Healing Stories: Minnesota’s New Flag & The New Beatles Song
Over the past few weeks, multiple people asked me what I think of the new flag. “It’s great!” I’d reply, only to be met with a laundry list of reasons why it isn’t great.
One thing I’ve heard in praise of our previous flag is that “it had everything!” and I think we can all agree, that was a big part of the problem with the old flag. We don’t need the flag to “have everything.”
Second, the old flag depicted a white man farming a field, a rifle leaning menacingly on a stump nearby, while an Indigenous person rode past in the background. This racist depiction of how white men drove Indigenous people from their homes and land perpetuated a harmful narrative.
Our flag desperately needed an upgrade to reflect a message that resonates with pride among all Minnesotans.
Our new flag features the color blue, reminiscent of our 10,000 lakes, the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Nation’s largest freshwater estuary on the St. Louis River, access to the cleanest, clearest, and largest freshwater lake in the world- Lake Superior.
The dark blue outline depicts the rough outline of our state. The star is a nod to our status as the north-star state. It is simple, clean, easily recognizable, bright, and beautiful. I am proud of it! I hope it is a unifying symbol that we can all get behind.
The Dakota name for Minnesota, Mni Sóta Makoce,' translates to 'where the water meets the sky.' The new flag captures this sentiment.
This upgrade to our state flag is a beautiful example of a healing story.
Symbols matter to our collective subconscious. The new flag will allow us to walk forward with a new story for Minnesotans.
This idea of healing stories came to me through the teachings of Matthew Sanford, the author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence. Mathew teaches yoga for all sorts of bodies, including adaptive yoga classes. He has been paralyzed from the chest down since a car accident in 1978. I highly recommend his book, his teachings, and this interview with him on On Being with Krista Tippett.
Matthew speaks extensively about the power of shifting a narrative around trauma into a healing story. In the interview he says, “We’re constantly losing our trust in the world. Things happen — even loss of childhood innocence; anything — a death of our loved one — where suddenly, the world changes its shape, and you have to confront: how are you going to connect back to the world?”
Recently, another healing story made headlines- The Beatles released one final song.
The way the Beatles came to an end has haunted fans for decades. In particular, an interview between Paul McCartney and Stephen Colbert hit me like a gut punch. In the interview Paul wonders if he and John were ever really even friends. Something about this sentiment just hurt my heart- a heart that’s loved The Beatles my whole life.
In that interview, Paul shares that he often dreams of John, and that he believes people can visit us in our dreams. Further, he shares that seeing pictures of the two of them writing music together helps him remember that, of course, they were dear friends. This story struck me, because it illustrates how our memories can be confused and shaded with the passage of time.
It is human nature to get things a bit twisted up. We are apt to allow a few bad events to overshadow years of loving friendship. We can remember the difficult, awful moments and forget the cherished ones.
The propensity to remember bad events more than good events is called negativity bias.
Negativity bias is the reason we cling onto hurtful comments from decades past, vividly recall a time we embarrassed ourselves, allow criticism at a performance review overshadow the praise, and why it can be so difficult to overcome a negative first impression.
One way to overcome negativity bias is through the process of healing stories- retelling a story with an emphasis on positive aspects.
Yoko had a few recordings of John with some of the last songs he wrote. She gave the recordings to George, Ringo and Paul. In 1995, the surviving Beatles got together to try to pull together the song, “Now and Then.”
The attempt to make the song didn’t come together. The technology wasn’t quite there to accurately separate John’s vocals from the piano in his demo. The pain of trying to create the recording was perhaps too much. The recording “languished in a cupboard” according to Paul.
Then in 2001, the world lost George. Paul said “that took the wind out of our sails.”
Two decades later, in 2022, Ringo and Paul came together again to try to pull together the track.
During the filming of Get Back, Peter Jackson and his team developed technology to clearly separate vocals and instruments on a recording. This new technology was able to pull John’s vocals from the piano as clear as if he were standing in the studio recording.
The song is the last true Beatles song.
This, my friends, is one hell of a healing story. For Paul, for Ringo, and for millions of fans around the world. This genuine Beatle recording is something of a miracle, a gift to all of us.
The music video itself is silly and joyful! A sheer delight. A tribute to the wonderful times they shared. It’s a salve to my little heart.
And so my friends, I wonder, what healing story do you need to tell in 2024?
For an emotional walk through about the recently released song, I am including a few critical videos for your review.
