Is There Such a Thing As a Universal Experience?

Dear Troublemakers,

Y’all know how I feel about you, right? You welcoming me into your (if its anything like mine) overcrowded email inboxes and your offices and living rooms during our Troublemaker zooms makes me so happy. And you hanging out with me in the comments section on social and substack. It makes me feel a lot less like I’m up on a stage talking at you; instead like we’re in conversation and community.

Last week, one of our Troublemakers (hey MJ!) put in the the question “is there such a thing as a universal human experience” and I have sat with it all week. I sat with it as even more takes on Oscars showed up. I sat with it as I watched people react all kinds of ways to the confirmation vote of Ketanji Brown Jackson. I sat with it as registered my kid for kindergarten and had all sorts of emotions. I believe there are universal human experiences - fear, love, anger, anxiety, hope, joy. But what I sat with was is there something that we as a society all experience exactly th…