Born on Juneteenth

Linkedin is typically reserved for professional, and business-related posts, but this one is personal.

It's my Birthday. I usually take a moment on the eve of my birthday for some self-reflection - to sift through a year and a lifetime for possible lessons to share. This year I don’t need to look far... the lessons are many - too many to enumerate. The most glaring lesson courses through my children, my wife, and my body... collectively, we are Japanese, African, European, and Native American we check the box “Other” on the ethnicity question of every form that asks. We cannot identify as just White, Asian, Black, or Native American, and if we tried - there would be discomfort and awkwardness in our being, and among those who cannot but identify as such. This is what some refer to as “half”, “mixed”, “mutts”, “part”... among the attempt to classify us as "Other"... but here it is.. we’re whole, all of us, whole.

I look out at a world of people pointing out the otherness of each other and I cannot biologically and psychologically sit comfortably in that space. We have allowed such psychological distance from each other on the basis of our skin, ethnicity, gender, cultural heritage that we have become blind to the wholeness of each and every one of our individual beings... born into this world, naked and alone, destined to leave this world with nothing. That all other material trappings and constructs we systematically build up as our identity, loud as they are... these are ironically our greatest barrier that stands between us and a basic fundamental truth that we’re equal, we’re one, and we’re whole - whole human, wholly flawed, wholly unique, empirically alone, vulnerable, mortal - and we share everything - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the dirt beneath our feet. There’s truly no “yours” and “mine” - just the unspoken contracts we agree to share where those lines exist.

Like you, I've been swept up and shaken to the core by the actions of police officers we’ve seen under the spotlight of the sparks that ignite our cries of injustice, and those who perpetrate hatred and division in action, thought, speech, or cowardly masked tweets and online comments. When I'm overwhelmed, I turn art, and a mantra that plays over when I draw, paint, or sculpt is “be honest” - these words whisper down to me, like a heartbeat every second asking the challenge, “what do you see” - and - “can you tell its story?”

Be honest... are you whole? Do you look deeply into the eyes of someone who’s ethnic heritage you don’t share, and do you see yourself? Their eyes see this same world... they see you, they are witness to a life you are creating for yourself, at this moment, with this breath, in the next, and forever. Each new unfolding moment is an opportunity to build - in every new moment - a better place for us where the expression of unity could overpower our divisive hatred, fear, and anguish - wouldn’t you take it? Shouldn’t we claim this as our legacy? Happy Juneteenth.