\u201d\u2026if society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anyone knows anything about me, they more than likely know of my lifelong struggle of being able to just sit down and bang out a book\u2014of any size\u2014in a couple of sittings, let alone one. Actually I can\u2019t remember the last time, if at all, I read a book in one sitting. There\u2019s been few and very far and between books that I eat up and read rather quickly for myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now amongst these outliers is James Baldwin\u2019s Nothing Personal<\/em>. I didn\u2019t know it when I picked this book up, but I could\u2019ve read it in an afternoon no problem. I\u2019m rather happy I didn\u2019t, however. There\u2019s plenty in Nothing Personal<\/em> that gives us readers to chew on in its first couple of chapters\u2014as well as all subsequent chapters. But reading this in two separate sittings and coming out of it with plenty to think about, this arose many questions out of me. Not questions for James Baldwin but more like ponderings about the current times we\u2019re living in and the ways in which we operate and spend our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is it we let fear dictate our lives? Why do we decide what we should do based on our own fears? But more than just fear, what am I<\/em> willing to do to put aside my own safety? What am I<\/em> willing to do to give love to the people in my life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n These questions are derived because James wants us to re-examine the American Myth and to accept the real, actual, bloody history of the United States from its founding to the present day. How this myth persists in everything from what we consume to the people who cling on to it and refusing to let go of a history that never actually existed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s through human love and connection that James sees a way out and a way forward. We see presently how everyday people wander from place to place feeling unloved but yet longing for it and seeking it from anywhere and everywhere they possibly can. So why do we go looking for love from people who will never give us that love? Why do we go looking for love and acceptance in a history that never happened? What if trying to honor the past\u2014regardless if it happened or not\u2014is what\u2019s killing our future? Not just for us, but for our kids and grandkids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a way it reminds me of being young and being told that God loves me and that should be the only love that matters. If that was true, I doubt I would\u2019ve been bothered feeling really unloved and unwanted by those I was surrounded by teaching me about said love. They didn\u2019t love me because they didn\u2019t know the real me. They loved the me that was a suitable version of me for them. One that wasn\u2019t queer or trans. One that minded my p\u2019s and q\u2019s. I longed for them to know and love the real me. But now if I were to go back and talk with many of them, they wouldn\u2019t love this adult me one bit. They would cling to a past that was filled with masks, various costumes, and numerous lies. All things that I no longer carry in my closet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I honestly wish I owned this book but alas this book is one borrowed from the library. I took a lot from it though and I will continue to take a lot from it. This also felt like a timely read because the world at large, and the U.S. more closely, seems to be shifting\u2014and with everything season there is a turn\u2014towards love. I hope that the recent shift in energy from people continues to feel warmer and loving. I hope we move on from clinging to a past and stop trying to \u201cget back to how things were before\u201d and actually move to \u201chow can we make the future better than the past was\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201d\u2026if society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe.\u201d If anyone knows anything about me, they more than likely know of my lifelong struggle of being able to just sit down and bang out a book\u2014of any size\u2014in a couple of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21242,"featured_media":520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,10],"tags":[33,27,32,29,28,31,30,19],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-recs","category-writings","tag-book","tag-book-recommendation","tag-fear","tag-history","tag-james-baldwin","tag-love","tag-u-s-history","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendysnoisenook.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}