"As we become more familiar with meditation, we can drop into a less triggered, less reactive, more skillful way of being whenever we are upset."
– Lama Palden Drolma
Doing social justice work is tough. The very nature of social justice work is confrontational because it only exists because there is so much social injustice.
The work can be exhausting at times. It can be frustrating at times. It can feel at times that we are not making any progress, that no one is listening, that no one cares.
And because anyone who is genuinely, consistently fighting for social justice is doing so for deeply personal reasons, when we don't see the change we are trying to affect, that can be triggering.
For me, whenever someone speaks derogatorily about gay people, passes anti-gay legislation, fails to see the humanity in gay people, I think of my dad.
I think of his two suicide attempts as a teenager. I think of him feeling the need to marry a woman. I think of the courage he finally found to be who he was. I think of the stigma of AIDS. I think of the anti-gay political rhetoric. I think of him dying of AIDS. I think of the relationship we have not had since his death in 2000.
But it doesn't get me down. I have found a more skillful way of being when I get upset.
Which allows me to keep doing the work.