The horrific violence taking place in the Middle East this week has been incredibly difficult for Westerners to comprehend, let alone respond to. But one amazing soul from Arlington, VA has managed to speak out in a way that will surely resonate with everyone concerned about this global tragedy: This woman just shared four completely contradictory text posts about Israel/Palestine followed by a photo of a soup she made.
Just beautiful.
Twenty-eight-year-old project manager Kara Marshall was deeply concerned to hear about the continued attacks taking place in Israel and Palestine this week, but thankfully, she did not allow her despair to stop her from using her Instagram story as a platform to educate and inspire those around her: Within the span of thirty minutes, Kara managed to share a somber text post about how all violence is wrong, a second text post decrying the evils of Israel’s colonialism, a third text post referring to Hamas as a brutal terrorist organization, a fourth text post about media literacy, and finally, an image of white beans simmering in her enameled Dutch oven with a festive GIF reading “fall vibes.” It is truly amazing to see how Kara has taken on this issue in her own powerful, compassionate, and highly self-contradictory way, sourcing her posts from accounts ranging from her favorite ’90s sitcom actors to liberal arts school campus organizations to a hypnosis influencer who goes by the name of TheMindfulMelissa—not to mention her very own iPhone photos, which have allowed her to share tantalizing step-by-step photos of her nourishing plant-based stew. By sharing words from all these important voices, Kara is letting her followers know in no uncertain terms that she is an empowered, informed, soup-eating citizen who thinks that war is bad, children are the future, justified violence is always necessary, and religion is both highly destructive and absolutely amazing—and we are so here for it.
This is such an inspiration. We hope that everyone on Instagam gets a chance to see what Kara posted, because it’s giving us a whole new perspective on war, as well as on bean soup. Well done, Kara. Well done.
