THE UNKNOWN

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

It’s been a tough week, and it’s only Wednesday.

I woke at 4am to absorb the election news in the solitude of darkness. My thoughts turned back to the upset that left me on the floor in 2016. Instead of that despair, I found myself looking forward to my day ahead because I had copies of our PonyXpress journal ON LOVE ready to deliver to the folks at Oregon State Penitentiary.

In today’s workshop, we wrote about how the fear of the unknown can blind us to possibilities. Hope and love exist in that concrete box right alongside trauma and pain. Nothing is easy, or simple but writing is a release. It provides a new viewpoint. On the morning after this election, it felt natural to sink down low. Stressla reminded us that they can't take our spirit. After 38 years inside, he understands the power of lifting one another up.

Buddha wrote: “I am optimistic about the future and still feel anxious about the potential outcome, the what may or may not be in 5-10 years, in 5 or 10 minutes. I gave up trying to be the Chef and focused more on being a good ingredient…”

Harley wondered if the unknown is simply the “big blank empty space between the stars.” I think of those first moments when you look into the sky at dusk searching for a star. The light changes, your eyes adjust and then layers of stars pop into view. The unknown presents lights of possibilities.

Hours later, Kamala Harris gave a gracious concession speech that provided a through line for the day:

You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world. And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together. Look, many of you know I started out as a prosecutor and throughout my career I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives.  People who had suffered great harm and great pain, and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand, to take a stand, to fight for justice, to fight for themselves, to fight for others. So let their courage be our inspiration. Let their determination be our charge. And I'll close with this. There's an adage a historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages. The adage is, only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.

If you need a hand up, please listen to the title piece for On Love by Theron Hall and Austin Clark. This bit of freestyling was created the day we recorded the men at Oregon State Penitentiary on the fifth floor. If you listen closely, you can hear the wild geese honking past the window. | TDS