BY THE BEDSIDE OF SPLENDOUR
When our darkest beauties and darkest repulsions,
When our history and present moments, Aspirations and negotiations,
When all of these open fully and empty into the hungry earth and absorbing skies—
WHEN GRIEVING
When grieving, it was the comfort of the familiar that anchored and lulled me.
The scrubbing of eggs stuck to the bottom of a pan, the wiping down of crusted sauce on a shelf in the fridge, the low hum of the washing machine.
HOW DO WE HEAL INTERNALIZED COLONIALISM?
Colonialism isn’t just about destroying and taking over an existing local culture, exploiting the land and people, and maintaining domination.
Colonialism is also about eradicating the people’s memories, exploiting and twisting those memories, and ensuring any effective connection to the past is severed so the conquered are left crippled and dependent on the dominating system. Let them forget who they were (past) so they do not know who they ever will be (present and future).This is most noticeable in the myth of the angry, jealous, and punishing, father god who cannot tolerate us having any form of connection to anything / anyone other than himself; he needed to invent an enemy - the devil - as a method to instill fear and preserve amnesia. What signifies the devil may differ, but common symbols are: