“They’re human” lands funny with me
Like a bypass for accountability.
“They’re human” sounds like absolution
When instead it ought to sound like a call to action.
As if someone’s feet of clay,
Someone’s humanity,
excuses what they had to say.
No, I’m not expecting perfection.
I never was.
It’s insulting to be told a teacher is not a god when I never said they were.
And anyway, to what god do you refer?
I’ve never encountered anyone who wasn’t flawed,
In person, in fiction, in faith, or in scripture.
Don’t tell me about feet of clay
As if this declaration will be a revelation.
(Is that what it’s supposed to be?)
I certainly do know they are human.
Of course they’re human.
That’s the point.
My question is not about a person’s infallibility,
But how they own those weighted earthy feet.
Do their words reflect that they understand their culpability?
Their complicity? Their blind spots and imperfections? And where is their humility?
Because my objection is not that they should be perfect despite being human,
But that if they are going to hold the seat of
teacher, leader, guide, or mentor
Then I want to see them walk the walk.
To own that they are a work in progress.
To show that their clay feet have not hardened into stone.
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Beautiful Kait