I was at home alone on the night of the election, and the online world was keeping me company in my disbelief. This phrase, "Love is the Center of Resistance," was inspired by a passage Rebecca Solnit posted on Facebook the night of the election, just as we were starting to confirm that Trump was indeed going to win. She wrote, "There is no way around this is horrible. There are things to do. Draw together with people you love, work hard at making spaces, times, networks in which our ideals and values prevail, reach out for the vulnerable, and pitch your tents big, because this ugliness is all about exclusion and narrowness and not wanting to deal with people who are different or even people who have slightly different ideas, and the left can be as fucked-up in this regard as anyone. Love is what you have, and generosity, and imagination. What we have. These are centers of resistance, and the resistance is what you go out into the world with the strength and vision you gather inside." These words—full of action and purpose in the heart of the shock—were overwhelmingly comforting for me. That someone could be so optimistic in this insane moment gave me lots of courage. I focused on love being the center of my resistance, and it's been an important idea that I come back to when I need strength.
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