Community Spirit
The past is in the past except for when you live here. Where our heritage shapes our lives and we are propelled forward by our faith in each other. Yet, the present arrives all the same and with it a desire to break free. Echoes of the past remain – sensibilities of a bygone age, where you may love who you love, so long as you’re quiet. Where you can be who you want to be as long as you keep yourself to yourself. Where you’re allowed to be different in theory but never in practice. Where saying any of that aloud only isolates you further from an already isolated way of living. Is it any wonder that so many have fled this island in search of acceptance?
Yet time inevitability marches on. As the waves erode our shores, so too do the young erode the shyness of their elders. The desire for a bigger, brighter future begins with a single call into the dark and only with the continued echoing of that call can the light grow brighter. These quiet shores aren’t so quiet any more, as the thundering roar of the true community spirit comes crashing in.
The isolated among the isolated have finally been given a seat at the table, even if that table still has room for expansion. As we build a more inclusive home on this archipelago, we find hope in the notion that someday soon, the past really will be in the past.