Episode 194: How (and Why) to Love Your Opponent with Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger

Last night I sat on my couch, cheeks still wet from tears, soaked in the bittersweet moment of feeling sad that I was closing the cover of a book I’d just finished and that I was deeply moved by. I both wanted there to be more to read and also felt so totally satisfied and changed by the experience of taking it in. We’re 3 months away from the 2020 United States Presidential Election. An election in the midst of a pandemic and racial justice awakening is an even bigger deal than your average election. And so, here we are, entering a season of even more intensity. Why am I talking about the election? Because the book I finished last night is the manual for how we can come together as humans to heal in what is the most divisive time I’ve ever lived through (though I know that historically there have been more divisive times). 4 years ago, just before the presidential election of 2016, I sat in a huge auditorium in Brooklyn holding a dear friend’s hand and weeping as we listened to the author of this book offer her son’s birth story as a metaphor for the intense time we were navigating then. She asked, “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if America is not dead, but a country that is waiting to be born?” We passed tissues up and down the aisle to people we didn’t know, yet who were not strangers. Valarie Kaur’s practice of Revolutionary Love is the blueprint we need to heal as a nation and as a world. As hate crimes, xenophobia, white nationalism, and other symptoms of fear increase, now more than ever we need a new roadmap...one guided not only by love but also by the body and joy. This week we’re sharing a new episode of The Kate & Mike Show, featuring activist, scholar, and bestselling author Valarie Kaur, and in it you’ll hear: • Why wonder is the path to true healing • What Valarie experienced at Guantanamo Bay and how it changed her • How to know when to breathe and when to push in the labor of revolutionary love • The freedom in forgiveness and how to do it even when it feels like you can’t • How to love your opponent (including how to know when it’s safe to do so and when it’s time to allow someone else to do it for you) • How to know what your role is in the transition of our country and world This was one of the most stirring conversations we’ve ever had on the podcast. Listen in, get your tissues, and prepare to pick your chin up off the floor. As we enter this pre-election season, may we all learn to practice Revolutionary Love so we can breathe, push, and birth a new world for us all. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.