There is nothing I am more grateful for than my failures. I’m thirty-four years old and I am very proud to say I have never stopped being wrong. At best, I’m just less wrong than I used to be, and hopefully I’m a little less wrong than I was yesterday.
My favorite line in all of Marxist philosophy belongs to Paulo Freire: that we’re all “uncompleted beings conscious of our incompletion.” The flip side of that is that we are always in a state of change—by becoming different than what we are today (and everyday after that), we discover that we’ve become more like ourselves over time.
So I’m the smartest I’ve ever been and, if I’m doing things right, the dumbest I’ll ever be. That tension demands that I remain humble, excited, and eager to grow more.
I, like Mao’s comments on correct ideas, did not fall from the sky. I did not enter the world ready-made, having struggled through Hegel or my first organizing meeting, or my first disagreement with a comrade or romantic partner. I became this way because I failed, because I was arrogant, because I was depressed, but mostly because I refused to give up… and baby, the thing that’s always stayed consistent is that I loved and continue to love everyday.
I’m writing this as a reminder to myself and all of you reading that if we start today (whether that’s committing to begin or re-committing to do more) we have the opportunity to live the rest of our lives in a brand new way. And today is the earliest that is physically possible. If we start today, we’re way further ahead than if we begin tomorrow.
I don’t want to be the end of anyone’s theoretical or organizational pipeline. I want to be a single moment in a rushing river that helps get you to where we all need you to be, because if we get YOU, we’ll win, baby!
I owe the world everything because it’s given me everything. It’s demanded I do more and it’s cradled me when I couldn’t push through. It gave me tough lessons and easy rides. And it has always kicked me in the ass when I needed it most.
So I don’t need to be right, and I definitely don’t need to be seen as infallible. My goal is to be helpful, to push you a little further along on your journey. I hope you outgrow me and SOON, so you can reach way more people than I ever could. I want to try to teach the right order of wrong lessons, so the people are ready for you to give ‘em the right ones. I’ll line em up, you knock em down.
I believe in you All. The. Way.
I’ll show up today and everyday after because I love you.
Get in, babe. We got work to do.
There is a Turkish saying, “Geçmiş olsun,” which literally translates to “may it pass.” It is used in many contexts when we wish for something better to arrive in place of a moment that seems bleak, poignant in its ability to ensure we never forget. In many ways, the quote “uncompleted beings, conscious of their incompletion,” feels like our collective journey of waiting for the most difficult moments of today to pass: in light of the next day being equally incomplete, yes, but one day closer to the future.
The present, and even the vivid past, should not haunt us and establish our immobility, but instead should be the fuel that propels us forward; beyond the past.
With that being said, I wish us all a “geçmiş olsun,” since reading this piece shall, if we let it, allow us to move along the current rather than bind us to our incompletion.
Vulnerability and humility go a long way in gaining people’s trust. Someone wise told me, when people trust us we can hold them accountable 😌. I feel like there are so many layers of accountability and hope being built here. Cheers!
And - I think it’s no coincidence that the most profound truths sound beautiful. That repetition, the mirror to the self.