“Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment…’dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love — which is to transform us.’ Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high. They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling.”
― bell hooks
Saddened to hear of the death bell hooks, last Wednesday, December 15th 2021; bell hooks was 69 years old.
Doctor bell hooks was a prolific author, beloved professor, feminist, and social activist. She adopted the name ‘bell hooks” both to honor the memory of her maternal great-grandmother and to convey that what is most important to focus on her works, not her personal qualities… as she once wrote, the “substance of books, not who I am.” Yet there is part of me would like to capitalize her name here, precisely to focus on her personal qualities and who she was, yet I desire to honor her on her terms. So I will focus on her writings.
She published more than 30 books. I have assigned numerous books, chapters, or articles penned by hooks over my years at The Seattle School. While I never met hooks, I think of her as one of my teachers and am filled with gratitude for her willingness to wrestle words onto the page, to enlarge our imaginations. Here is a person who thought critically and deeply about sexuality, politics, visual cultural, patriarchy, black men, teaching, feminism, and so much more. Here are just a few of her many books I’d commend to you…
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
― bell hooks
Other tributes, and more information about bell hooks:
Rest in peace bell hooks,
dwight
