What Words are Engraved on the Stones of our Foundation?
My life is lived through screens of various sizes, shapes, and capabilities. The connection with information, humans, and experience comes in bytes through electronic means. You and I are benefiting from that in the very second that you are reading this. I have only been within 6 feet of two people for more then 6 months… my touch restricted, movements confined, smiles shielded by the protective gear deemed necessary at this time. We all share this collective depressive episode, we all have dove into the digital sea to stay connected, to remember our humanity.
There are days when the literal smoke clears from the valley and I retreat to my feet. Exploring my neighborhood, watching the eyes through big bay windows illuminated by the light from flat screens. On the perfectly manicured lawns, the products of arbitrary social expectations and the fear of letting our neighbors down, there have begun to be transfers from the digital sea to the concrete jungle of my urban community.
The signs feel like a return to simpler times of information sharing. The utilization of print makers, design professionals, the political machine, and the declaration of identity. These words though, they feel different. Embolden declarations of the specifics of concern. The reactions to brutality experienced through a diverse infrastructure of mediums that capture realities once hidden in the shadows of personal experience. The slaying of humans on our streets, in their homes, and all the places we know is by no means a new thing… but our awareness feels novel. These signs declare the stance of our neighbors. There seems to be another cap on the wave of radical social awareness.
One sign that has become common reads, In this house we believe:
Black Lives Matter
Women’s rights are human rights
No human is illegal
Science is real
Love is Love
Kindness is everything.
These decelerations struck me with captivating emotion, standing in a strangers yard I reflected on what my sign would need to say. How I felt about the liner presentation from top to bottom and the final line. There were so many things I felt I would need to include as my minimal declaration. Something like:
Black lives matter.
No human is illegal.
Gender rights are human rights.
Life span education is a human right.
Access to healthy food is a human right.
Access to medical services is a human right.
Not all information is equal, science is a good guide.
Purposeful action is beautiful regardless of its monetary value to our economy.
Love is love.
People are people.
Awareness, integrity, communication, honesty, and respect is everything.
I know!!! That’s a big sign, or small print. Or maybe I turn my useless lawn into an art instillation piece with multiple signs scattered, so there is no illusion of the liner or the weighted importance of font!
I had some strong emotions about the women’s rights bit feeling being exclusionary to so many people and to the issue of gender identity. I thought many of these issues were housed in the middle class paradigm for the perfect lawns they were designed for, no mention of basic human rights such as food, medical care, and education. The reliance on science as real falls in to the trap of turning science into infallible truth, that’s religion! To me science is the product of humans exploring their world but that world alters and changes, there are no absolute truths only information that can help us achieve what we believe we need. We need science to guide us but must be cautious to not allow its allure to lead us to actions such as killing thousands of people for conquest, destroying our planet for material gain, or any of the other ill side effects that have followed since the industrial revolution and the industrialization of the scientific machine. We must stay honest to what science is.
This led me to the kindness is everything statement. I understand that our screens have dehumanized the readers and writers that we interact with. Internet comment culture is toxic, shame based, punishment central! This is moving into our streets, with people espousing their views over the humanity of the person in front of them, abrasive words to bullets lined in bodies are justified for their cause. However simply saying things in specific ways is not the answer to our problem. We are not connected! We do not have a core that unites our forrest , our roots are laid on separate islands in the waters of ideology.
A lover once shared “ the words with all their power and magic are the stones building the foundation of our space”. It is not kindness we need to be etched in stone. Kindness doesn’t capture the path to our root structure of humanity that we social creatures long for! Maybe on the first stone of our foundation to a empowered society we etch “Awareness, integrity, communication, honesty, and respect is everything. “.
Awareness: we must experience what is in front of us, experience our own interactions with what is in front of us, and see the “whys” of our reactions.
Integrity: we need to know what moves us, why we have selected to live, and pursue every action with that potential. We must hold true to the cores we make for ourselves and do the terrifying work of adjusting when we drift with the hardships thrown at us.
Communication: we must build the spaces to share with others, focus on that sharing, see this as an action of all people involved! We must not allow it to only be for our own needs but to shape the needs of all. Our words must flow with others, we must dance together in the waves… allowing what comes to come.
Honesty: to know others experience we must be able to share openly the truths we know. We have to let go of thinking we know how others will respond, we need to allow our selves to be fragile. This is the only way we can know each other in the way that we know ourselves.
Respect: we have to acknowledge the humanity of the other person. We will need to explore that humanity in a way that is free of judgments to others- then you are a person and your experience has challenged you. We should approach each other with the clear perspective that I am honored to hear from you, to experience you, and to know you!
I am sure there are more words that must be constructed on our stones, hopefully we can find them together.
So shall we pick up the chisel together?
*Response to writing prompt 19 from skycollection “Words to Carve in Stone”
