The Sun Will Rise Again Tomorrow

For many Americans, the election of Donald Trump was an upset, a reversal of decades of groundwork for human equality. It was terrifying for families who had been marginalized for so long to witness their bleak future unfold. It was joyous for families who believed Trump would be the solution.

I’m in the former group, yet I hope I can understand why half of America voted for Trump. Maybe you saw something in him that I didn’t. Anti-establishment and “make America great again” are bounced around, and I really do agree with you and hope for a greater America. Truly.

But like many other Americans, I also see Trump as a symbol of discrimination. He uses words as a divisive and scathing weapon against those who were judged by the color of their skin and the gender of their bodies. I don’t want to neglect the marginalized, underprivileged white citizens who saw a leader in Trump, but I also don’t want to neglect those that Trump’s words have disparaged.

I am hopeful that President Trump turns out to be a president that brings positive change. I hope that he manages to create this future that Trump supporters believed he would. I hope that this discriminatory future won’t come to pass, and that instead, Americans can embrace each other and listen to one another–empathetic human beings who work together rather than hate each other.

—

I woke up this morning feeling contemplative, because what felt like an illusory idea before had become real. A future with President Trump had not sunk in yet. So all I could do was keep living.

I made breakfast. I went to class. I did my calculus problem sets.  I walked through the halls of my school. I saw people comforting each other. I saw people afraid and hopeful.

And honestly, I’ll probably go to sleep tonight, thinking of the work that needs to be done. I don’t want to sleep afraid. I want to sleep knowing that if there’s ever a time to be kind to one another, it is now. And hoping for it all to be okay is a legitimate reason to sleep well tonight.

I’d like to end this with something that Alexandre Dumas wrote in Le Comte de Monte Cristo–

“All human wisdom is contained in these two words – Wait and Hope.”

The sun will rise again tomorrow morning. And it’ll be okay.

Doodle 051 | Why We Learn and the Battle Against Ignorance

To become better people and to understand humanity…that’s why we read and learn.

Naoki Urasawa’s Master Keaton aired back in 1998 to 1999 about insurance investigator Taichi Keaton who solves mystery cases, lectures part time for various colleges, studies archaeology, and most of all, aims to live as the “master of life.”

Episode 5 had one moment which stood out to me, in which Keaton delivers a lecture about his own professor who continued teaching during WWII in the midst of battle, taking his students outside of the building ruins, simply because there were still 15 minutes left. His professor stands boldly and declares to his students:

“The enemy is doing everything it can to rob us of our power and our ambition. If we don’t continue to learn, we’ll soon be in the hands of Hitler.”

(Viz Media dub of Master Keaton Episode 5)

But the solution, as Keaton’s professor explains, is that continuing to learn “will help us make it through this war that has brought out the worst in human beings, hatred, and murder.”

—

When I watched the scene a few weeks back, I tried to recall why we learn, why we even bothered to wake up for school. Maybe it was routine. Maybe it was our parents. Or as my Psychology teacher commented two years ago, kids actually want to learn and understand the world.

Many of us hold the teachers of our lives in such high regard. These teachers can be our peers, our parents, our school teachers, or anyone who we meet. After all, we take after these role models when we see greed, racism, injustice, and immorality, whether we fight, whether we stay silent. These are the life-changing people.

We grow out of intolerance and misunderstandings by understanding the nuances, by thinking deeply, and by caring profoundly. We mature through this process by reading or hearing the stories of other people, or when we chose to listen to other opinions without pushing our opinions outwards.

—

Learning ties into awareness. The recent racial movements, the heated online debates, and the United States’ recent forms of discrimination have reached the media. It is controversial and it elicits strong opinions.

I do not believe the voiced concerns are necessarily exclusionary. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter is not specifically valuing black lives over other lives, but highlighting the recent and historic challenges that black individuals have faced in the United States. Awareness is key. It is the first step against silence–the same silence when we implicitly condone discriminatory acts, no matter how minor.

Compassion for black people can help change this negative stigma against their group without undermining the efforts made for other groups. As Savannah Brown explains in her video about intersectionality, the goal is increasing inclusive discussion, rather than excluding groups in our decisions. Keeping an open forum is essential to combat these injustices.

—

When Keaton concludes his lecture, he voices his own belief–

“If ignorance is part of human nature, then it is our mission to study that aspect and to overcome it.”

(Viz Media dub of Master Keaton Episode 5)

We learn because ignorance is dangerous. We learn because if we do not understand our history, if we do not recognize our potential for the future, then humanity will fall into a callous disregard for human life, and nobody can stop it because nobody understands how.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discussions, literature, classrooms, online debates, and all channels through which information is passed are a part of learning. Meeting different people humbles us and imparts lifelong wisdom. Reading literature can help us become empathetic. Awareness wards off ignorance.

In the face of discrimination, I hope we can continue to keep our hearts and our minds open and most importantly, to keep listening and learning.

Doodle 013 | “Don’t lose the magic.”

As I wrote my thank you letter to my literature teacher, the memories of her class reminded me of her earnestness. Then the earnestness of my favorite authors struck me as special. And like the inspiration for most of these blog posts, I was reminded of something wonderful. I had to scrap the first draft and rewrite her letter.

Tobias Wolff, one of my favorite writers, and Douglas Unger, who is now on my summer reading list, inspired one of my favorite human beings, George Saunders, who wrote this article in The New Yorker, with his all of his humanity, empathy, and kindness.

His narrative is strewn with advice not solely to writers but to people, discussing how his two writing teachers taught him to be both a better writer and a better person. Here are some of my favorite snippets:

“Now I am writing more seriously, more realistically, nothing made up, nothing silly, everything directly from life, no exaggeration or humor—you know: ‘real writing.’

Toby looks worried. But quickly recovers.

‘Well, good!’ he says. ‘Just don’t lose the magic.’

I have no idea what he’s talking about. Why would I do that? That would be dumb.”

but then–

“I go forward and lose all of the magic, for the rest of my time in grad school and for several years thereafter.”

Yet Saunders finds his way back–

“I finally break out of Nick Adams mode and write what I think might be a good story. When I finish it, as in a movie, I hear Toby’s voice in my head: “Don’t lose the magic.” Of course, of course, I finally get it! All these years I’ve been losing the magic! Toby’s comment at that party all those years ago suddenly presents as a sort of hidden teaching moment, a confirmation that this leap I have made is real.”

and he ends his narrative with–

“Why do we love our writing teachers so much? Why, years later, do we think of them with such gratitude? … [Our] teachers, if they are good, instead do something almost holy, which we never forget: they take us seriously.”

I encourage you to read it in its entirety, especially if you are a budding writer of any kind. I imagine I will read it again before I go off to college and again whenever I need a reminder of the good in the world. For more George Saunders, I point you to his short stories on The New Yorker as well as his 2013 commencement address at Syracuse University.

And to my literature teacher, thank you. We’re awful writers compared to writers like Saunders, but you took us seriously too.

We have elevated beyond stick figures with hats.