A new year provides a formal opportunity for a practice we ought to engage in every day: looking backward and leaping forward. Rather than make hollow resolutions that we will likely break soon enough, we encourage sustained reflection as we walk on two legs toward a new multi-racial and participatory democracy. We’re reminded of the words of the Italian revolutionary Antonio Gramsci: “The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” Malik Alim and Bill Ayers begin the new year in dialogue about learning, growing, and dreaming big.
Free write
Here’s today’s prompt: So long 2020—all your surprises, twists, and turns, crushing heartbreak and soaring hopes are behind us now. You’re finished, and it’s done. Do you see that small figure gesturing wildly from that distant and indistinct shore? That’s 2021—describe.
Under the Tree Podcast 