It's Complicated
It’s Complicated… by debgrant
It is the toss-off line we use to end conversations or arguments when we have to go or change the subject because it is just too hard. It’s complicated. Can we at least agree on that?
If so, then this is where our work begins.
I read an essay today by Anand Giridharadas in his Substack newsletter. It’s worth reading. I recommend it. There is a line that brought me to tears.
I listen to my tears. They are made of the truth. The line that evoked my tears was “We deny people the dignity of complexity.” When we can no longer tolerate what’s complicated, we cannot tolerate ourselves, loved ones, or strangers.
Yesterday, a man was killed because someone with a gun decided the man’s complexity was intolerable. Yesterday, a teacher lost her job, and others were demoted at a university because the complex issue that she included in her curriculum was intolerable. Today is the anniversary of three airplane hijackings and mass murder because the complexity of national messages was intolerable. I’ve lost jobs, family, and friends because we could no longer dignify our complexity. Today, a history teacher told me that history is often written by the winners because we can’t tolerate the complexity of the loser’s story.
All I beg of you today is that whoever the next person is you encounter, consider there is more to them than you know. That is true about them, and that is true about you. I hope we will grant one another the dignity of complexity.
It’s something.
Peace,
debgrant
Timely and heartfelt
Peace.