Random Rant- We Don’t Need Another Hero

I’ve been a little quiet lately, for two reasons.

My life has descended into a place of frequent chaos and occasional despair, and I don’t think musings from this time are widely applicable or really helpful to share.

I’ve been listening. I’ve been learning. I’ve been feeling my way through the world, heart first. I’ve been trying on shoes that aren’t mine and don’t fit and trying to understand what it is like to have to walk in them.

And you know? The biggest thing I’ve come up with is that it’s still not our time to talk. We’ve been talking and building castles in the sky on the backs of others for centuries. As White America, we’ve made our reality the only reality to aspire to- in literature, in film, we’ve dominated every medium and marginalized or eliminated any other viewpoint. Otherness is only acceptable in tiny slices, and somehow presented in a way that demeans and patronizes rather than honestly telling the story of someone with no choice about being different.

This strikes to the heart of me- for whatever else I do and whoever else I am, I am a storyteller. To feel the weight of millions of words normalizing a world that should not exist, that cannot go on existing, knowing all of these stories have done their own kind of damage in building a wall that separates humanity… it breaks my heart.

We don’t need more down home folksy heroes. We don’t need more speeches about how important diversity is from people who lack it.

We need to truly embrace the experiences of others as real, the stories of others as true, as art, as human. The walls are thick and high, and we need to listen to the people locked away about the best and safest ways to tear them down.

We need to love one another. We need to forgive. We need to do right.

And it all goes back to listening to the stories we have to share.

I want to leave you with this quote from Doc Rivers.

“It’s just so sad. What stands out to me is just watching the Republican convention, viewing this fear. All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear,” said Rivers, whose team had just beat the Dallas Mavericks 154 to 111 in Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

“We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that were denied to live in certain communities,” said Rivers, holding back tears. “We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. All you do is keep hearing about fear. It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back. It’s really so sad,” he added.