About

About Holy Discomfort

The title of this blog was suggested by M. Drew Bongiovanni. Here’s what Drew has to say about the phrase:

“I came to see ‘discomfort’ as a value after a class discussion in graduate school following the 2016 election. We were discussing the complicity of all white folks in systems of whiteness/white supremacy, and the task for white folks to dismantle these systems. A black classmate said, ‘If you (speaking to white folks) are engaging in the work, you should feel uncomfortable. Whiteness is comfort, privilege, and power…it should not feel good to try and lose it.’

“Since that discussion, I have used discomfort as a guiding value for myself in the work. Something to lean into, not shy away from. And, because I believe this is God’s call on our life, to love our neighbors and to hate what is unjust, it is holy work.”

About me

Karen Bryant Lucas

I am a writer and retired musician. Currently writing a book about my family’s experiences with racist violence and Whiteness in the late 1960s in Wake Forest, NC.

While researching for the book, I crossed paths again with an old high school friend, who is one of the main characters in the story I am telling. We were married in January 2023–at the ages of 70 and 69!–and I now live with my husband in Wake Forest.

I have a heart for justice and a passionate desire to bear witness to the power that is Love.