Grief, Love, Power, and Liberation

Saying goodbye to a friend and sowing seeds of resilience with Angela Davis, Prentis Hemphill, and Lama Rod Owens

Friends, I’m writing to you (yet again) through the fog of grief. Over the weekend, my husband and I had to say goodbye to our beloved pup Moose unexpectedly. He came into my life right before the pandemic at a time when I was learning painful but necessary lessons about giving and receiving love; he had been my constant companion since then. Moose was 70+ pounds of the purest love and affection anyone could ask for. I spent most of every day working at home alone and hanging out with him, so I am heartbroken and utterly unwell. Eventually I will recover, but for now please send us all your love and well wishes, and appreciate this picture of the World’s Best Boy: Remus John Lupin, Order of Merlin, First Class¹.

Moose Boy wearing his favorite hanky and sitting in his favorite place: in the sun.

Mercury goes retrograde next week (when I tend to take a break from publishing new weekly material), and finals for the term are looming, so this will be my last dispatch until mid-December. Before I go, I’d like to leave you with a brief reflection on a post-election event that Haymarket Books hosted recently called “Love, Power and Liberation with Angela Davis and Lama Rod Owens.”

In the section from about 1:34:00-1:40:00, the moderator Prentis Hemphill asked both speakers about their personal rituals and practices. Dr. Davis stated that returning to hope and joy continually and intentionally is an urgent practice that is “going to keep our sense of possibility and freedom alive” moving ahead. Prioritizing the joy in the struggle, per Davis, is what has made the Black Liberation Movement a beacon of hope around the world. 

Her reminder is urgent as we approach a period of time when we are facing even more regression of our civil liberties and human rights. I hope that my work as a writer and mythologist draws our attention to cultural narratives as sites of power and possibility. I want us to tell stories of our fight that reify our joy, beauty, and resilience. We need one another, and we must be as committed to joy as we are to suffering if we are to sustain any struggle for liberation.

If you want to read more about liberation for the battles ahead, including Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis, Haymarket Books is giving away “Ten Free Ebooks for Getting Free.” Visit their website to download your copies at haymarketbooks.org.

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1. Yes, Remus John Lupin, Order of Merlin, First Class is his actual name. However, the uninitiated just call him Moose.