An analysis of thought

There are moments in life, too many perhaps, when we are forced to pause and confront our own thoughts. It may sound strange, but consider it. Of all the things we think about, how much of it actually has an impact? How much of it do we remember the next day? How much of it do we really say out loud? So many thoughts simply come and go, swift and easy.

I think the best thing about having this blog is that it's been encouraging me to gather my thoughts. Even if hardly anyone reads them and even if no one cares, it's an important exercise for me and that's why I do it. At the risk of sounding like a commercial for an emergency cleaning product, life happens fast. Not everything that happens to us is significant enough to be remembered twenty years from now, but that doesn't necessarily mean we would prefer it that way. Writing them down gives us the option to remember them if we wish.

Tonight, I had the great fortune of seeing the phenomenal Anna Deavere Smith speak at my school. The school I go to is well-known for its emphasis on diversity, among other things, and diversity was the subject of her lecture. Although lecture is hardly the correct word for it - she spent the evening doing monologues from reality, imitating perfectly those whose words she spoke, right down to the accents and mannerisms. Everyone from Studs Terkel to Margaret Mead. It was astonishing to watch, and even more astonishing to think about afterward.

When I got back to my apartment, my roommates and I had a fairly lengthy discussions about gender and sexual orientation stereotypes that made us consider and reconsider our own views. We are, all of us, guilty of automatically placing people into stereotypes, even small ones. But we don't realize it because in our minds, it's normal. We don't question, we don't think.

It's normal to assume that blondes are stupid and redheads are fiery and dynamic. It's normal to assume that gay men love musical theater and lesbians are butch. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Stereotypes are everywhere. I think some of us even stereotype ourselves.

I want to end this very jumbled and possibly pretentious post with a quote from Anna Deavere Smith, who was actually quoting Rabbi Menachim Mendel.

"The only whole heart is one is a broken one."

Why? It's that crack which lets the light in.