

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Find full transcripts for this series and be a part of the conversation at ShamelessHonesty.com/Journey. Until next time, this is Amy Marshal with Shameless Honesty. Thank you for joining me on the journey.

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Conversation for See No Stranger posts is hosted at facebook.com/ShamelessHonesty