Strangers

2018 has given me many new experiences, one of which has been becoming a new parent. As a result, I’ve developed a sense of urgency to move faster in some aspects, while I’ve experienced an emergent recognition of the importance of slowing down in others.

Lately, I find myself loving the way my daughter waves at strangers.

When she does it, I love the ways she reaches out with a smile as if the person she sees is there to support her; as if everyone she sees is a part of her community. It’s as if in her smile and her hands lie both a greeting and an expectation of a broader sense of community.

In a way, watching the gleeful look on her face as she greets others gives me a glimpse into a world that could be. 

Sometimes I feel relieved, and even inspired when she reacts this way to the folks in her environment. Other times, I feel envious of what I read as a sense of complete belief and surety of it all.

Getting closer to achieving that sense of community for everyone is a deeply motivating factor behind my own social justice work.

Watching it happen again today also made me think of the interpersonal and systemic ways that people and groups who are deemed “the stranger”, or the “other” are treated, which ultimately gets in the way of us all realizing that broader sense of connectedness.

It’s important to acknowledge that the systemic stuff is intentional. Doing so provides us with opportunitie to focus on addressing the mechanics and root causes of systems of oppression.

The babies have something we’ve lost and we’ve got be honest with ourselves in order to get it back, or at least contribute to a place where the kids of the future won’t have to lose it in the first place.

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones

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