I love the way this piece makes salient something I haven’t been able to articulate as I have been bombarded with the Titanic sub news. It’s been weird/uncomfortable being a refugee reading about all these exploring men. It’s weird for so many reasons, but you’ve helped me name a few. Thank you.
I am working on a much larger piece about all of this. And I keep running into more things that feel jarring. And I know I am so outside of the experience of being a refugee, I cannot even begin to understand the whole picture. So thank you so much for sharing your perspective here.
I keep thinking about this, and what comes to mind is that there is such DETAIL when describing what happened, and what might have happened. And the detail is about a few hours of discomfort, and maybe awkwardness if someone had to go to the bathroom. But if I think about being Vietnamese, and my "boat people," so rarely is that discomfort shared. We call refugees "boat people" and don't really think about days, weeks, months on end trying to seek asylum. We certainly don't think about the forced migration by boat of enslaved people. I can name the passengers on the Titanic sub. I have seen so many photos of that father and son. I have even heard about the father and son who did not get on the sub. Meanwhile, so many "boat people" remain nameless.
Damn. Once again, I am reminded, as I catch my breath, how very much words matter and how they are so often limited by the imagination and perspective of those uttering them.
It is kind of wild every time I realize my imagination has been limited by common usage of a word, or even the non-existence of a word! The way language can restrict us and liberate us is never not astounding to me.
And if you explore more about Columbus, and the timing, might be curious to consider that he and his crew were very likely Jewish and truly were sponsored asylum seekers from the inquisition.
I've read a lot about Columbus! It's one of those subjects that kind of never stops pulling me back in. Maybe because I was raised in the 90s just before he stopped being held up as some kind of visionary? I don't know. But we don't really know anything concrete about his origins. Isn't that wild??? We do know that in his journals and in his public writing he was very adamantly Christian, although not always in ways that aligned even with the desires of the Crown funding him. While I do not agree with even close to every conclusion in this series on him, especially when it comes to his interaction with/and violence towards Indigenous People, I do think this is worth a listen to understand what we know about his personal beliefs. So sharing if you're interested: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Zg0UUSI6N3TgV6vVHKEKf?si=890ea519bd514a80
"I think we do not call them explorers because we do not think women and children can be explorers. I think we do not call them explorers because we do not think home is worth discovering. And I think many of the people within the borders think they live in lands that cannot be discovered. They think they are supposed to discover, not be discovered."
I love the way this piece makes salient something I haven’t been able to articulate as I have been bombarded with the Titanic sub news. It’s been weird/uncomfortable being a refugee reading about all these exploring men. It’s weird for so many reasons, but you’ve helped me name a few. Thank you.
I am working on a much larger piece about all of this. And I keep running into more things that feel jarring. And I know I am so outside of the experience of being a refugee, I cannot even begin to understand the whole picture. So thank you so much for sharing your perspective here.
I keep thinking about this, and what comes to mind is that there is such DETAIL when describing what happened, and what might have happened. And the detail is about a few hours of discomfort, and maybe awkwardness if someone had to go to the bathroom. But if I think about being Vietnamese, and my "boat people," so rarely is that discomfort shared. We call refugees "boat people" and don't really think about days, weeks, months on end trying to seek asylum. We certainly don't think about the forced migration by boat of enslaved people. I can name the passengers on the Titanic sub. I have seen so many photos of that father and son. I have even heard about the father and son who did not get on the sub. Meanwhile, so many "boat people" remain nameless.
Damn. Once again, I am reminded, as I catch my breath, how very much words matter and how they are so often limited by the imagination and perspective of those uttering them.
Thank you.
You nailed the response, too ☺️
It is kind of wild every time I realize my imagination has been limited by common usage of a word, or even the non-existence of a word! The way language can restrict us and liberate us is never not astounding to me.
And if you explore more about Columbus, and the timing, might be curious to consider that he and his crew were very likely Jewish and truly were sponsored asylum seekers from the inquisition.
I've read a lot about Columbus! It's one of those subjects that kind of never stops pulling me back in. Maybe because I was raised in the 90s just before he stopped being held up as some kind of visionary? I don't know. But we don't really know anything concrete about his origins. Isn't that wild??? We do know that in his journals and in his public writing he was very adamantly Christian, although not always in ways that aligned even with the desires of the Crown funding him. While I do not agree with even close to every conclusion in this series on him, especially when it comes to his interaction with/and violence towards Indigenous People, I do think this is worth a listen to understand what we know about his personal beliefs. So sharing if you're interested: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Zg0UUSI6N3TgV6vVHKEKf?si=890ea519bd514a80
Meg, this is poetry ❤️❤️❤️
"I think we do not call them explorers because we do not think women and children can be explorers. I think we do not call them explorers because we do not think home is worth discovering. And I think many of the people within the borders think they live in lands that cannot be discovered. They think they are supposed to discover, not be discovered."
This paragraph contains so much.