A letter from the future.

(Excerpt from “Evidence” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs)

Exhibit B is for Brilliant

Letter from Aladrix, age twelve, sent viaskytabletduring dream upload, third cycle of the facing moon, receipt unknown:

I’m really interested in what it was like back when you lived. It seems like people were afraid a lot. Maybe every day? It’s hard to imagine, but it seems that way from the writing. I have to remember that no one knew that things would get better, and that even people who were working to make it happen had to live with oppression every day. I read your writing and the writing of your other comrades from that time and I feel grateful. It seems like maybe you knew about us. It feels like you loved us already. Thank you for being brave.

Now in the 5th generation since the time of the silence breaking we are called hope holders and healers. There are still people doing a lot of healing, but it seems like generation after generation people got less and less afraid. People took those writings and started to recite them and then another generation hummed their melodies and then another generation clicked their rhythms and then another generation just breathe it, what you were saying before about how love is the most powerful thing. About how everything and everyone is sacred.

My friends and I feel possible all the time. So when you get afraid to speak, remember that you all were part of us all learning how to just to do it. Wow. Kapow.

Exhibit J is Joy

Letter from Shelly, age fourteen, sent via moonbeam on the Aquarius full moon.

It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when young people like me felt afraid to be who they are. As a hope holder, my elders, my parents, my teachers ask me what present I imagine all the time. Joy is the most precious element we have and as a hope holder, I share my joy loudly, knowing that there were dark times when people could not, and were held back from it altogether. 

My joy ripples everywhere I am and as I express it, I feel myself healing.

Thank you for loving us, even though you didn’t know us. We feel your brilliance and your joy. And we do both, loudly here.