A Constant Visual Feast

One need not put themselves in uncomfortable situations – uncomfortable to them, anyways; everyone’s got their own metric – to affect change or resist evil, and what is happening in the world, and in the United States of America, a’la G-men snatching people off the streets and fighting off women clutching their babies who try to intervene in unlawful arrests of their neighbors and friends, is very much evil. One can instead resist darkness through mundane everyday kindnesses. Hold the door for more than just the one person behind you as you head into the pharmacy. Ask if you can help a stranger carry groceries to their car. Tip a little extra at the coffee shop when you can. Drive a little more leisurely and give space to pedestrians to walk freely without fear of death. Make an extra lot of bread for the folks next door to you.

I thought about these little gestures, and others, while listening to Valerie June’s new record, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, which I am sure was her intention when composing it. This is, like so much of her work, an intimate piece, and right now, when “resistance” is often framed, necessarily, in a broader scope and on a large scale, I think those tiny forms of beating back cruelty through simple acts of generosity can make nearly as much of a difference as recording the American stormtroopers disappearing innocent citizens in broad daylight. 

And the record rocks, too. My full thoughts are posted over at Paste Magazine.