“Life cannot wait until the sciences may have explained the universe scientifically. We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: IT IS ALWAYS URGENT. “Here and Now” without any postponement. Life is fired at us point blank.”
~Jose Ortega y Gasset
Folk singer - Ani Difranco in her song Letter to a John says- we barely have time to react in this world, let alone rehearse.
Several lessons valuable in Ani and Jose’s observations. We need to act, we need to resist, we need to fight for ourselves, our minds our freedom, and for the minds, and freedom of countless others. The world needs us. The world needs every caring, thinking, courageous, creative, fierce heart and mind it can gather on the side of justice and it needs us now. Not tomorrow, not the next day, a month from now, a few years from now…but right now. For our actions and inaction is having consequences at all moments of our existence. This is not to say we should at all times be caught up in the panic or urgency that subsumes so much of this culture, allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by the enormity and complexity of the life that we are faced with, but rather find the clarity to be present…here and now. Be open to the fact that we (and everyone else) will never quite do anything perfectly, no matter how hard we try. When we live in a world so enshrouded in oppressive relationships we can never fully act without oppression towards each other. But we can get close and we can deeply inspire each other trying.
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