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The people crying about statues getting pulled down are really waking me up by forcing me to ponder whether they're right to be so concerned. I have concluded that they are not, and I have learned something along the way. Our shared cultural narrative is precious and important...
...It is a source of strength for us when it binds us together and helps us overcome our pettiness, because we believe that we are part of something bigger. But peoples and their narratives are like hermit crabs and their shells. Our oral and written traditions are alive...
...The tearing down of some statues are as much a part of our story as their erections were in the first place. Our culture isn't a hunk of rock no matter how ornately carved. Our culture is what that ornamental chunk of mass represents, and that changes over time. Coming from...
...my heritage, I can't help thinking of Abram destroying the idols in his father's shop, of Moses ordering the destruction of the golden calf, and so forth. The tradition of my people tells me that symbols are built and destroyed and that both actions are imbued with meaning...
...People grow and peoples grow. George Washington has been dead for two hundred years. I can carry in my heart the George Washington of my early childhood who never told a lie simultaneously with the George Washington of my adulthood who is both greater and more problematic...
...I don't think I am up to the challenge of conveying what I intend, but I hope the people fighting for statues can discover a new narrative, and I hope the people tearing down statues are fighting for creation rather than destruction.
