Palimpsest blip #2

Someone is going all over Portland, painting a large black rectangle with a pink rose and the word “love,” and in creating that message, covering up other people’s graffiti and messages. Is it love, covering messages that others wanted to leave? Or is it domination in the name of love? Does it encourage love, or is it an act of aggression? Can the “love” painter create peace by hiding the anger, the rage, the messages? I could make a case for either side, though you can tell where I'm leaning. It certainly isn't listening.

I have posted quotations from Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, several times already in my blips. But I keep going back to the joy of that book, the wisdom, the poetry. I read it again and again, the same way I watched those British Bake Off shows over and over. Here’s a piece of what Gumbs says about Listening, which is the first chapter in the book:

Listening is not only about the normative ability to hear, it is a transformative and revolutionary resource that requires quieting down and tuning in…. I am amazed by how much listening can do. How quickly it becomes less important to be seen, to leap, to show. And those who study river dolphins know it too. Don’t bother looking for these teachers who will rarely jump or splash. You have to listen for them, try to hear them breathe…. 

Margie and I had our weekly time together this morning at a coffee shop. We sat inside, which would not be news except that it is. We sat inside and listened to each other. Listened attentively for the quiet truth under the words. We were doing what Catherine Nicholson advised us to do in Sinister Wisdom, "hearing each other to speech." 

I wish the power structure in this city, in all our cities, would listen more and splash less.