Truth

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."
- Benjamin Disraeli

I am strongly attracted to the truth. At times it's depressing, exhausting, and frustrating. Learning the truth is kind of liberating, though, in that it frees you from ignorance. But at the same time, it recruits you as a soldier, because you can no longer be happy knowing what you know, and being surrounded by people who have no idea. Once you know about something, you are obligated to do something about it, either to improve the situation or at least to make others aware. And sometimes, what you learn becomes part of you, and not only do you feel obligated, you feel incensed, horrified, and passionate.

I think that's why we blog. That's certainly part of why I do it.

Generally, if I read something on someone else's blog, I feel confident that many more people will see it there, than if I posted it here. There is one blog, however, that I don't see mentioned among the pro-migrant blogs I frequent, and although it is more art and less activism, the insights Luis Urrea provides are valuable for a deeper understanding and for feeling the significance of immigration as it touches everything around us. His posts hold an abundance of beauty, gratitude, faith, cynicism, and rage - those things that combine to create passion.

I've chosen his latest Immigration Monday post as a means of introducing him to a (hopefully) new audience. Enjoy.

"All the poet can do today is warn. That is why true Poets must be truthful."
- Wilfred Owen