#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Bird on box, Charles River
Lovely, to be out early into summer. I walked a long time with Charlie, noticing the June blooms, and I knew where to look for the pink mountain laurel in bloom by the wetlands, and there it was! I love the annual ritual of finding the laurel in bloom. I continue to think about the idea of paying attention to my blind spots about race. These questions infiltrate my thoughts all day. I took a picture of the footprints on the muddy trail. I am taking a picture each day to represent the concept of looking deeper, asking myself questions, being aware of my own cultural assumptions and biases. An IWWG colleague sent me an e-mail she thought would interest me about talk being offered this week by the Boston Foundation on Green Space, White Space: Racial Equity and Public Places, and I signed up to attend. Then, after my walk, since I brought this into my awareness, I saw an article in The Boston Globe that caught my attention about art in public spaces. I read the article, signed the petition in favor of the removal and replacement of the offending statue, because it so clearly strikes at the issue of blind spots:
“For more than 100 years, the statue of Abraham Lincoln has stood in Park Square in tribute to the president known as the “Great Emancipator.” Lincoln towers over a half-clothed Black slave who is down on one knee, one of the president’s hands extended over the man who has broken shackles on his wrists. On the statue’s pedestal is the inscription: “A race set free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labors.”
As a young Black man growing up in Dorchester, Tory Bullock would recoil every time he walked past the statue. He didn’t see a liberator. He saw a white man standing over a less powerful Black human.”
The blue flag iris still bloom in the brook. I took a delicious nap on the deck and listened to the birds visit the feeder. A breeze blew across the meadow from the river and cooled me in the sun. I finally had the time to read “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” by Ocean Vuyong, which has been on my night table for months.
