But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be al… - bell hooks

Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.

When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as an escape.

My grief was a heavy, despairing sadness caused by parting from a companion of many years but, more important, it was a despair rooted in the fear that love did not exist, could not be found. And even if it were lurking somewhere, I might never know it in my lifetime. It had become hard for me to continue to believe in love's promise when everywhere I turned the enchantment of power of the terror of fear overshadowed the will to love.

There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.

Individual members of certain churches in black communities should protest when worship services become a platform for teaching anti-gay sentiments. Often individuals sit and listen to preachers raging against gay people and think the views expressed are amusing and outmoded, and dismiss them without challenge. But if homophobia is to be eradicated in black communities, such attitudes must be challenged.