Mike Zablotny

“Carl Jung wrote that nothing affects children more than the unlived lives of their parents.”
― Joshua Coleman, Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict

“Sonnet of Norms

It is not patriarchal to hold the door for a lady,
It is not cowardly to leave your seat to the elderly.
But it is barbaric to harass a breastfeeding mother,
And prehistoric to force a woman carry a pregnancy.
There are norms that nourish the societal fabric,
Then there are norms out of touch with age and times.
Beyond both freedom and obedience as a whole being,
You ought to realize where and how to draw the lines.
The problem is that most do not know when to rebel,
They rebel out of boredom to seek adventure not justice.
They commit reckless vandalism in the name of activism,
And feel proud while committing the most heinous deeds.
Norms require careful scrutiny, not headless rebellion.
Hence, quite often rebels become the new face of oppression.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“The state is not our ally. White feminism is not our ally either, because discussing violence against women without discussing gender violence within a colonial context has no meaning for me. Gender violence and murdered and missing indigenous women are a symptom of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and genocide. They are symptoms of the dispossession of indigenous peoples from our territories.”
― Cindy Barukh Milstein, Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism