Dear Amanda,
It’s 2019/5779. Truth, for many citizens of the world, must be encapsulated in 280 characters. People, ideas, institutions, relationships and even states, are “good” or “bad.” We’ve either “won” or we’ve “lost.” There is no in between. There are no shades of gray. There is no room to engage, listen, learn…adjust.
You are frustrated. You ask yourself every day, on a broad scale, how you can shift this toxic cultural paradigm. You do the work, rejecting the binaries that marginalize members of your Jewish and Zionist and progressive communities and fight to highlight not just the grays but the dazzling colors illustrating our people, our history and our commitment to a more just world.
You need to ask yourself how you are contributing to this dynamic, or where you yourself need to embrace the “grays.” Take your external prescriptions and apply them introspectively. Look at the binaries you’ve created in your own thoughts and conversations, and examine how they have stopped you from opening yourself up to new and challenging possibilities.
Things may be “good,” but can they be better? If something is “bad,” does that make it irredeemable? How can you achieve, personally, what you hope to accomplish civically?
I know you’re working hard and doing your best. But sometimes it’s easier to work to better your external environment than it is to work to better yourself. Don’t settle for that binary.
Love,
Amanda
Amanda Berman is the Founder and Executive Director, Zioness Movement. www.zioness.org
