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Commentary: Seeking Comfort, and Finding Understanding, in a Concrete Jungle [1]
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Date: 2024-09-19
This story first appeared in the West Virginia Gazette-Mail and was submitted for republication in the Daily Yonder by its author.
As I packed last week for a short trip to New York City to visit my husband who (unfortunately, to my way of thinking) finds himself planted in that (again, to my way of thinking) most unsettling “concrete jungle,” I popped into Taylor Books to make certain that I had a sufficient stack of reading material to not only entertain me but enrich and enlighten.
One of my selections, feeld by Jos Charles, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a winner of the National Poetry Series. I was not familiar with the poet’s work, but was intrinsically drawn to its cover design – a sketch of a bird’s nest. I did not read the work’s inside summary. But I knew that time spent in New York City would lead me to packing a light snack, a bottle of water, and a book of poetry in my tote, as I sought respite in Central Park.
Finding a spot that ensured as much comfort as possible, I drew Charles’s work from my bag and began. What, as a humanist, surprised me was my reaction to the summary, to the opening poem, and to the poet’s biographical information on the inside back cover. I closed the book and considered leaving it on the park bench for someone to discover. I was alarmed at the immediacy of my decision to so quickly dismiss the work. Why would I do that, simply because I did not want to accept the challenge to excavate the work’s multi-layered meanings, which are presented in Chaucer’s fourteenth-century English? Another reason that I used to justify my decision was the discovery that the poet is a trans. And then, a veil of shame fell softly over me, and I looked around to see if anyone else saw it too.
No, I don’t understand fourteenth-century Chaucerian English. And no, I don’t understand trans individuals. But if I’m to promote the understanding of humanity, I must make an attempt to understand all of humanity in its most simple and complex underpinnings. I quickly realized too that what I had done (i.e., the rapid dismissal of something/someone foreign to my own way of thinking and being) mimicked what those throughout our country – throughout our world – have come to not only allow but embrace and manipulate into a tsunami of continual destruction. It cuts against my world vision to, at the very least, make a conscious effort to understand and, to a great degree, to accept. Whether we embrace our differences or not is a totally different matter. But, we most certainly are called to listen, learn, consider, and accept that each of us is so very different and yet so very much alike. That’s the core of humanity. If we only accept “sameness” we have lost the battle before it even rises to a war. And so I opened feeld and began anew, accepting the challenge and welcoming a fresh understanding. And so, as the day drew on, I thanked a green space that, while so very different from my own rural home, had gifted more than I could have ever imagined.
Kathleen M. Jacobs holds an M. A. in Humanistic Studies. She divides her time between New York City and Appalachia.
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