Perpetual Light

        The poem or essay "More Right" in Aguon's The Properties of Perpetual Light lingered with me after

 reading. Aguon talks about how his Aunt told them as children that a beach was made up of stars, and that

 it is easier for people from Guam to believe in magic than it is for other people. At the end of the essay,

 Aguon says that his Aunt's white, Australian husband attempted to burst their bubble by providing them

 with the scientific "facts" behind the stars on the beach. Aguon says, "He was right, of course, but my

 aunt was more right," (27). The Western world typically has one way of viewing things, and it is that way

 or the highway. The world-- especially the natural world-- is not as black and white, or concrete in

 explanations and solutions. This lack of creativity, belief, and imagination that is so prevalent in the West

 limits our thinking and the possibilities for liberation. 

        Aguon says, "eyes wide with wonder is a perfectly good definition of magic. Because magic could

 just as easily mean stargazing, in the midday sun, while looking down," (27). His aunt and her husband's

 explanations are not mutually exclusive, either. We know that we, and everything else on earth, are all

 made up of particles from stars, so we are not that far removed from them. The sand being the remains of

 a "living creature" and a star are not incompatible explanations. If we in the West learn to view the world

 with just a little bit of this magic, we might value the natural environment and those inhabiting the earth

 more. 

        Liberation will not be achieved if we maintain a colonialist state-of-mind; Aguon and Adichie both

 speak to this. We are called to challenge mainstream, or traditional, ideas that contribute to the oppression

 of people, land, and animals. We have the power and duty to shift popular thought, as well as the

 responsibility to raise our children in a way that they will carry on what we have started. 

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