Recollections of My Nonexistence

by Rebecca Solnit

Violence against bodies had been made possible on an epic epidemic scale by violence against voices.

I believe in stories that come by any means, and in capacities strangers have to be messengers and mirrors in which you see new possibilities. Her parting words as she released my hand were, “Despite everything, you are who you were meant to be,” and I kept them like a talisman.