The In-Between People: A Story about Adoption, Belonging, and Mermaids by Ali Maaxa

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall tells us that people do not have an identity. We are not born with one in our DNA, just a collection of possibilities. Although we are placed amongst our identities by name, checked boxes on the census, the way we are seen and called, they are simply one cultural or interpersonal or familial story brushed upon another.
We navigate many, conflicting, lifelong processes of identification. We tangle with them, throw them off, work them out. We avoid the traps and seek the ones that make us safe or that set us free. We hunger for what Caribbean theorist Edouard Glissant called a “poetics of relation”: when we connect with the world in a way that makes sense, and that connection resonates within us, we start to belong. Our identities are not static: they are in flux, and require constant seeking and circulation. You and I sought each other out, coast to coast.
In the great experiment, now coming to an end, that was the adoption wave of the 20th century, we never talked about identification, and we took belonging for granted. But identity and belonging are essential. I have always needed to belong to someone. We all want to be imprinted, to be called.

[@kristenrainone3193]

This is beautiful Ali . I am so happy for you. Love you always ❤