Tina Lu, The Family We Are:
Things are different now. We are living in an age of radical disruption. The unthinkable happens on a daily basis, it seems, existential threats so pervasive we can only brace ourselves for the next blow. (…) But I have also been thinking about another way to make meaning, how to attempt, in the magical alchemy of teaching and learning, to turn loss into some form of remembrance. (…)
It got me thinking of my own teachers’ teachers, my “grandteachers,” if you will: a Belgian poststructuralist, a Manchu prince, a Canadian Miltonist, a Jewish philologist who fled the Nazis, a brilliant commentator who had his home ransacked during the Cultural Revolution, and so many, many more. Of course, I recognize that some of the grandteachers whose impact is the deepest have been forgotten: Who taught my quietly radical Arkansan high school history teacher? Who were the language teachers who taught my many language teachers? I invite you to partake in this exercise, which I have found comforting. It doesn’t take much to realize that each of us, in and of ourselves, is a big tent already, housing all sorts of disagreement but also conversation.
Each of us is a conglomeration of teachings passed down by teachers, teachings that we ourselves have the privilege of passing down. That’s the true family that we are.