09/05/2023
I once wrote, “To all my friends who are still finding their way between cultures, between languages, between religions, between families, between worlds - you are becoming the ancestor that chose to preserve what mattered and nurture what needed to be new.”
More here: I’m halted by the thought that in every single moment, we facilitate space between what’s been given to us and what we want to pass on. Every. Single. Moment.
And while that responsibility can weigh, I also think about how beautifully we’ve structured communal acts around remembrance of wisdoms that have been passed through countless hands before they ever reached ours so we don’t have to facilitate space alone.
So much of what dance recitals, family recipes, holiday songs, and rights of passage rituals create are opportunities for older generations to bear witness to the wisdom we’ve endured, healed through + nurtured and watch them be placed more gently in young hands.
As someday ancestors, we can know the imperfection that was the wisdom we were passed and the state of wisdom we will pass will too be imperfect. But it’s the journey of molding that wisdom over time that shapes our unified resilience.
Embracing our stories + traditions is more than an effective memorization strategy. It’s an ode to connection between generations - a bond that transcends time. Despite colonial emphasis on individuality, our stories remind us of our shared identity and unified power.
At an event IE hosted last year, Professor Morris peered out from the stage into a room of what I’ll lovingly call “intersectional environmentalists’ + said, “The young people are gunna be alright”. Our community smiled + giggled at what underlies what I’m saying here. When we witness youth nurture the lessons once passed to us, we exist in the peace that comes from seeing stability, continuity + belonging realized through the wisdom we share.
Traditional education systems may have the capacity to impart knowledge - even skills, but it will forever be the cultural lessons within our communities that shapes wisdom.
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