The hardest thing about meeting any challenging goal is the day to day drudgery. Showing up at my desk, each day, unwavering. Sometimes I’m distracted and write total crap. Sometimes I get flow. Always it feels like “I’m digging all the way to China with a silver spoon” (Tom Waits). And yet, I don’t stop. Like in love, it is commitment that makes me steadfast. This dissertation may be breaking my bones, but I’m still laughing.
“If I were really asked to define myself, I wouldn’t start with race; I wouldn’t start with blackness; I wouldn’t start with gender; I wouldn’t start with feminism. I would start with stripping down to what fundamentally informs my life, which is that I’m a seeker on the path. I think of feminism, and I think of anti-racist struggles as part of it. But where I stand spiritually is, steadfastly, on a path about love.”
― Bell Hooks
