I made this clay model earlier this year, and now it’s more relevant than ever.
As children, everything is new. Our cultural perspectives are formed in our community and home, and we learn a vocabulary for the things we see around us. School. Home. Car. Dinner. Greetings. Nonverbal cues, expectations and customs.
When we remove ourselves from the familiar by moving to a new city or country, we unlearn each of these things and reshape it into new model. The context has changed. Home looks different. Dinner looks different. Nonverbal cues are different. Our brain expands and begins to include more elements into our definitions.
I’ve been playing with this idea of ‘unlearning.’ It’s liberating. It’s shifting from an “expert” mentality (we are the authority in that field), to a “beginner’s” attitude (a curiosity and acceptance that there is so much more to learn). For most of us, a subtle transformation begins when we set aside our expertise. We become humbled and curious, malleable, observant and open.
We begin to deconstruct and reshape our beliefs and attitudes because we recognize our prior definitions were cages, limited by our experience and perspective. It’s this shift that enables us to see how larger systemic values and concepts- healthcare, poverty, wealth, opportunity- have been built- and now challenge those definitions with our voices, money, action, and vote.
It’s only by dismantling our current system and the injustices and racism baked into it before we can rebuild a better one. I hope we continue to move in a direction with more equality, freedom, and understanding for all. One conversation at a time. One donation at a time. One protest at at time. One headline at a time.
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