january 2022 – goodnews editorial

how woke are you?

There are countless things that we, as supposedly informed citizens, must be aware of before we are allowed to have an opinion. Should we cancel everybody who doesn’t know about matriarchy and patriarchy, antiquity and modernity, colonial times, and industrialization, about slavery and racism, of weapons laws and genocides, parallel moons, and space missions, about responsibility and freedom, epidemics and murders, gender and sex, green hope and sustainability, the future, and mass extinction, and about how A leads to B? The problem seems to be that the conclusions we draw from our knowledge or lack thereof leads to lives in more than one reality, difficult as this may seem. There certainly is a plethora of beliefs and life models inside and outside of the mainstream that intersect, overlap, and run parallel, that align, clash, unite, fall apart, and reorganize. Is that why everybody needs a ready-made opinion about everything nowadays? To brandish it in front of them like a shield or a sword? How much power do I give others over my thoughts? How much am I influenced by what I – selectively – read, hear, or see? Do I need external mediators to know what is wrong and what is right for me? For the society in which I live? I trust myself to be able to distinguish between good and bad, truth and lies. But what about the others? To learn something about the state of the world in which I live, I must compare my opinions with outside insights. That is the practice. In addition, there are libraries full of theory. We want to stay in conversation with each other so that we can openly and effectively take responsibility for the world we want to live in.
Wishing you a blessed, healthy, and peaceful 2022

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler


Winter Lullabies

Winter speaks
in blusters
and lullabies fall
with the snow.
Some float
through the air
like flecks
of magic,
and some
settle like dreams
that didn’t want
to be caught.

Sabina Laura

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