Rhonda

“I don’t romanticize the city; I have experienced the harsh edge of city living enough times to know that no place is perfect but not enough times to make me a cable news commentator whose beat is “racially coded comments about lawlessness.” A city is a promise to society that is broken more times than it’s upheld. But it’s a promise I believe in with all my heart.”
― R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays

“In every office I’ve worked, word of complimentary cake races through the ranks of the cubicle class like it’s a rumor about the Wells Fargo wagon showing up in River City, Iowa. Free break room cake is a blessing, a gift from some benevolent force that asks nothing of you in return. Free break room cake offers you an opportunity to share a portion of some other person’s joy, both literally and figuratively. In a space built on capitalist power structures, free break room cake reminds you that you don’t need to produce anything to be deserving of a little sweetness.”
― R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays

“Often, it feels like so many of us who are considered “other” don’t have narrative or political value beyond the worst parts of our lives. But I know that we are more than that. I know that we can choose to share what is hard or choose to share some piece of our joy and hope, and the work is worthy either way.”
― R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays

“Perhaps it's just me, but I am wary of any persons whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior.”
― Frans de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates