Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Belonging

What does it really mean to "belong"? Does it mean that you made the cheerleading squad, or that everyone in school is your friend, or maybe even that you have the new IPhone 5? Everyone interprets "belonging" a different way. I feel like its human nature that we all strive to belong to something, or to some place, or to some one. But why? Why is belonging something that we each so desperately want yet so often struggle to obtain?

The main character in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"  struggles to feel a sense of belonging himself. As a Native American, he is "supposed" to belong to a reservation, be part of a tribe, and contribute to the Native American Lifestyle. However, by doing this, he becomes a minority to the rest of the country. Hoping to be able to belong to the majority, he left the reservation and went to college, got a girlfriend, and a job. Yet, nothing he did made him feel like he belonged. He and his girlfriend constantly argued, eventually leading to a break up. While driving around to blow off steam, he was always profiled for being in the wrong parts of the neighborhood. Even the white guy at the 7-11 was weary of his dark skin and long black hair. Everywhere he went he was viewed as nothing more than an Indian, never as just a human being.

The story really spoke to me in a lot of different ways: I really connected with the main character. At one point in the story the main character says, "I'd drive for hours, searching for something familiar. Seems like id spent my whole life that way, looking for anything i recognized." I can relate to that idea more than I knew I could. The idea that you dont feel like you belong anywhere, you cant quite find your purpose or place so you just search for anything that makes sense to you, anything that can give you hope or remind you of where youve been and where you are now.

The main character also talks about Muhammad Ali. He said that Muhammad knew the power of his fists, but more importantly, he knew the power of his words too. That also struck me as a very powerful sentence. To be strong in the physical sense is a good tool, however to be intellectually strong and brilliant with words is an even better tool. Words, when used correctly, can be the most powerful tool a human has.

Humans are the only species that can do a good handful of things that other species can not. We are constantly growing, changing,  creating, and learning. We have the power of language, words, and communication. We have the ability to decide to what we do and do not belong to. We also have the ability to choose what "belonging" means to each of us as individuals. For me,  striving to belong to someone, something, or somewhere only takes away from my individuality. Yet, as human nature, there will always be something, somewhere, or someone I'll want to belong to.