Teri, I’m grateful for the way you held this conversation with both moral seriousness and fierce humanity. The image that stays with me is the vehicle that did not have to act in order to communicate power; its presence was already doing work in the public imagination. That is why history, policy, grief, race, gender, and love all belonged in the same conversation. The hope, for me, is still in the ratio: fear may organize quickly, but love has more people, more memory, and more power than domination ever wants us to believe.
“a vehicle that did not have to act in order to communicate power” - and, I believe that addiction to power is a weakness that burns itself out.
I learned once long long ago, there are only two emotions, Fear and Love. and Fear is just the mistaken belief that Love is absent. Love is everything. When we remember that, Power is no longer an addictive substance.
Teri, your line about power as an addictive substance helps name why its display can be so hollow and so dangerous at the same time. Fear keeps reaching for control when it believes love is absent, unavailable, or too weak to protect what matters. That is why remembering love is more than sentiment here; it breaks the spell domination depends on and restores people to a truer source of courage. I’m grateful for the way you brought the conversation back to the spiritual root beneath the public performance of power.
Teri, I’m grateful for the way you held this conversation with both moral seriousness and fierce humanity. The image that stays with me is the vehicle that did not have to act in order to communicate power; its presence was already doing work in the public imagination. That is why history, policy, grief, race, gender, and love all belonged in the same conversation. The hope, for me, is still in the ratio: fear may organize quickly, but love has more people, more memory, and more power than domination ever wants us to believe.
“a vehicle that did not have to act in order to communicate power” - and, I believe that addiction to power is a weakness that burns itself out.
I learned once long long ago, there are only two emotions, Fear and Love. and Fear is just the mistaken belief that Love is absent. Love is everything. When we remember that, Power is no longer an addictive substance.
Teri, your line about power as an addictive substance helps name why its display can be so hollow and so dangerous at the same time. Fear keeps reaching for control when it believes love is absent, unavailable, or too weak to protect what matters. That is why remembering love is more than sentiment here; it breaks the spell domination depends on and restores people to a truer source of courage. I’m grateful for the way you brought the conversation back to the spiritual root beneath the public performance of power.
that’s what I do, always finding the spiritual root of anything and everything happening. Spirit is everywhere. Spirit is LOVE.
thanks for noticing Kevin.
What a great interview. Honestly thank y'all for giving me hope in humanity.