The Question of Missions

A gesture, a feeling, a prayer.

Hi friends.

I have done a lot of work on myself and figuring out what my mission is here and in my life. Therapy, conversations with peers and loved ones, reading, meditation, prayer. What I really want to do is encourage people to write. I believe the world would be better, easier on our souls, and we would all be more communicative and empathetic in general, if we expressed ourselves in some creative way or another. So I try to write you mainly on the topics of creativity and productivity and writing because if I start writing specifically about the state of the world, America, and even this city where I live, this newsletter becomes something different.

Also there are other people who do a much better job at writing about what’s going on in the world than I ever could, and so I try to amplify and support what they’re doing, and of course donate where I can, when I can. I have learned over many years that there is no right way to be active and aware. All we can do is try.

But today I must write about these particular feelings I have been having about all the journalists who were killed yesterday in Gaza and over the course of the past few years. (Close to 200 total, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.) I’m disgusted. I’m horrified. I’m heartbroken. May their memory be a blessing. But also, what a waste of their beautiful lives. And their mission on this planet.

And it’s not that they were any better or more important than anyone else killed in Gaza yesterday or the tens of thousands of people in the past two years (or any of the people still starving and struggling now). But of course I connected with them because they’re writers, and they risked (and lost) their lives to try and report the truth. (Could I ever even be so brave as I relax here in safety and air conditioning. No.)

And so today I send you this letter and I ask you to think about them when you sit down to write today, and to never take for granted that time that you have to make your art or at least express yourself. Think about them and honor them and write from a pure place and take yourself and humanity seriously.

A gesture, a feeling, a prayer.

If I were to write about all of this every day I would no longer be able to be of service to you in terms of inspiring or motivating you, and I definitely want to be of service! But I had to get this out of my system. I felt like I couldn’t proceed otherwise. I thank you for listening to me, the most minor of characters in your inbox, for just one day.

I’ll be making a donation to The Sameer Project today.

Peace,

Jami