Last week, we released a piece Corey wrote about being in the "bardo,” or the term Buddhists use to describe being between two states. Our sense of time and what we consider the “future” has been fundamentally changed this year. How can I think about what my life will look like in a year from now when I don’t even really know what it could look like two weeks from now?

Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, has an idea he calls “getting proximate” in order to really understand the experiences of people who are marginalized or who have experienced systemic disadvantages. Stevenson believes that “if you are willing to get closer to people who are suffering, you will find the power to change the world.”


This seems rather intuitive – but it is definitely more challenging than just reading a book like Just Mercy and saying that is enough. I know I have certainly been guilty of that line of thinking at times.

The other week, you may have seen protests starting to spring up in some parts of the United States. Adults and children marched despite state orders to social distance and remain at home, saying their liberty had been taken away from them because of the restrictions – sometimes drastic – the stop the spread of COVID-19. They were angry because they felt as if too much was being done at the expense of the economy and people’s well-being. I have spoken to people too recently who are angry, even filled with hatred, because they do not feel like our leaders are doing enough.