See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

by Valarie Kaur

You don’t need to know people in order to grieve with them. You grieve with them in order to know them.

My fear of anger taught me nothing. Your fear of that anger will teach you nothing, also. —Audre Lorde

If you find yourself in harm’s way right now, then it is not necessarily your role to listen to the people who are terrorizing you. Or to tend to any kind of wound in them. Your primary responsibility is to survive, find safety, and tend to the wounds they inflict on you—to build bonds with people who are willing to wonder about you, grieve with you, and fight with and for you. In finding ways to breathe, you are creating the kind of energy and joy that can sustain us all in the struggle. That is your act of revolutionary love.