It has been two weeks since I wrote my last blog. So much has happened in those two weeks. Justifiably, our country has been in turmoil. And my mind has been also, ricocheting from anger, to grief, to consternation and then back again. During this same time, I have also noticed many new or rediscovered ideas and concepts emerging. I don’t think this is by chance. I believe that in any chaotic moment, new or now timely ideas and knowledge appear. In this blog, because my mind is still roiling and mulling, I will not reflect on one idea or issue. Instead I will share some of the ideas and concepts I have noticed during the past two weeks.
Immigration. I heard an interview with the science journalist Sonia Shah. In her new book “The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move,” she explains that multiple species have always moved about. And human beings are no exception. Shah contends that instead of seeing immigration as disruptive and threatening, the migration of peoples is a natural occurrence. Think migration not immigration.
I appreciated that the ideas in this book challenged me to think differently about migration and immigration. It is a more natural event than I ever realized. The author made the point that only a few people in a part of Africa have never ‘migrated.’ My ancestors were migrants/immigrants. Just earlier than some others.
Breathing. In another interview, the journalist James Nestor talked about his new book, “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.” He explains that how we breathe affects our health and well-being. From a review, “modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines.”
Put this into the column, astonishing! When something you never thought about becomes something profoundly important, that gets attention.
Bodies. I also heard Resnaa Menakem, a therapist and trauma specialist and author of “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the pathway to mending Our Hearts and Bodies“ talk with Krista Tippett (On Being) about his methods of helping people with the residue of trauma in their bodies. It is now known that any kind of trauma remains in the body until it is recognized and worked through. And this can be transmitted from generation to generation. He explains how these realities make our racial divide so difficult to dismantle. He also offers exercises to “settle in our bodies in new ways.”
I believe that the information that Menakem offers is imperative for us to use at this time.
Tipping points. Last, I have pondered with others if we are at a tipping point. Will we as a society use the recent tragedy and the outpouring of anger and distress to forge something positive and new? Or not. I remember an instructor explaining that Newton’s first law of inertia and motion applies to energy systems like human cultures, too. “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” The instructor’s point is that societies do not change unless a force stronger than the force causing the society to remain the same impacts that system. Has that finally happened? I sincerely hope so, but it is up to us to make that true.