Monday Notes: Words as Lifelines: BIPOC Adoptee Voices for Gaza

Inspiring Image #163: Commodity (Sain... Inspiring Image #164: Paradox

Monday Notes: Words as Lifelines: BIPOC Adoptee Voices for Gaza

A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a read-a-thon called, “Words as Lifelines” to raise funds for three families in Gaza. I agreed and will be reading alongside Nicole Chung and Matthew Salesses on Sunday, August 31st.

What I am asking of you:

I hope that you will do two things: (1) register for the event, which includes donating at least five dollars, and (2) attend on August 31st at 3PM (PST) / 5PM (CST) / 6 PM (EST).

I wrote something new called “Displaced,” which shows the similarities of being displaced as an adoptee to being displaced as a Palestinian who was forced out of their homeland. What follows is the beginning of my 1700-word essay.

DISPLACED

When I was a five-month-old baby, my mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, left me in our apartment. I’ve read the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services report so much that I don’t need to review it to share what I’m reading today. I’ve spent decades reconfiguring the circumstances that led to her decision. I attribute her actions to a mental illness that allowed her to leave me for five-to-seven days unattended. But when I ponder the details, time slows. I imagine myself as a hungry five-month-old baby, my diaper heavy with urine and feces. I envision myself crying, the universal signal for a mother to pick up her child. I see my cry decrease to a whimper, my whimper slow to a stop, my tears crystallize on my pallid cheeks as I realize no one is coming. Well, not my mother. I was five pounds when the janitor of the building called the police, who took me to the appropriate social service agency, who placed me in foster care. A baby born to a mother who is schizophrenic is presumably unsafe. A baby left in an apartment is, indeed, a dangerous event. However, this is my origin story, which my body stored as a somatic core memory of displacement.

Displacement: the enforced departure of people from their homes, typically because of war, persecution, or natural disaster.1

The internet provides facts about Palestinian displacement. But facts are not enough. Oftentimes, the truth of war is blurred by those who control the dominant narrative. Who is in danger and who is dangerous lingers in between the smoke of bombs. They’ve said, history is written by the victors, but today I seek answers focused on those who lost: the oppressed, the persecuted, the silenced. It is not enough to know about the UN’s Partition Plan or the Arabs’ rejection of it.2 People are not bullet points on a timeline. Government sanctions come with deleterious effects. And the past will always be inextricably linked to the present. So, I watch a documentary to absorb the Palestinians’ perspective, and I listen intently to people who lived through Al Nakba—the Arabic word for catastrophe. Here is what I heard.

It was 1948. The Arabs knew something was coming but were unaware of the magnitude. Their ancestors had peacefully lived on their land for centuries. While the world discussed Judaism and the Land of Israel over cups of coffee, Christians, Jews, and Muslims cohabited in common areas, like markets. Peace existed. In my imagination, weekends bustled; people passed one another, with knowledge of, but without serious thought to religious affiliation or conflict.3

Hebrew and Arabic intermingled in third spaces. The Arabs were unaware, and thus, confused when pride and power swelled within their neighbors’ chests as word spread that this was now their God-given land, the land where hands had exchanged pounds and lira for olive oil and herbs weeks prior. An elder Arab in the documentary explains the lack of understanding: “The Jewish conflict” he says, “is a European conflict.” He describes his lived memory of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War: “There is no Jewish conflict in Arab history. They brought the conflict over here.”4

I hope that you will register and attend to hear the rest. Sending peace and love to everyone as we continue to traverse these unprecedented times.

REGISTER HERE Monday Notes: Words as Lifelines: BIPOC Adoptee Voices for Gaza Inspiring Image #163: Commodity (Saint Lucia)Sunday Shorts: The Beach Lecturer Inspiring Image #162: Learning (Saint Lucia)Monday Notes: When AI Takes Control, Don’t Blame the “Tech Bros.” Blame Ourselves.“Displacement,” Oxford languages.