Hannah Arendt, quoted by Lyndsey Stonebridge
“Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes.”
James Baldwin, from The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction,
1948-1985
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!
from “Sympathy”, a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
So, I say to you, as others have told to me, hold fast to what is good, and
seek to return no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering.
Let each of us not be proud, but instead welcome help when
we are in need.
Let us always honor all people, tempering justice with mercy, as we
indeed desire for ourselves. Find something sacred in
the abstract nakedness of being human.
Lara Scott metamer@protonmail.com
The Metamer Quarterly, Issue #13 “No One Tells You When To Shout”
https://themetamerquarterly.blogspot.com/
