Member-only story
The Perfect Words
I have spent countless hours over the past weeks staring at a blank page, waiting for the perfect words that will leap forth and rescue us from this hell to form.
But they haven’t, and I am worried that they will not come at all.
I am not alone, for I have witnessed this before with the greatest minds I have ever met working on conflict resolution in Israel-Palestine, before the current conflict, hoping against all hope that their work would bring lasting peace to the region. I have felt this too, after living and breathing Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis until I almost knew too much and became lost in the futility of my mission to resolve it. I wrote, I ached, I suffered — and nothing changed. The arch of time and history is long in the deconstruction of war and peace.
With the 2024 election just a few months away and the certainty of our trans rights and lives being on the ballot and festering on social media, I am truly scared of what comes next. We need this to be different — we need a different path, a better future. Where are the magic words that can salve the community’s pain, pacify hatred, and cherish trans joy? Where are the words that can keep me, my friends, and my community alive this year? We are heading for pain that I fear some of us cannot bear, myself included.
