The day after a particularly violent public event I was asking myself, how are we ever going to come together again as a country?
I was solemnly driving my young kids to school. We were listening to our usual soundtrack: K-pop Demon Hunters. My three-year-old in the backseat was belting out every 10th word, as best he could. The song he was singing comes on at the climax of the movie, it’s called: “What it sounds like.”
The film’s message is about accepting oneself and forgiving others’ shortcomings. It’s about a girl band with their songs that defeats the boy band with their masqueraded negative vibes, vices, and self-doubt.
The film’s heroes aren’t simply all good or all bad. They learn that harmony in our lives and in society comes from accepting all the flaws in ourselves and each other and coming together to create a beautiful song.
Now, in this moment when everything is politicized, it is hard to talk and compromise and move forward, let alone harmonize.
But it is time to shut out the false, one-dimensional, polarizing narratives. We must look deeply to change how we see ourselves and each other.
I echo song lyrics:
“we're shattering the silence/ we're rising, defiant/ shouting in the quiet, "you're not alone"/ we listened to the demons/ we let them get between us/ but none of us are out here on our own“
When I can’t find my voice or remember how to forgive, I just look to my kids who argue and insult in one moment, then forgive and forget in the next.
The song continues:
“Show me what's underneath, I'll find your harmony
The song we couldn't write, this is what it sounds like”
What do we look like underneath our own myopic narratives?
What would it sound like – the song that we can’t write without acceptance and forgiveness?
It might sound like children playing or a patching up a broken relationship or bipartisan legislation.
What might you hear?
I’m Kelli McGee Yugsi and that’s my perspective.
