The practice of self-reflection, self-love, a deep concern for all, a spiritual connection, connection with nature and literacy are all ingredients to a way forward through these difficult times. bell hooks came to speak at Earlham College, on Wednesday, November 2, 2016, in Goddard Auditorium.

"bell hooks is an acclaimed intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist, and writer. hooks has authored over three dozen books and has published works that span several genres, including cultural criticism, personal memoirs, poetry collections, and children's books. Her writings cover topics of gender, race, class, spirituality, teaching, and the significance of media in contemporary culture."

bell hooks appeared to be a petite woman, from my nearly back row seat. She wore a long gray blouse, a long dark blue skirt, an orange sweater with a long green necklace. Her stage presence was nothing short of commanding. Here voice is quite high pitched, but it is also somehow soothing. When she spoke you could feel how she brings a confidence to the room. Her topic? Transnational white supremacy capitalist patriarchy and the violence thereof seen in the context of various contexts such as feminist theory, cognitive dissonance, among other themes. bell hooks coined the term, "transnational white supremacy capitalist patriarchy" to demonstrate, through the power of words, that none of these concepts exist in isolation with one another.

I will speak to a few themes I want to share with you.

Change

It begins with the self. Self-reflection and individual change of our mindset has big impacts. bell references our common disconnect between belief and action. She asked the audience, how individuals can claim to support certain causes, but when it came down to putting your actions on the line, we often back out. This, she says, is unacceptable. We must align our beliefs with our actions. also, she said, we must heal ourselves "in order to see clearly."

Perceptions of Violence

Mostly, we see violence as it is most explicit. But, violence is also in perpetuating systems that accept violence as a norm. When we can change our perception of what violence is, we can act in accordance to our desire for long-term change. Violence, in its uncommonly discussed forms, is when we persistently degrade any actions that perpetuate love. She references to Tich Nhat Hanh here in that we can move towards change if we think of images as food. If what we see, feeds our consciousnesses, we can begin to see how each thing we look at contributes to our perceptions.

Love as powerful

Actions rooted in love and carried forward with this in mind, are long lasting. There is love in mutuality.

Reciprocity

Equality, hooks said, is a false notion. Instead, we must focus on the practice of lifting one another up.

bell hooks gave me the gift of realizing my individual potential for impacting this world for the better. She affirmed my confidence in self and challenges me to recognize that there are things I don't know, should seek to discover and that care, fundamentally, is the most important. And, that I have control of the implementation of this care. I feel, more deeply than before, that I have a duty to care for myself and others- I see this in a newer context than I had thought of before.