Here we are. But where is here? Terry Tempest Williams holds space for anger and healing

“Here we are.”

That is where this talk by Terry Tempest Williams begins. In it, she reads from her new book “Erosion: Essays of Undoing.”

Williams asks and challenges us to ask, where is here?

We approach the end of another year, amid various forms of erosion. We live in a time of division and impeachment at home, environmental crisis and conflict globally. We navigate tears in the social fabric. Civic discourse, mutual trust and tolerance, “our capacity to bear the differences with one another, even around our own dinner tables”... all seemingly eroding.

Tempest Williams asks: “How do we meet one another in full presence with a capacity to listen?”

Here, she presents some of the answers she found.

There is a moment at the end, or what seems to be the end, of this talk. The audience wants to applaud but does not. We wait with the speaker, in silence. It is an unusual thing, a stunning moment really, inspired by a remarkable presentation.

Terry Tempest Williams spoke at the Seattle Public Library Central Library on December 10, in an event co-presented by The Elliott Bay Book Company.

Please note: This recording contains unedited language of an adult nature and discussion of suicide.

Listen to the full event here: