Natality

Hannah Arendt

Comments from a recent e-mail related to a beginning coincidental with a birth:

There is a strong and necessary generational element to this undertaking. There are some of us at the actuarial edges of being able to enjoy the shade of the trees being planted here. More importantly, what changes ever happen without the impatience, impudence, and impiety of a rising generation? Certainly no transformation happens without it. Advocacy is required to be sure, as has been and will be some agitation.  Having said so, I hope you see that this “long circuitous road” also allows for ample opportunities [not just for the status quo to be defended but also] to challenge the status quo. Those prone, prepared, and positioned to do so need to be engaged and stay engaged in those places where actions are deliberated and taken.....

I close with this thought, apropos of what is most important in your life right now. It is from Hannah Arendt about whom I have been thinking lately, “the new beginning inherent in birth can make itself felt in the world only because the newcomer possesses the capacity of beginning something anew….”