I’m writing this just five days after the election, and I’m finding that most of my energy wants to go down and inside myself. I can find others around me in this same environment who seem to be moved by an energy that takes them out into public and social spaces to engaging actions that feel vital to them.
Pondering these different responses in the wake of an unsettling event (which may be an understatement for this election), it occurred to me that we have two different uses of the word “repair.” There is the repair as fixing or mending something. And there is an older usage of repair, as in to return to some place. It comes from Latin and French roots that mean to repatriate, to return to one’s own country.
That word history alone adds a layer of sadness to all that I’m feeling right now. I suspect that a lot of Americans wish we could return to a country that felt good, safe and whole. And, there are plenty of Americans who wish that they had experienced a country even once in their lives that felt good, safe and whole. The fact is, that kind of country in the US has only ever been available to white people with plenty of resources. I know that there is no time in history to return to that was good, safe and whole for all of us. It’s a vision still to be realized. The truth is, we have a history of injustice, inequality, and inequity.
I think that’s why I feel drawn down and inside myself. What we are missing, as a nation, is still to be found, and I think we have to find it within ourselves, first. Then, perhaps, we can practice it between ourselves and others.
So, I’m going to make up a new word that can also have two meanings. Propair. It means to mend and fix something for the future. And, it means to move toward a country that does not exist yet.
We have a lot to imagine, to plan, to do.
~Bob Patrick
Well said
Wow, Bob! I did not know exactly how much I needed *these* words until I read them as I wake up this morning, exactly a week, to the hour, since I woke to read the final election results and felt a despair sink like a stone into my gut. I have been torn between the repair work that goes outward and the repairing that goes inward … but this week, as outward deadlines have diminished for a spell, I too feel the need to go inward. Propair answers a need in me too, and I am ready to dive into this work, in its new rhythm, moving inward and outward like a tide. Thank you!
Hi Bob. I have a plaque that states “Peace starts with yourself and grows.” Reading this reminded me of that plaque, so I thought this would be a good place to share it. Take care.