My family and I recently returned from Colorado, where we hiked, horsebacked and lolly-gagged our way through the mountains. On one of our adventures we came upon a field of these lovely beings, named with the Latin word for dove, Columba.
Neither this image nor the nearly universal symbol of peace comes to mind when I hear “Columbine”. Like most Americans of my generation, instead of a mountain flower, I think of a mass school shooting. Over twenty years ago, on April 20, 1999, our nation was rocked with the first bloody outcry of it’s kind, of a young white population begging for connection and belonging, begging to be truly seen. Two decades later the isolation and separation felt by those two Columbine youth is as rampant as ever, as are mass shootings.
Absolutely we need to address gun control, divisive language and the roots of white supremacy. We need to dialogue, call our representatives and march in the streets. But just as importantly, we also need to sit quietly and examine our personal responsibility in creating and participating in the current culture of our nation.
How are we, as individuals in the greater web, creating spaces of inclusion?
How are we using language of connection?
Where may we unwittingly be using language of separation and difference?
How are we inviting others to eat at our table?
How are we unconsciously telling others to keep out?
How are we cajoling our sons and daughters to speak to what hurts and desires to be seen?
How are we cajoling ourselves?
How are we supporting ourselves, both alone and in community ?
Where and how are we creating feelings of belonging?
Are our feelings of connection created with acts of inclusion or exclusion?
What are the rippling effects?
My dream is that sooner than later the Columbine flower be a national symbol of peace, belonging and the coming together of our nation to address the undercurrent of desperation felt by so many.