Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Removing reminders of painful experiences is something that works remarkably well in day-to-day life. Pictures of ex-partners, messages from people we fell out with, that report that went wrong at work — once it’s gone, it’s much easier to get on with our normal lives and erase it from our memories.

But what happens when the difficult issues are the most important issues? Erasing day-to-day woes from our lives and erasing important issues from our lives are two very different things. Perhaps sometimes it is more important to keep mindful reminders of those experiences rather than to completely forget what took place, however difficult that might be.

Over the last two years, debate has swirled about cancel culture, including the issues surrounding American founding fathers who were slave traders and owners. And rightly so. The dialogue surrounding these issues has been necessary, long overdue and a poignant privilege check. It’s so easy to walk past a statue and not consider the foundations which empires were built on, nor the indefensible price paid for them.

But it’s even easier to walk past no reminder at all.

The solutions offered to this situation are often binary: Statue or no statue. Keep name or change name. Good or bad. But in reality, there are many more options available which would enable us to remember, mindfully, both the history and the pain.

After all, we know from bitter experience that history has a habit of repeating itself. We recover from the shock of war only to charge back into battle. We move on from the realization that we may have targeted one community, only to later succumb to our biases about another. To simply erase all reminders of a painful event poses the stark threat of enabling some form of its repetition.

Determining the fate of issues such as statues of George Washington has sparked much debate, but it has also been some of the healthiest conversation surrounding them. Their presence in the national and international spotlight ensures that they are on the forefront of public thought, raising awareness of the issues and contributing the prevention of their repetition.

Keeping an element of this discomfort may be where the optimal solution lies in many cases. Rather than discard a statue, build one beside it which commemorates those who suffered as well. Rather than discard a name dedication, add a dedication for the victims too. And while it’s true that not case can be solved in this way, where possible, let us try to mindfully remember the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them.