In the midst of our reading, discussion and reactions to Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic poems, we or at least I was struck by the intensity of grief, horror and fruitless repetitiveness of war and violence, each person playing out their roles, their identities: soldier, victim, resister, parent, child, man, woman.
Feeling much, I was reminded of this beautiful video of Andrew Solomon about the formation of identity and the ways we have of "othering" people. He describes the personal, family and social/cultural responses to "difference", people who are different in some way. It's powerful, fascinating and deeply moving. He discusses his book "Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity" It's about an hour long, and the first 8 minutes or so of introductory stuff seemed skippable to me.
Here's his wiki entry, for more information on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Solomon
There's another powerful video that speaks more directly to the impact of war on individuals, one of the Oscar-nominated short films for this year. About 30 min long, it's a remarkable example of the power of people who embody Martin Luther King's "Beloved Community".
"Stranger at the Gate": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbbl1S6foM
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