“The desire to go home is a desire to be whole ... to be the point of intersection of all the lines drawn through all the stars, to be the constellation maker and the center of the world, that center called love. To awaken from sleep, to rest from awakening, to tame the animal, to let the soul go wild, to shelter in darkness and blaze with light, to cease to speak and be perfectly understood.” ―Rebecca Solnit, Storming the Gates of Paradise
__________
I listen to commentators on the news making dire predictions about where we are headed as a nation, the coming civil war, which they mean in a literal sense, nothing metaphorical about the racial animus provoking violence, and I contemplate the question, where is home? Why did I plant my children in a country that does not love them, that cannot see beyond their beautiful skin? What does it mean that the "you" in that neon installation photographed above, is locked in a cage? Maybe that is the metaphor, the gates that must be stormed if we are, any of us, to awaken from sleep, to find "the center of the world, that center called love."
it's horrible, this slide into white authoritarianism. this nation with the biggest most powerful department of defense (and isn't that an oxymoron) in the world. we stopped the nazis. who will be able to stop us?
ReplyDeleteMy heart. this is a lovely and profound post, it will stick with me...Thinking outside the box, the cage of this country. Your children, bright as they are, do have options. The borders of this land can not keep them.
ReplyDeleteWe must continue to love. That is the end-all, be-all of what we humans are instructed to do by all of the religions, the sages, the poets. We love until there is more love.
ReplyDeleteI really believe this.
And it does always start at home.
I am worried all the way down to my rickety old bones. I've been reading dire predictions already about the 2022 elections and the nightmare that is barreling toward us. I wanted an awakening, but instead we have a violence waiting to be unleashed. I wish I had some sense of hope about love and opening the gates... I wish.
ReplyDeleteWas just talking with a younger friend who lives and teaches in Baltimore. She spoke of hope and love and doing what one can when faced with the troubles in the school where works as a teacher, troubles that reflect all that has happened and is happening in our country. I know from life experiences that the center is love and am grateful to you for posting that quote from Rebecca Solnit in affirmation of that truth,
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting art piece. Definitely makes one think about the nature of love. I wonder if a lot of those commentators really know what they're talking about. The fringes make a lot of noise, but the vast majority of people in the middle are reasonable and don't want conflict. I think the world needs to get off social media and people need to talk to each other. (I count blogging as talking!)
ReplyDeleteThis country has revealed its true nature. Prior to the orange one I actually thought we were better than this, but we're not. It's a good time to be old.
ReplyDeleteI am worried too.
ReplyDeleteI put my hope in the younger ones, like your children. They are not having any of this white supremacy bull crap. They march in the street. Demand change. They are the electorate coming up through the system. The old white guard will die away and change is gonna come. This is my hope.
ReplyDelete