The Common Ills: Grief, Anger and Reconciliation: Authentically Confronting Our Emotions

Bioneers Pulse – updates from the Bioneers Community

Bioneer,

This week, we highlight #bioneers such as Terry Tempest Williams, Nina Simons and Eve Ensler as they discuss their own journeys with grief and finding positive outlets for challenging emotions.

Terry Tempest Williams, Nina Simons and Eve Ensler on Grief, Anger and Reconciliation

In a time when it’s easier to hate than to empathize, it’s an act of revolutionary love to have sympathy for those who seem different or who have hurt you. Emotions like grief and anger — despite their negative connotation — are necessary to living fully and embracing the full spectrum of human emotion. After all, our world is full of dualities. Without anger, there is no love. And without pain, there is no healing.

Following, Bioneers Terry Tempest Williams, Nina Simons and Eve Ensler explore the process of balancing these emotions.

Eve Ensler

As an award-winning playwright, performer, activist and author, Eve Ensler is well-known for her work promoting women’s rights and fighting gendered violence. Read an excerpt from her latest book, The Apology, here.

What and why should one want to undergo such a grueling and emotional process? The answer is simple: freedom. No one who commits violence or suffering upon another, or the Earth, is free of that action. It contaminates one’s spirit and being, and without amends often creates more darkness, depression, self-hatred and violence. The apology frees the victim, but it also frees the perpetrator, allowing them deep reflection and ability to finally change their ways and their life.

My father, in my book, wrote to me from limbo, and it was very strange. I have to tell you, he was present throughout the entire writing of the book. He had been stuck in limbo for 31 years. I truly believe that the dead need to be in dialogue with us, that they are around us, and they are often stuck, and they need our help in getting free.

With this exercise, I believe now that my father is free. And because he was willing to undergo this process, he’s moved on to a far more enlightened realm.

As for those of you who cannot get an apology from your perpetrator, I believe that writing an apology letter to yourself from them is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done, and it can shift how the perpetrator actually lives inside you, for once someone has violated you, entered you, oppressed you, demeaned you, they actually occupy you. We often know our perpetrators better than ourselves, particularly if they are family. We learn to read their footsteps and the sounds of their voices in order to protect ourselves. By writing my father’s apology, I changed how my father actually lived inside me. I moved him from a monster to an apologist, a terrifying entity to a broken little boy. In doing so, he lost power and agency over me.

What Follows Our Erosion: A Conversation with Terry Tempest Williams

Terry Tempest Williams is known for her work as an author (her most recent book is Erosion, Essays of Undoing) and activist, particularly in relationship to the natural world. In our current puzzling and frustrating social and political environment, Williams has become a leader in putting words to the deep unrest many have felt since 2016.

Bioneers was fortunate to sit down with Terry Tempest Williams to discuss the “erosion” of the United States – and the world at large – and what might follow.

Take Action: Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition

The Navajo, Hopi, Ute and Zuni tribes are coming together to protect the Bears Ears National Monuments in Utah so they can be among their ancestors and be healed through connection with this land. Join Terry Tempest Williams in advocating for the protection of Bears Ears by signing up for updates below.

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The Council of Pronghorn: Terry Tempest Williams Honors the Silent Witnesses to Fracking

The following writing, titled “The Council of Pronghorn,” is one of author-activist Terry Tempest Williams' many jarring statements on environmental degradation in her book, Erosion: Essays of Undoing. This thought-provoking essay uses Wyoming as an example of how the petroleum industry has devastated areas in our country. The pronghorn antelope serve as the silent and seemingly omnipresent witnesses to these impacts, and Williams posits that their fate may resemble our own.

The 2019 Bioneers Conference Was Unforgettable

Thank you to our Bioneers family, both near and far, for supporting us through another incredible Bioneers Conference! We truly couldn't have done it without you. We plan to release media from the 2019 Conference in mid-November. Keep an eye out for email and social media updates!

The Latest from Bioneers.org:

Relive the 2019 Bioneers Conference through these recent articles on Bioneers.org:

Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons' speech, "Bridging the Worlds," explores the importance of building bridges between worlds, paradigms, generations, belief systems and stories during transformational times. Read it here.
Bioneers co-founder Kenny Ausubel's speech, "The End of Prehistory," explains that we must design a regenerative and equitable civilization as we enter the Age of Nature. Read it here.
Day 1 of the Conference centered on grief, love and the power of independent media. Read the highlights here.
Day 2 of the Conference included powerful insight from on climate justice and resilience from thought leaders in the field. Read the highlights here.
Day 3 of the Conference wrapped up the weekend with messages of hope and regeneration. Read the highlights here.