archaiccs carvings

at the end of a world, the pebbles sing a song for their smallest sibling.

“Phaedra”

Day 26 - Puzzling

I just got to meet my biological grandmother and her family at 24 after searching for them and trying to meet for years and years. I learned my cousins and aunts all bite their nails like me. They’re short like me, they’ve got teeth and wide faces like mine. They’ve got some of the same internal struggles I do, and even if they suck just as much as I do in managing them I still got to talk about things with people who understood.

I think there’s things ancestry is important for beyond the lineages of royal families. I come from a colonized people. My ancestors survived massacres and centuries of violence. I am proud to be here because it means they survived, in at least some small way, through us now. I think a lot about how scared they were that they wouldn’t.

I did not take that perspective in consideration; I reacted solely from my own perspective. For me, disregarding ancestry is liberating, (although I do love my family a lot), because after being “someone’s” kid, brother, whatever, during much of my upbringing, I get to be my own now. Your perspective on this topic shines a light on a side of this I did not fully understand or was aware about, and, as some people in the messages have rightfully let me know, it’s because I’m privileged to not feel the need to consider it.

You really didn’t need to teach a stranger on the internet a lesson in cultural perspectives and humility, but you did, and I’m thankful. You exposed a blind spot, thank you.