Maybe if I Try Like This

Once in a while I start the podcast by reading this week’s essay. I did that in this episode, and then talked about what it’s like to exist in the world and know that you are unsafe. I think it’s hard to understand unless you’ve lived it and breathed it - unless you’ve worried about passing someone in a narrow stairwell, or sent your location to a girlfriend because you felt scared, unless you’ve put your keys between your fingers in a parking lot, or looked behind you on a desolate street. Unless you’ve worried about your teenage daughter out in the world, and wanted to scream into the abyss as a result.

Like anything, unless you’ve lived it, it’s hard to absorb what it’s like unless you make the effort. Unless you really pay attention and think about what life might be like for people who might not look like you, or who live differently or love differently. Some people naturally look and listen and have empathy for all living creatures on this planet, where we’re all guests for such a short amount of time. Those people are the ones you remember. Other people act like they own the place. They’re the ones you avoid in stairwells.

I keep trying to explain what it’s like for the people who don’t seem to understand. Maybe if I try like this…