Shortly before George Floyd’s death, and since, in the way that these things happen sometimes, I’ve encountered so many references to breathing and the breath that I can’t help but notice. My own thoughts have been ping-ponging all over the place regarding this most essential and basic physical experience and human right. The right to breathe. Unobstructed.
I want to share some of this raw material below. I’m still trying to metabolize all of this.
*George Floyd’s brutal death and his literally saying, “I can’t breathe,” a chilling echo of Eric Garner saying the same words before his own brutal death, and of Ethan Saylor’s brutal death, also a result of being asphyxiated, in this case, by security guards.
*Coronavirus, which takes root in the respiratory system, making breathing difficult or impossible in some of its hosts.
*I’m holding my breath, hoping that we learn how to do things differently.
*When inhaled, tear gas can inflame the lining of the lungs and upper respiratory tract. Apparently, it can make it hard to catch your breath.
*The Christian liturgical season of Pentecost begins on a different day every year, because the liturgical calendar is not completely congruent with our Gregorian calendar. But Pentecost always starts fifty days after Easter Sunday. This year, it also started six days after George Floyd’s death. Symbols associated with Pentecost include fire, the dove, and wind, considered the breath of God, which, during the first Pentecost surrounded the apostles to fortify them in their faith.
*An NPR interview with James Nestor, who has written a book called Breath, released on May 26. Apparently, people no longer breathe correctly (although we used to). Nestor studied ancient skulls and researched various ancient breathing practices to help us relearn what we've lost. I read his previous book, Deep, which was about, among other things, freediving and the techniques freedivers use to expand their lung capacity.
*A paraphrase of a friend's comment: Earth got a chance to catch her breath and start to recover from our endless assaults. And now: Are we just starting everything up again?
*"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."—Arundhati Roy
*"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen….With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness—and our ability to tell our own stories."—Arundhati Roy
*An excerpt from a Judyth Hill poem written after 9/11:
Wage Peace
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.