2020-10-25, Regarding Settlerday

I received a few replies to my “Settlerday” newsletter. To generalize, people wanted to express something in response, but felt uncomfortable saying “thank you.”

I replied to one person individually but now that I’ve gotten a few emails, I’ll just share the message widely:

I think gratitude is usually the right emotion for most situations.

It’s just important to be particular in *what *one is grateful about!

In this case, being grateful I put in the labor to compile it seems appropriate to me, to which I think I’d respond, “And I’m grateful to the people who shared these experiences first- or second-hand so I could do so easily.”

I imagine those folk are grateful to the others fighting with them that gave them the security to share their part of the story, and those folk are grateful to the storytellers, who are also grateful to the audience, and then I’m grateful to you for reading, in a big loop of reciprocal gratitude.

This notion of perpetual gift-giving is actually the concept bastardized by “Indian giving:” we are, whether we recognize it or not, engaged in a system of mutual reciprocity. So, lean into it.

In that spirit, thanks for reading!