Tag: Struggle

We really don’t like reality. We’re too busy scrubbing our image to understand how vital the scars may be in our story.

While I am so glad South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the capital grounds, I am not in favor of removing all flags everywhere. I am not in favor of renaming every building that has some slave owner’s name on it.

We have scars. Deep scars.

Now, Monroeville, AL is full of angst because of the release of Go Set a Watchman. We just want to have a perfect picture of things, and Harper Lee has gone and messed up an image. What would Gregory Peck say? Goodness!

We have scars. Deep scars.

And there are times when those scars need to be looked at and talked about. It is the way forward in healing.

But we don’t want that in our current climate. We want things scrubbed and removed.

I don’t like that people fly the Confederate flag, but if they choose to do so, I get to say, “Fly it proud and look like an idiot!” (Free speech and all.)

Scars teach us. They NEED to teach us. We need to have the curiosity of a school kid that is unafraid to ask… and touch… and learn.

But we’re like a bunch of teens who discovered their first zit and have cleared out the acne medicine aisle in Walgreens. We’re screaming because we discovered a flaw!

Wayne Flynt, the Alabama state historian, made this comment about the impact of Lee’s new book:

The new book, he predicted, will ultimately transcend its racial implications and be seen as a study in how young children view their parents as perfect and then, between the ages of 13 and 30, see them as deeply flawed.

We just grow up. We learn. We talk about the scars.