Flying...

Flying is a universal symbol of liberation. Countless fables and myths have been told of those who desired the ability to fly; however, these stories only focus on the individual’s triumph, instead of the tragic aftermath left behind by the hero.

Everyone knows that Icarus was so overwhelmed by the giddiness of flying that he flew too close to the sun and fell from the sky; but, no one stops to think of how broken his father must have been after his death. Did he continue his escape from Crete, or did he plunge into the sea, hopelessly seeking his son and his own death?

In a way, I feel like that's what 爺爺 did when he left them in China. He left his wife and his children behind and escaped. Left them to be persecuted and worked like slaves, starving and publicly slandered every day... but he escaped, didn't he? And then less than two decades later, his own son escaped too. And isn't that what matters in the end- the great triumph? The other players are just minor details, written out of the history.

“ Everybody! He left everybody down on the ground and he sailed on off like a black eagle, ‘O-o-o-o-o-o Solomon done fly, Solomon done gone/Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home!’ ” - "Song of Solomon"; Toni Morrison