Letter From the Editor: The Circus of Life

Illustration by Dana Binfet

Do you know how the Ringling Brothers Circus used to train elephants?

I didn’t, until about a week ago. For the first six months of their lives, baby elephants would be restrained with steel chains and forced to stand on concrete floors for up to 23 hours a day. After months of attempting to escape these tethers to no avail, the elephants would give up and assume they would forever be restrained. As they reached adulthood, much weaker tethers were put in place; however, the elephants did not attempt to break free from them because of the traumatic failures they ensued when trying to escape previously.

Does this resonate with anybody else right now?

With time feeling frozen and the future feeling so uncertain due to coronavirus, it is no surprise that many friends and family I have spoken with are ruminating on the past more than usual. Memories of trauma, weakness, and hopelessness tend to move to the forefront during periods of distress, causing us to hone in on the scars we received when we felt chained to the concrete floors of our own psyches.

Some people have newly-healing wounds after just recently gaining freedom from hardship, and others are feeling currently restrained at the hands of a global pandemic. There have undeniably been days throughout my quarantine thus far where my head has tried to convince me that old steel chains have returned under these new stressful pretenses - and by days, I mean weeks.

However, I’ve started to remind myself that the chains linking me to my traumas have indeed weakened over time, and will continue to weaken; they may never disappear, but they will never be as heavy as they were at the start.

No matter the state of your restraints - no matter if quarantine is bringing up memories of painful times past, or causing you to feel entirely new types of agony - the negative effects of our traumas can often lead us to forget the ways we grow and change as we heal.

Former President Barack Obama gave a commencement address to the United States’ high school seniors this past weekend. Aside from the relief I felt to hear a leader speak in coherent sentences again, his words echoed my perspective on the broad scope of managing trauma and overcoming hardships.

“Don’t be afraid. America’s gone through tough times before - slavery, civil war, famine, disease, the Great Depression, and 9/11. And each time, we came out stronger, usually because a new generation… learned from past mistakes and figured out how to make things better,” said Obama.

Obama’s message can be interpreted both on a national and personal level. Individually, every time you persevere in the face of adversity, you are growing into a revised “generation” of yourself. This growth can result in a more mature mindset, in a healthier coping mechanism, or in simply learning not to repeat bad behavior.

Collectively, we as a college, we as a community, and we as a nation can all look toward history as an example that chains of oppression and inequality do weaken. Yes, some chains require force while others simply loosen over time, and some are historically harder to break than others.

But, we can all learn from our missteps and struggles. Instead of looking to the past with rumination and shame, we can reflect and take note of the lessons we have learned, the ways in which we have grown for the better since, and the steps we can take now to avoid falling into the same patterns as before.

For Santa Monica College (SMC) students graduating this semester, know that your disappointment in losing a traditional commencement into adulthood will not weigh down on you forever. For any person who feels like they are regressing into old behaviors and harmful thought patterns, remember how you broke free before and how entirely capable you are of doing so again.

And for our nation’s leaders, please, look toward history and take note. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Except for circus elephants. They’d probably be better off if they forgot about the chains altogether.