Lisa Ray Instagram – I found the thoughts below very powerful. Please understand, I’m using this particular photo to frame a point in our collective history that has reached a three bell alarm red alert. I’m NOT ASSIGNING BLAME. People are people: we react when feeling threatened, we soften with a show of compassion and an unbiased open, deep listening. This way of reframing the current political landscape is uncomfortable and mildly threatening because this perspective shifts the narrative in the direction of personal responsibility: reflection instead of reaction. What constitutes real, lasting change? India needs to look deep within its collective and individual soul 🙏🏼 . Repost @ig_the_old We didn’t lose our love for each other under this government. We’ve despised each other for as long as we’ve been around. You might think that surely, there were moments of national unity in our history when we were able to put our differences aside, and then you’ll remember that not only were those outliers, those were also a convenient narrative at the time, that many swallowed like a bitter pill. And this isn’t just about religious differences. Minorities have that label because they’re othered. Sure there are stretches of time when not too much untoward happens, but that’s because of this tight rope we’ve been walking, bounded by law & order, with the carrot of economic progress dangling in front of us. This government has slackened that rope completely, and amplified many of those differences, but let’s not credit them with an infinite power. The ones that hold infinite power are us, as people, in our ability to fully see each other, and to find more in our humanity that connects us than separates. We need to bring this power back. It has to happen without the government, and without media. In fact, even without social media. It has to happen on the street. It has to happen in places of worship. It has to happen where we make a living. Where we worry or exult about our circumstances,, together. I’m leaning towards leaving FB for a while, but I worry that it’s selfish. I need to be where the hate is. That’s where the change needs to happen, not in my echo chambers.