TONI MORRISON’S BELOVED
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Synopsis:
…The scars on Sethe’s back serve as another testament
to her disfiguring and dehumanizing years as a slave.
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From the beginning,
BELOVED focuses on the import of memory and history.
Sethe struggles daily with the haunting legacy of slavery,
in the form of her threatening memories
and
also in the form of her daughter’s aggressive ghost.
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For Sethe, the present is mostly a struggle
to beat back the past,
because the memories of her daughter’s death
and the experiences at Sweet Home
are too painful for her to recall consciously.
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But Sethe’s repression is problematic,
because the absence of history and memory inhibits
the construction of a stable identity.
Even Sethe’s hard-won freedom is threatened
by her inability to confront her prior life.
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Paul D’s arrival gives Sethe the opportunity and the impetus
to finally come to terms with her painful life history.
Like the ghost, the scars also work as a metaphor
for the way that past tragedies affect us psychologically,
“haunting” or “scarring” us for life.
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More specifically,
the tree shape formed by the scars on her back
might symbolize Sethe’s incomplete family tree.
It could also symbolize the burden of existence itself,
through an allusion to the “tree of knowledge”
from which Adam and Eve ate,
initiating their mortality and suffering.
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Sethe’s “tree” may also offer insight into
the empowering abilities of interpretation.
In the same way that the white men are able to justify
and increase their power over the slaves by “studying”
and interpreting them according to their own whims,
Amy’s interpretation of Sethe’s mass of ugly scars
as a “chokecherry tree”
transforms a story of pain and oppression
into one of
survival.
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In the hands of the right storyteller,
Sethe’s disfiguring scars
become a
poignant and beautiful
symbol
of
GRACE.
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When Paul D kisses
Sethe’s deep and gnarled scars,
he reinforces
this more positive interpretation.
Paul D comes up behind her and pulls down the top of her dress.
He cradles her breasts in his hands while
he kisses each line of her scars.
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Even Sethe’s hard-won freedom
is threatened
by her inability to confront her prior life.
SHAME.
FEAR.
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Paul D’s arrival gives Sethe the opportunity and the impetus
to finally come to terms with her painful life history.
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GRACE
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GRACE #7 Catherine L. Johnson 2017
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This past week has been painful and
one of great courage in “flipping the script”.
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Individuals, protected by institutionalized power systems,
who physically/emotionally violated vulnerable individuals.
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Vulnerable, trusting individuals,
who were perceived by the perpetrators
as powerless and invisible were SOUL violated
and
scarred on multiple levels
by these
institutionally protected/false narrative/masked
perpetrators
of
violence.
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Those MASKED perpetrators are NOW exposed as WHO they really are:
inhumane abusers.
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The individuals,
the victims,
who were perceived as powerless, vulnerable and invisible
by the perpetrator/s
summoned UP
the SOUL courage,
stood up,
TOLD THEIR TRUTH
and
flipped the script.
AT LAST,
THE TRUTH was TOLD,
REAL TRUTH PREVAILED
and
the
GRACE ENERGY of LOVE
broke through the prison of their
SILENCE/SHAME/FEAR.
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FREEDOM
AMAZING GRACE
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There was an echo of a new hymn
of release and freedom
created by the the victims/survivors
who raised their flag of human dignity.
They courageously broke through
the imprisoning LIES
the sick/inhumane perpetrators
inflicted on their life stories.
The victims are now individuals who SURVIVED
and
who can NOW own and create/pilot their own lives one again
because they chose/believed/acted on self- love
over fear and shame.
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This action is inspired by God’s GRACE of self-love,
a self-love that was hijacked when violated,
and
then
silenced by fear and shame.
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Anger is the defense and isolation is the refuge
of those who have been abused.
Individuals who are abused,
suffering with violated SOULS,
become prisoners who CANNOT breathe.
Their SOULS leave their body and fly above
waiting for COURAGE so the TRUTH
– the gospel song of FREEDOM-
can emerge, at last,
and
be told out LOUD!
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This past year we have experienced and witnessed
many events of personal, public and political revolutions.
The personal revolution ignites public and political revolutions.
To go to places that are raw and bleeding are kept in cellars-
these internal stories are not flaws.
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As rene marie sings
Stronger Than you Think You Are
from her Experiments in Truth album
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“…Waiting for a story to be told..
Battle scars mean that we survived…
…Loneliness is nothing but the stranger inside…
…once you know that courage is another word for intuition,
your fears will disappear and your heart will burst out in song…
don’t hide them, be proud of your battle scars…
…you are stronger than you think you are...”
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Humanity is horizontal.
Power structures are vertical.
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Individuals who have been scarred
– visibly/invisibly-
by abuse,
betrayal of trust and/or disrespect
are imprinted with a defensive
and a heightened/SENSITIVE
circuity of neural pathways
that keeps them prisoner-
fearing any actions that may reveal vulnerability,
that “smells” of repeated abuse,
betrayal of trust and disrespect.
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The shame of being victims of abuse holds individuals captive
and their perpetrators KNOW their victim’s bind with a wink.
UNTIL the victims see their LIVES as worthy/VALUABLE/irreplacable they remain hostage.
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Once the abused individuals are awakened
and, in turn,
can TELL THEIR TRUTH with integrity,
their WINGS unfold
and the
profound hymn of FREEDOM vibrates/radiates/SINGS.
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The fear of breaking the silence seems insurmountable.
Yet,
one is stronger than one thinks they are,
naming the the truth
and
confronting and experiencing
the anger/grief toward the abusers*
(*abusive individuals within any conventional institution
– marriage/family/university/corporation
– are upheld within these systems and protect by their false narratives)
of the violence,
the legacy of the scars
and
those who were complicit-
(those who watched and lacked the guts and moral courage to STOP the abuse)
is the
terrifying
and
exhilarating and terrifying
VOYAGE OF FREEDOM!
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And,
the voyage ends the cycle of abuse,
the learned conditioning of communications,
expectations
and
vision of their life.
No longer running away,
numbing,
burying,
hiding,
rationalizing
but
MOVING FORWARD
in
TRIUMPH!
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The internal work has been accomplished.
A HERO/INES’s JOURNEY.
LIVING the sincere LOVE/GRACE
of the
SERENITY PRAYER.
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A NEW life of dignity and integrity
unfolds with wider RADICAL HOPE
possibilities
and FAITH in
sheer BEAUTY.
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Reclamation
of one’s human dignity;
INTEGRITY;
sovereign GRACE;
and
the INTRINSIC,
irreplaceable,
touchstone value
of
LIVING LIFE
– fully breathing –
with
WONDER + AWE.
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R/EVOLUTION
AMAZING GRACE
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Confronting and stepping up to truth,
no matter how ugly or searingly painful,
creates a template for others
which is the gospel song
of
BEAUTIFUL HUMANITY
and
GRACE.
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And,
telling one’s truth
IS the release to
LIVE LOVE,
and
to have the capacity
to
offer and welcome
the
JOYS
of personal intimacy
-an intimacy of love and touch
that heals broken hearts
with its kind light,
compassion
and
tenderness.
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Love listens
without judgement
nor
invokes rejection
nor
incites fear of abandonment.
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Love asks questions as invitations to behold.
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Love listens/Listens love
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Love IS an energy
that does NOT stare in revulsion at scars
-which will gash opens the wounds of a beloved.
Love is an offer of consistent presence
that softly provokes,
calls forth,
their naming of a life,
release of abuse
and
moving forward with self-love,
self-worth
and
knowing you can change the world
by
telling YOUR/one’s truth.
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Tenderly provoking/calling OUT the truth of your beloved.
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A loving provocateur
agitates the telling of the truth of their beloved,
which, slowly and suddenly,
tumbles the walls of Jericho,
by challenging
the GENUINE claims of the perpetrator’s “truth”
-the fortressed secrets of conventional “institutional truths”
that has kept the beloved hostage.
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Tenderly calling OUT
the secret/buried/suppressed truth
of the beloved
is
authentic love’s clarion.
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Healing IS relational.
HEALING = GRACE ENERGY.
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A loving provocateur does NOT humiliate the beloved
who has been held hostage
in a prison of fear and shame
– who NOW believes they are NOT worthy or valuable
because of the protected perpetrator’s
abuse/the actions
of terrorizing the beloved’s soul’s violation
into
silence.
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A provocateur
who is tender + wise + loving
calls OUT
the
good wolf
of
INTERNAL faith + RADICAL hope + Sentient DIVINING rod of KNOWING
to battle
the
evil wolf
of self-doubt + vampire relations that insert their clinging claws
+ anything/anyone who attempts to c/overtly to steal SOULS.
CHOICE +
PRACTICE +
RESOLVE
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Call and response.
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This song of
GRACE
is a sacred loving dynamic
that opens
the hearts
and
awakens the full senses
of both
in an intimate, precious, reverent dialogue
and
celebrates
the inspiring gift of authentic care,
yielding a river
of true blue
candelabras
of
healing
waters
to
drink
from.
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Catherine L. Johnson
Written on 14 November 2011.
Revisited on 26 July 2017.
Revisited on 3 May 2018.
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GRACE
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AMAZING GRACE
RADICAL HOPE
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“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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Pine Tree: HOPE Catherine L. Johnson 2005
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK ON LINK BELOW
36″ H x 28″ W x 2.5″ D
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 