Lambeth – E367: Writing and Diversity

Class, Fri, 9/06

Lambeth and Pratt

In groups

Asymmetry is a keyword for both Lambeth and Pratt. Please spend a few minutes thinking and talking about how their uses of this term/concept align and how they differ.

Contact Zones, and their Arts

Fastwrite

According to Pratt, what distinguishes a contact zone from other social spaces? And what distinguishes its “arts” from other those of other social spaces?

Groups, Responses, and Comments

To Do

Mon, 9/09, class: Please read Arlie Hochschild’s “Empathy Maps”. I’m interested in thinking about her work in relation to Pratt’s, especially since where Pratt talks about “contact zones”, Hochschild talks about “empathy zones”. What’s at stake in this difference? Or might “empathy” and “mapping” somehow also be considered “arts of the contact zone”?
Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Mellix’s “Outside, In”.
Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.
Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Lu.

An object near and dear to my heart happens to be a tattered keepsake chest that I was given as a child. I’ve had it in all of my bedrooms since I can remember. When I first moved from the city to the suburbs I was only three years old and barely remember the transition. But as I got older the chest became the thing that stored my baby blankets, my favorite shirts, (to hide from my sister), and anything that I just didn’t want to share. It was the most personal thing to me. It was the most tangible constant. Through the years I’ve moved about three times, not included a shift from one bedroom in my current house to a larger bedroom.

The old damaged chest has always felt like a necessity. I find that Lambeth’s mindset of beauty within asymmetry or understanding “everything that persists is whole” is incredibly honest and accurately explained. It is also relatable in terms of bond, connection and values. Japanese philosophy known as Wabi Sabi “considers that fallen leaves carry more meaning than those still on the tree” which is why my chest could never be replaced in any way other than a practical sense. It is a reminder that even imperfect things have purpose.

Wabi Sabi as it applies to my life

It’s a simple example, however in all aspects of my life I like to keep a balance of organization and disorganization. My room, for example, will probably appear as a disorganized mess to the outsider looking in, however I like to live life by the moto, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Just because there is a lot of stuff (everything I own in one small box I call a bedroom) it is cluttered, but it remains organized. My backpack is another good example of this. All of the books are organized by size and everything has a specific place for itself, but once you open up the notebooks it is difficult for the outsider to sort through and understand all the scribbled notes.

I enjoyed the insertion of “wabi sabi” in the article because I had not heard of it before. I enjoy the concept because it “insists upon asymmetry and imperfection,” as Lambeth stated in her article. I consider many things throughout my daily life to have a bit of wabi sabi in them.

Wholeness

Hanging on the wall above my bed one will find a few different frames. All of them are different shapes and sizes. All of them contain a different memory. Though I love each photo encased within the frames, a pleasant memory frozen in time, one remains special in my heart. It sits in a square, white frame. The background is a white cloth. Woven into the cloth is a black cat. My older sister embroidered this piece for me before I left for my freshman college. She made it when she first began learning to embroider so it is not perfect, but I love it. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of my sister and how hard she tries to make me happy.

When Lambeth asks, “What is wholeness?” I am reminded of that little, uneven black cat on my wall. I feel whole when I think about my family and how much they have done for me, even if their attempts are not always perfect.

Imperfections

I remember when I was little, my older sister broke her arm. She had to get a cast and I thought it was the coolest thing. My childhood ignorance prevented me from seeing the pain that she had to go through in order to get the cast. I was just jealous of all the attention she got from it; everyone wanted to sign it. I even went so far as to cut one of the sleeves off one of my shirts to mimic a cast. My mom wasn’t too pleased about that. I found my older sister’s broken arm fascinating, even though it was an imperfection.

“…The grace and balance found in asymmetry,” that Lambeth talks about in her article can be found in everyday life. Some imperfections are more obvious, like a broken bone. Other imperfections are less obvious, like a freckle on your right arm, but not your left. Sometimes you can even seem the imperfections, or asymmetry, like the fact that our left lung is slightly smaller than our right to make room for our hearts. Imperfections are a necessity in life.

Lambeth and Egg

One object that holds a lot of beauty if an egg. This egg has been painted on with flowers and other things and it came from my Nanny’s (grandma’s) house. That was the last thing I took of my Nanny’s to remember her by when she passed. I had always seen it in the house, and it was going to be left on the entertainment center when we were moving all of her things out of the house. While the egg might not be painted perfectly and it might have a chip or two, I feel the strongest connection to it. It didn’t have to be perfect because it is merely a token that I keep to remember her by.

I feel that my egg can relate to Lambeth’s story because just as her story involves beauty in asymmetry and imperfection, mine does too. The one line that struck me from the text was the line “there is beauty in this change, the grace and balance found in asymmetry” (Lambeth, Three-Legged Dog). The egg I had might not have been in perfect condition, I still find the beauty in what it represents.

Memory of Asymmetry/Success

A memory that holds beauty for me would be a memory of losing my dreams right at the tips of my fingers. I trace back to Junior year of highschool when the young immature version of me didn’t care much about school and only cared about hanging out. My younger self here lost my scholarship to play lacrosse at Ohio State University because of my inability to focus on the things that would get me emitted into the University. This holds a strong place in my heart because of the toughness it brought to my life, although it was a tough time I was able to learn a lot about myself, my real friends, and my family. In the end I was able to bounce back and that is how I am here today playing lacrosse UD.

I can relate my thoughts to Lambeths because of her connection to her dog. Although on my hand my connection was my passion for lacrosse and when I was able to be reunited with my scholarship to play here at UD I found a similar feelings as she states, “Now she’ll be whole again, reunited with her other leg,”. Although I was reunited with my passion/dream of playing lacrosse in college. The connection of reaching my goal was real and furthermore an ultimate accomplishment of mine.

Friendly Reality Check: We’re All Human

Something that I picked up fairly recently in my life is writing in a notebook, something that contains my late night venting sessions, my college to do lists, and my anxious thoughts that play on a constant loop in my head. Everyone who has a notebook or journal understands that they are in no way, shape, or form, perfect. My notebook has scribbles where I’ve misspelled words, I’ve got arrows all over the pages where I’ve tried to connect my thoughts, I have random lists in between heartfelt journal entries, and sometimes I’m writing so fast that my handwriting changes completely. It’s messy and sometimes unorganized but I find beauty in the way that I let my thoughts take over the pages. If anything, I think it shows how human I truly am.

Reading Lambeth’s piece was really eye opening in the sense that it made me realize certain things about society as a whole and even myself. When Lambeth states that, “all creatures that persist are whole”, it actually kind of took me by surprise and made me smile. It’s easy for people to feel broken and messy and incomplete for the flaws that they have or the way that they are. Realizing and coming to terms with the fact that we are human and imperfect is surprisingly really reassuring and calming. If you keep going and don’t look back, you’re on the right track. We’re all whole – no matter the disability, mental illness, trauma, or backstories that might have shaped us into who we are today. Society likes to make us feel as though we need to be searching for more and as though we should feel broken for what has happened to us, but Lambeth reassures us that not a single one of us is “incomplete”.

In Response to Asymmetry and the Power of Threes

I have always noticed the pattern of threes in my life and how it’s perfectly concise and perfectly contained. When listing something off, two seems too little and four seems to far, but three is just right. When I was younger, I saw odd numbers as a group of couples and one lonely number, but now I see them as something not as wasteful. Not everything has to be whole and even, or you can create your own sense of wholeness— As Lambeth says, “A kind of wholeness through asymmetry and time, the tension between impermanence and ongoingness.”

Since the beginning of high school, I have had a friend group composed of three core members that have never shifted or wavered or left since that year. However, we have had more joined a by one other friend—they have always shifted. They seem to leave every few years—changing or leaving. But, we three never leave. We are balanced and ongoing–no matter who decides to join us and who decides to leave us.

Imperfect Perfection

One of my favorite things to do is surfing. Since I was a little kid, I have surfed the beaches of Long Beach, New York. As I have grown up, I have purchased, sold, and broken countless surfboards, but there is one in particular I will never let go. This board is my asymmetrical surfboard from Varial Surf and it is my favorite surfboard in my quiver. Asymmetry is uncommon for surfboards, which are usually symmetrical. Even though it is asymmetrical, it has created some of the best rides and experiences of my life. The feel of the board is different, it rides down the line differently, and the turns are unusual.

When reading Lambeth’s article, I truly felt the connection that she and her dog had together. In addition, the article was a beautiful story of how two beings can connect and be foundations for each other, which I realized was in a way similar to me and my surfboard. During reading Lambeth’s article, there were many moments where my thoughts related to her writing. Specifically, when she is talking about her and her dog’s reflections in the mirror, and she says, “I soon came to simply trust and love what I saw in the glass: persistence, trust, grace.” This quote was exactly the mindset Ms. Lambeth should have had the entire time because that is what truly described the relationship between her and her dog.

Tag: Lambeth