The Future 51%, July 2021

​Our babies born in 2021 will celebrate their 21st birthday in the year 2042, the same year non-white peoples will be the majority population of the United States. Yet, we learned that 'inviting diversity' isn't enough: the future demands foundational change based on the experiences of those most affected by inequity. How are we preparing our mathematical majority to not perpetuate historical harm? The future is ours, we call upon our best imagination. 
​August 10, 2021 Learning by Julia
We began as if it were any other day. Our land acknowledgement recognized the passage of time through the expression of nature force: buildings overgrow if not tended. Learn from nature. 
Now, the good trouble began. We asked each other, "What will be different in your day to day life when you feel free from fear?" Not if, but when. Now, we are tasked with imagining. But first we must:

• Take walks at night
• Take up more space
• Feel like the American I am in my own skin
• Be surrounded by those who look like me 
• Not be uneasy all the time
• Spend my money where I feel included
• Know the booing is not always something wrong with me
• Wake without grief
• Stop pretending

By the end of the round, the word "free" became "safe". How difficult to create when we are so busy protecting! The pain we carry, we must be able to weigh it, understand it before we can free our hands for the imagination. We do this now so our children won't have the burden. We break with the prompt again to evoke imagination. We return, stretching into:

• Freedom to take time to understand my own feelings
• Free to love another woman without hesitation
• Learning by listening, everyone has a reason only they know
• Spontaneity!
• Getting dressed in the morning based solely on comfort, weather, mood
• Detaching from the limitations of now
• Embracing the somatic ability to be in our bodies
• Following our circadian rhythm
• Integrating spirituality into our daily
• Capitalism vs bartering
• Not everyone looking the same (so dangerous!)
• Historically Queer Universities
• Public square of ideas
• Letting go of notions no good, have mercy
• Live the vision board!
• Friendships as meaningful as romance

We leave hopeful, and prepared to do what we need to now because we can. Next month, we continue to evoke imagination and will ask again about "The Future 51%" Encore edition. August 24, 2021. Stay in tune.