Your Story Sets You Free
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When was the last time you read adrienne’s piece? It’s worth the re-read. Check out our touchstones too. Let’s come ready to participate.
I’m looking forward to being with you tonight. This is the point from adrienne’s piece that I’m holding specially close.
7. practice sitting in groups with other men (a group of two is a fine and valiant beginning) and speaking of feelings. do not offer solutions or try to cheer each other up. invite the feelings as they are – sadness, heartbreak, abandonment, fear, trauma from the process of masculinization. be there for each other. build friendships of radical honesty.
Let’s practice honesty tonight. We’ve been doing a good job of it so far. I want to share more of my story. I want to be more explicit about the worst ways in which I have fallen into patriarchy. And I want to tell you about what I have learned.
I want you to have an opportunity to do the same.
Julian Mocine-McQueen, who is a part of our project, and his partner Heather Box just wrote a book titled: How Your Story Sets You Free. It was Julian who encouraged (pushed?) me to share more.
In their book, Heather says that:
It takes courage to tell your story. To tell the truth even when your voice shakes. To shatter stigma and stand for all who you truly are - the good, the bad and everything in between…
The truth transforms…
When you take the mic and share your story, and give voice to topics and issues that are usually kept silent, you immediately make space in our culture for someone else.
We need more stories of redemption. We need more pathways beyond our fallen selves. We need to share a deeper truth. One that includes the whole of ourselves.
I’m looking forward to being in practice with you this evening.