Give us something to judge

Redwoods; Marin County

Ezra Klein recently interviewed the brilliant author Zadie Smith for the New York Times. You can read/listen to the whole thing here, but Smith likens us to amorphous selves who, in our current age, are pressured to solidify into finite identities such as “protesters, activists, marchers, voters, firebrands, impeachers, lobbyists, soldiers, champions, defenders, historians, experts, critics.”¹

I envy little kids because they live in such a wonderful state of innocence. We allow them the freedom to be amorphous. To be ambiguous, complex, and contradictory.

But soon, the world asks them to pick a side. To move from being a constantly shifting, complex, learning, growing soul into a solid and static identity.

Give us something to judge, kid.
Give us a label to put on you.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-zadie-smith.html