“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” ~Alan Turing
We can now see further than at any other time in history. Social media, virtual reality, and a news industry that reports in real time through rich media can take us to any corner of the world with a few clicks.
In terms of time, we can only see and know this moment. We can only forecast and hypothesize about later today, tomorrow, next month, and next year. We’ll know how it all shakes out once we get there. For now, let’s just make the most of what we have and know and can do right now, from wherever we are, using whatever we have. If we can all do that, we’ll be able to build a better world together. It all adds up.
My travel companions: Between the World and Me on my Kindle, passport, and neck pillow
Reading while traveling has always been special to me. While I’m learning about other cultures, books help me see how much I have to learn about my own home. While I was in Sarajevo and Budapest, I read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It is a tough and necessary read, especially for Americans who aren’t black. While I will never truly understand what it means to be black in America, I do want to understand as much and as best I can. This book forced me to wake up.
I live just north of Howard University, where Coates went to school and where his father worked for many years. After reading this book, I see Howard in a new light. That is sacred ground for its students because for many, their time there is the beginning of them feeling fully accepted and respected by those around them.
Coates talks about the constant pursuit by black Americans to work twice as hard to get half as far as whites in America. He talks about The Dream and The Dreamers, and how neither are fully accessible, much less possible, for many black people in America. He talks about the constant message we send to black youth—when dealing with storied institutions here, keep your head down, your mouth shut, and your eyes and ears open for danger. This book, and its truths, broke my heart
I will fully admit that I cried through much of the book, out of sadness, embarrassment, and anger. 250 years on from the end of the Civil War and still, it rages on in the streets all over this country. I had hoped the book would wrap up with ideas of how to solve the struggle. It didn’t. And maybe that’s the point. We can’t erase history. We can only learn from it and use it as context to frame the situation currently at-hand. Coates wrote this book as a guide to taking the first step on the journey, not a guide to get to some pre-determined destination.
With this book, I have more awareness and understanding of the anger and fear felt by the black community, especially in light of the year we’ve had. And that’s a start.
Paris Fashion Week, Spring 2014. Photo by Dina Litovsky, winner of 2015 Photojournalism stream.
Tonight I’m attending my first Instameet in D.C. at the Former Spanish Ambassador’s Residence in my plucky neighborhood of Columbia Heights. IGDC and FotoDC are sponsoring the special event that will showcase the residence’s exhibit before it opens to the public as part of FotoWeekDC. Over the course of the next week, I’ll be attending classes, workshops, and exhibitions that highlight all of the incredible photography that happens here in the D.C. area. I hope you’ll join me and take part in this wonderful celebration that captures life one frame at a time. Details on all of the FotoDC events can be found at http://www.fotodc.org/events-fotoweekdc-2015/.
“When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.” ~Dalai Lama
The other day I ran into someone I used to know. He’s always had a bit of a melancholy personality, but he seems to have gone even further down that sad, dark tunnel. Though I felt badly for him, I also recognize that there’s nothing I can do for him except hope that someday he digs himself out of it. It’s the tough thing about loving and caring for adults: they make their own choices and we can only influence them through example.
Kids, however, are different. We can have a much bigger impact and impression on them as they grow and develop into adults. And this is why education in the most holistic sense is so critical. A moment in a child’s life, good or bad, can completely change the trajectory of his or her life, and often does. While there’s no doubt that we need to focus on growing their knowledge base, let’s also remember that educating their hearts—letting them know how much they are valued and that they need to value others—is at least as important.
The message we all need”3 things students want to hear:
“3 things students want to hear: I believe in you. You have a purpose. How are you?”
This was posted by Edutopia (George Lucas Education Foundation) this week. While it’s positioned as what we need to tell students every day, it’s something we all need. This is something we should give to others and also expect to receive in return from everyone in our lives. We all deserve this level of care and concern.
“Start ignoring people who threaten your joy. Literally, ignore them. Say nothing. Don’t invite any parts of them into your space.” ~Alex Elle
Look right through people who interrupt, disturb, or attempt to steal your joy. They’re not your work to do. They aren’t your responsibility. They aren’t worth your energy, time, nor effort. You go on being your magnificent, talented, beautiful self. The best you can do for them is to inspire them with the ripples of true joy flowing from you into the Universe. And if that’s not enough for them, then they aren’t enough for you.
Though I’m not a religious person, I do believe passionately in the power of community and love. One of my very dearest friends was dealt an incredible loss last week. If you have any spare thoughts, prayers, and virtual hugs, she and her family could really use them now. Let the goodness flow through you and out into the Universe in the hopes that we can brighten the skies a bit for everyone. Thank you so much.
There’s an older man in a wheelchair who makes balloon animals for all of the kids near the Columbia Heights metro stop. No matter the weather, he’s out there. I walked past him the other day as a little girl ran to him smiling and squealing with delight. You’d think he was her long lost best friend. And he returned that smile right back to her. The two hugged and he immediately began twisting a balloon into a puppy for her.
That unparalleled joy from both of them showed me the power of connection, the power of giving and receiving. It can come from everyone to anyone everywhere at any time. It knows no limits nor bounds. A smile builds a bridge across every divide and level of diversity. It brings us all together.
When something doesn’t go your way, do you spend any time wondering “why on Earth did I have to go through THAT?” Consider this explanation:
Let’s say you’re in a relationship with someone who turns out to not be the person he represented himself to be when you first met him. It’s highly likely you’ll wonder what his purpose was in your life because now you’re really confused and hurt by the end of it all. Why didn’t the Universe just keep that guy away from you to begin with?
Take a step back because maybe it’s not all about you. Consider this: the Universe wants all of us to rise up and become our best selves, that jerk of a guy included. So you were a gift to him from the Universe. A valuable, precious, amazing gift. And, yes, you could have helped him a lot. You would have been the best thing for him. But he didn’t want the gift of you. Maybe he didn’t know how to appreciate the gift. Maybe he didn’t feel worthy of it. Maybe he didn’t think enough of himself to feel that he deserved it. Or maybe, and this is the saddest reason in my opinion, he actually doesn’t want to be happy. He’s comfortable being miserable.
Your gifts and your light are too valuable to be wasted. He didn’t appreciate the gift of you so he doesn’t get to keep it. The Universe puts an end to it all, and that’s how it has to be for your sake. This whole thing wasn’t about you at all. It was about him. The Universe would have loved nothing better than for him to evolve, but he chose not to so away you go, one way or another.
This duality of what’s in it for you and what’s in it for the system as a whole is always in play. It applies to every interaction we have in every setting. Something for you and something for someone else that together leads to something for the system of which you’re both a part. Apply it to jobs, friendships, romantic relationships, creative projects. The same principles apply.
It really isn’t all about you. It’s about all of us, together.
I love Ryan Adams, and all the more so for quotes like this: “There is nothing wrong with loving the crap out of everything. Negative people find their walls. So never apologize for your enthusiasm. Never ever.”
The negative people I meet—and sadly there are so many of them out there—often think I’m overly enthusiastic, that I’m just too excited about life. And to that I say, “Someday, I hope you realize what you’re missing.”
I do love the crap out of everything—my friends, Phineas, my city, my writing, my creative projects, music, art, books, animals, nature, my home, travel. You name it and I can find something I love about it. Negative people will knock us down; that’s their choice and we can’t control it.Whether we stay down or eventually rise up is our choice and we do control that. Their behavior has nothing to do with us and everything to do with them. Their negativity is a direct reflection about how they feel about themselves, not how they feel about us.
So here’s my advice: take every wall that a negative person throws in front of you and carve a window into it. Crawl through that window and leave those negative people behind.You are not responsible for them. They don’t have anything to offer you and they don’t want the gifts you have to give. That’s their loss, not yours. You deserve to be surrounded by love; don’t settle for anything less.
Christa Avampato 