“Compassion without action is just observation.” I’m thinking about this quote now, having seen it at the Women’s March about a month ago. It strikes a nerve because for a while I’ve stayed silent. I honestly haven’t had the courage to put my own thoughts out there because I had some notion that adding to the noise wouldn’t help. I think, maybe in some capacity we all underestimate ourselves, our agency, and our capacity to affect change. Which reminds me of another quote I saw at the March… “Anyone can stand adversity, but if you want to test someone’s character, give them power.” So now I think about the personal power that I wield and what I’ve done with it. I’ve been given the power to articulate myself as a result of a world class education. Yet I consciously decide not to speak out for fear of rebuke, of isolating people I care about, of losing the privileged position I’m currently in. I feel such an unrelenting sense of guilt when I think about people who are in vulnerable positions and yet still find the courage to unabashedly speak out. There’s another quote ringing in my head that goes along the lines of “We’ve always been so close to the bottom that we never forgot what the dirt look, taste, and smells like.” I think about what that must feel like because I honestly have no idea. I also think about some of the novels I’ve read that are brilliant spots of insight, that give me a glimpse into the kind of world we might be heading toward. I think about A Handmaid’s Tale and about Offred. I remember reading Atwood’s book and being appalled at how someone could be so passive during the rise of a radical, oppressive regime. Then I remember her passage “we lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” I also think about A Brave New World and its inhabitant’s dependency on “soma” to cope with uncomfortable truths. They’ve all been so conditioned to give in to impulse and desire… “An almost infinite appetite for distractions.” I think about how despite my initial repulsion to the characters in these stories, more and more I’m beginning to empathize with their plights.