i
Why do we do what we do?
How can we act differently?
What keeps us from doing the unthinkable?
Can we replicate more of it?
ii
What causes anger?
What does hatred have to teach us?
What have we done with our expectations for being human?
iii
What does our digital world do to our emotional stability?
What can we do to practice empathy?
iv
Who are you?
Who am I?
What links us together?
v
What is the relationship between what I want and what you want?
How do we both get what we want?
vi
How do we find our way in a world of terror?
How do you find courage to be a parent?
How do you parent without damaging your children?
What would cause a mother to strike her child?
How do you teach your children about love, mercy, justice, empathy, tolerance, truth, hope, wonder, dreams, intelligence, relationships?
vii
How do we improve ourselves?
How do we improve our society?
How can we expect more?
How can we expect less?
What is tolerance?
How do you make concessions without losing yourself?
viii
What is the shape of this world?
How could we shape it differently?
What causes a person to pick up a gun and shoot a Russian ambassador because of a political preference?
How might we step in the path of that bullet and stop it from meeting its intended mark?
Would we find it imperative?
ix
What kind of love is this?
x
How do we create a better society, a new knowledge, without asking a whole world of new questions?
This is an excerpt from Textbook of an Ordinary Life: poems. For more of Rachel’s poems, visit her Reader Library page, where you can get a few volumes for free.
