Day 4
One of my favorite podcasts is called Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. I grew up on Harry Potter. I have the warmest memories of hiding behind my babysitter’s couch reading those books. I began reading them as a way of connecting with my older cousin. But I kept reading them because, really, what other choice did I have? But I digress. For each episode of this podcast, the two hosts read a single chapter of the series with a particular theme in mind. The first chapter of the series, entitled “The Boy Who Lived” is read through the lens of “commitment.” Throughout the episode, they explore what each of the characters feel deeply committed to. And, by the end, I found myself experiencing compassion for characters that I had grown to despise (I’m looking at you, Vernon and Petunia). There is something really enchanting and vulnerable about knowing not only what another person is deeply committed to, but why.
A few years ago, when I finally had gotten my artistic sea legs here in St. Louis, I put together a photography project featuring people of color, and asking them to reflect on the ideas of Patriotism and Freedom. I had never thought critically about what it meant to be patriotic. I just knew that I recited the Pledge of Allegiance during school and the National Anthem when my family went to college football games. There wasn’t an ounce of skepticism in my body about these acts of patriotism, until I moved to St. Louis.
Merriam-Webster defines patriotism as “love for or devotion to one’s country.” I don’t think that I ever felt a sense of patriotism on a visceral level. The movements were memorized, rote - I just did it because I was told. Hand over heart. Recite these words. Move on. I’m still unsure about how I feel about the word to be honest, or where I think I fall when it comes to patriotism. Do I love this country in that I feel it is my responsibility to question her, to challenge her, to critique her? Is that love? Or am I apathetic? Are the lines of “this country” too arbitrary and too exclusionary for me to feel any sense of devotion to this place? I really don’t know. But I am curious about people who do. Who are filled to the brim with patriotism or who are staunchly opposed to it.
A Practice for Today:
Tell the story of your relationship to whatever country you consider your own. Do you feel committed to it? Devoted? Loving? How has that relationship evolved over time, if at all? And who, or what, influenced that evolution?
How would you characterize the people in your life that consider themselves patriotic? What are they committed to? How would you characterize the people in your life who reject patriotism? What are they committed to?
