I opened my Medium stats today, saw Matthew was following me, started reading his piece, and found Dasha's response. I was totally fascinated by the whole thing. Dasha - I live in the UK; Matthew I sometimes work as a writing coach and one of my favourite clients worked for Amnesty in Nigeria. Like you both say here, relationships are the portal. I was already a fan of some famous Nigerian writers, but spending time with my client and her narratives has made me much more interested in Nigeria, and so I've started following the narrative of the country - as I see in via The Guardian which is limited.

And Dasha's right - corruption is endemic. I totally agree with her about Brexit and why we've let ourselves be caught up in the drama. And like Dasha - I believe there is a huge parallel between our personal relationships and approach to others and otherness, and our political landscape. I, too, wrote a book about it - about the parallels between marital life and the civic marriage of our politics. I'm in the process of trying to get it published now.

All of this reminds me of what Julia Cameron writes in Big Magic: that the ideas and creativity are out there in the world - and we are their carriers, not their creators. If you haven't read the book or what she writes about her and Ann Patchet I recommend it.

I've been thinking about these issues for four years - since the vote in 2016 or I should say votes.

We are all part of a huge upheaval in the way we run our relationships, power, care for others and our planet.

It is easy to look at the bleakness - and there is plenty of it. As another Amnesty client once said to me: when you look at the big picture it's depressing and grim. But on the level of one to one connection and human interaction, there is so much light.

That's why I love Medium. It gives me the chance to listen in on that micro level of conversation - and participate in it.

Thank you to both of you for all these words.