unboundaried solidarity – Feminism and Religion

(part one was posted yesterday)

Author’s Note: I wrote this post shortly after Pres. Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate for the presidency and endorsed Kamala Harris, long before the Kamala-Harris ticket adopted “joy” as their watchword. The reference to the “joy” of this campaign has now become so ubiquitous that I fear it will become trivialized and merely a slogan. I hope instead that they meaningfully embrace a politics of joy and the capacity of joy to heal divides, not just in this country, but throughout the world.

* * *

. . . and then everything changed.

What is this feeling that has been filling me of late? Ah, yes, I remember — hope, enthusiasm, excitement, optimism! It’s been so long since I’ve felt this — on the political scene, for our country, for the world. But lately I’ve felt buoyant – something I haven’t felt at least since 2016. Rather than avoiding the news, now I am eager for it, seek it out.

The energy, vitality, and yes, laughter that Kamala Harris has brought to the presidential campaign has infused myself and many others I know with a sense of joy, a welcome contrast from the doom and gloom that has been surrounding the campaign for so long. Her ability to laugh, to smile, to find the positives in people, in life, that has brought new life to this campaign. Yet for some reason, the opposing side has chosen to focus on Harris’s easy laughter as a target for derision.