Find The Outside 1.13: Ancestors II: Examining yesterday's actions to understand today's reality
In episode thirteen, Tim and Tuesday continue their conversation around history, impact, and our world — since context fundamentally alters how we relate to each other in the work of change, we delve in.
1.13 —— SHOW NOTES
Tim: Vulnerability is about revealing something of yourself, which invites others to do the same.
Tues: Vulnerability feels like something we, as a people, are seeking and need to search out. This podcast is on-air vulnerability; it’s a way of walking our talk. Brené Brown does incredible work around vulnerability for those listening who are interested.
Tues: On both sides of my family, not one of us had wealth or resources or access to power. That’s why, in some ways, I can look back on my lineage and feel unafraid and only pride.
Tim: When I think of my ancestors, it’s coming from a place of “Who bares the blame?”
Questions from Tim:
1. What is the source of pride and awe?
2. What do you mean by the legacy of brutality?
3. What is it like to have no written history/context?
Tues: Pride and awe comes from understanding our survivorship and the enslavement of my people—what it took to physically survive being taken from our lands and stacked like wood in the bottom of ships. That legacy of treatment and building the economy of North America on our backs continues today.
Tues: You can look up forever the impact of generational trauma and enslavement on Black parenting. When you are brutalized, you in turn, brutalize others. Then there’s also the brilliance of a diamond being crushed so hard which can also make you shine, at least in my experience.
Tues: A lot of black folks in this country have done a lot of work to refine and reclaim their roots. I have not done that work. It’s a big, gaping wound. A big part of my practice is actively reclaiming the land I am on. My only ancestry are enslaved people. There’s a huge loss in not knowing what came before.
Tim: Do you ever feel your ancestors?
Tues: Yes, 100%. That pride, awe and understanding is automatically accessible to me. That is something about feeing it in my blood. I think about myself as the culmination and not an obligation to them. I am in this life to dance and be joyful, and make change.
Tues: I want to leave listeners aware of my huge amounts of gratitude and I hope that that infuses my work and our work. And I hope I can stand strong in that.
Poem: W.S. Merwin, "Thanks" from Migration: New and Selected Poems
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
standing by the windows looking out
in our directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us
taking our feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
thank you we are saying and waving
dark though it is
Song: “Family of Aliens” by Teleman
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Find the song we played in today’s show—and every song we’ve played in previous shows—on the playlist. Just search ‘Find the Outside’ on Spotify.
Duration: 39:53
Produced by: Mark Coffin @ Sound Good Studios
Theme music: Gary Blakemore
Episode cover image: source
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