I realized the other day when my neck was knotted up and I had a headache creeping up the right side of my temple that I seldom look from side to side. No right head turning, no left head turning as I go about my day, looking straight ahead, focusing on what’s in front of me, like a horse with blinders. I started thinking about that more and more and when I remembered looked to one side or the other when I was biking or walking or sitting at my computer or even working on patients. My neck loosened up a bit. I felt more like doing my short weightlifting routine that has helped reduce my headaches by increasing arm strength. And it just opened up some new ways of leaving my neck knots and headaches behind.
It’s a time of new perspectives and I’ve been reflecting on that a lot lately. How this country is slowly and painstakingly turning from side to side and white people are being asked and forced to stop turning a blind eye and turn instead to worlds we never experience or see. I don’t know what it’s like to be followed in Nordstrom’s shopping because of the color of my skin. Or told I don’t belong in this neighborhood while outside Backs on Burnside waiting for my daughter’s appointment to be over because I am black.
These things happen every day to people of color but we don’t know unless we turn our perspective around, look into the mirror at our own blinders and examine the white world we occupy.
When Black Lives Matter all lives matter.
Gail Karvonen, D.C