Equality
To my people — you are the ripple in the pond.
I think about my own mortality often, mainly about if I’ve made an impact, what I’m leaving behind, and have I affected change for the better on some small level. Each of us is a ripple in a pond and the things we say and do reverberates onto others, rippling across society until it dissipates against the shore. Some of us make bigger splashes than others, that’s for sure.
I suppose this is what you can call “being deep,” thinking about the responsibilities of one’s own choices and how it’ll ultimately remain after we’re gone. I think beyond myself, knowing that I’m only a temporary entity and that part of my responsibility is to leave things better for those who will remain after me. I don’t have kids, but I do look at the faces of my little nieces and nephews and I think about what kind of world I’d like to leave for them.
In November, I had the opportunity to be the artist in residence for 200 Hmong high school kids in the Twin Cities area. For four weeks, we talked about racism, social justice, domestic abuse, and mental health. My job was to help them understand and to break down what was happening right now in the world and to also break down what was happening in their own lives, adding on depth and…
