In many Asian cultures, people (most commonly women, in our experience) wear these jade bangles — and generally, never take them off. They're said to bring good luck and protect their wearer. The jade is said to develop a deeper, richer colour after years on one's (usually non-dominant) wrist. If it breaks, it's done its job to protect you. You can attach clasps to the pieces if you'd like to wear it again.
We're... a little conflicted on this tradition.
On one hand (pun intended) it would help us connect to our heritage — though we don't always feel Asian enough to do so in the first place. The simple-yet-elegant bracelets pair well with most outfits. Jade is very hard and therefore durable. It doesn't set off metal detectors, either.
But there's these deep connotations of family and eternity that — as an abused traumagenic system — make us feel... kind of weird.
More often than not, bangles are a gift from your parents — sometimes even family heirlooms passed on for generations. Not only would wearing one be a lifelong commitment (which not everyone in our system will be able to tolerate), it would be a constant reminder of our family and how they've hurt us.
We'll come of age soon. We are plural in such a way that we've never known permanence. If or when our parents gave us one, would it feel like a gift or a shackle? Could we buy one for ourselves instead? To mark how we belong to ourselves-- to our system?
In this drawing, the clasp represents the Anglosphere side of us: the focus on individualism and development; our desire for freedom. It features our own doodles as carvings. In contrast, the jade part represents our Asian side and the cultural norms attached. Loyalty and tradition, usually associated with family, have been recontextualised to fit systemhood instead.
Something broken has now been repaired. You can clearly see how it's been fixed; the creativity of visible mending. Yes, the bracelet could've been replaced — or repaired in a way where no one could tell it was broken in the first place — but isn't it nice to know that beauty can come from the damaged? That you can emerge from the muck you grew in and bloom?
And sure, the bracelet's not permanent anymore, but... maybe that's for the better. Maybe it means we get to choose who we want to be.
The green circle is a reference to how the green circle in the plural rings represents adaptive systems. The symbol (according to Wikitionary) has not one meaning, but multiple. All reflect how we see ourselves: strange but wonderful, like a rare and precious gem.
Finally, the phrase "Are there words for what we are" refers to how few Asian systems we've seen and us wondering if there are plural terms in our second language.
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