29 Comments

“Evil didn’t even require violence this time. We opened the door.” Damn.

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You have all of the words Lauren. And all of them are true. My wife and I dive into your pieces and when we come up for air, we look at one another and say wow, her words. I am grateful for your raw unedited sharing of your soul Lauren. My writing mentor says if a piece of writing can make a difference in just one life it has done it's job. Lauren, you are doing a fantastic job making a difference in my life.

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I feel like I’m in a daymare

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Thank you Lauren. If you, as one who I think sees so deeply, can have hope, so can I. Your words are powerful. I appreciate you.

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I don’t wanna be weird and fully understand— for real, I’m an artist, too— that the you I ‘know’ is a parasocial understanding borne from the impact your writing has on me (which feels something like the relief of a good clarifying hot shower when you didn’t realize how sticky the coating of World was on the skin today), and that you don’t know me at all, but in the limited parasocial way I have to offer it: I have a lot of love for you and I’m grateful for your keen eye for truth and your ability to arrange letters into words to cut through all that grime. I hope it’s useful and not a burden to know that love is floating around out here among all the dust, owed nothing, expecting nothing, just around. And fuck all those motherfuckers, I hope they get red lights and itchy butts forever.

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Thank you for writing how i feel because I still can't even think straight. I don't want to talk to anyone right now. I laid in bed and cried on and off all morning, I'm going to give myself time to grieve and then I want to focus on what I can do to help. But for now I'm going to feel the pain. I guess I had hope that there were still more decent humans than evil ones

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I'm putting a brick in my pocketbook.

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Feeling pretty hopeless right now. I don't want to believe this is who we are. But the evidence is pretty overwhelming, so I have to accept you are right. I will keep on reading your stuff in hopes that I can follow the light when you find it.

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Each of you has a match who believed the wrong ideas. You didn’t. You only have to find that one who can hear.

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I want to hold onto hope, too. I appreciate you sharing the words you have. I've been reaching out to friends and family today but not having words besides yes, me, too, yes, i hear you, yes, love and solidarity.

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You are speaking for a lot of us. What we feel today is real

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Yup. Fucked.

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Thank you for the words I cannot seem to speak. Also hoping and making plans. I don’t know what the plans look like, yet. Thinking a lot about resistance.

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All due respect but no, I refute this. This is not who WE are. This is who THEY are.

Fuck healing, fuck national unity. We go to ground, we regroup, and we fight.

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I would think at age 55 and after the last few years I could not be surprised but damn this country is racist and homophobic and misogynistic. Fuck me.

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It's sickening and terrifying. My wife and I have three daughters in their 20s. We will do all we can to protect them from harm. It may not be enough. Let us watch out for all the daughters over the next years. It will take our village.

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Struggling to find words to make sense of today but you nailed it. Thank you.

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