The Tapestry by Madhalasa Iyer (16, Texas)

Our palms lie against our heart and every heartbeat resonates and pleads to beat free of its cage. Through the rough wind the flag undulates and the red, white, and blue’s merge in their own cacophony. A thousand miles away, another flag of different colors, and another beat of different hearts echo through the sky. The words they sing along to are different, but the actions are the same. Yet in our society, the waves of inequality have risen to such a level that we are ignoring our similarities and straying far away from the shores of peace. These deeds belie the true meaning of life. 

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Life is an intricately woven tapestry. Each baste stitch, every culture has been meticulously added to dye the cloth with different shades. Like a cub learning the ways of the new world, it took me an instant to understand the meaning of life. 

I sat in front of the television that day, my fingers mindlessly scrolling through the channels. When I stopped at the news, the voices from the television echoed those in my own backyard. 

“Black lives matter! We demand justice!” 

“Stop Asian hate!” 

Through the windows of my television, I glimpsed at the shooting of an old Asian man and the shrilling voices of “go back to where you came from,” as if this wasn’t their land too. I witnessed the horrifying death captured in a body camera of an African American whose screams were the testimony to what we had done to life. We had robbed life of its colors and now, each shade merges onto the other, eager to consume and pervade through the cloth. 

It was at that precise moment that I began to lose faith in the strength of the tapestry. As each shooting, discrimination and violence continued, the tapestry was being tugged from each direction. The countries fought, treaties were broken, and promises were unkept. In the split second where the screen shifted from the slogans and the news overview to the face of the protesters, I observed that life is actually unity. 

I saw the pale skin of a white man joining in the Black Lives Matter protests. As the camera turned, I observed many more men and women of various races screaming the slogans. Furthermore, to stop discrimination against Asians, people of all races and religions joined on the street. Their voices echoed the same song, they crescendoed in the same tones and they breathed one word: equality. 

In these times of adversity, their unity was the strongest force. 

Cherishing life is much like ironing and meticulously washing our clothes. Each one of us is united. Miles apart, the names of our countries and the words to our pledges and anthems differ. However, we are all bonded by stitches carefully tailored to embrace unity and bring meaning to life. It is by voicing our opinions, working together, respecting each other, and looking past physical differences that we can all form a pulchritudinous embroidery strewn with pearls and seamed with threads. 

Our hearts drum to the same rhythm. Our flags endure through the same rough winds. We are woven together in a tapestry of life, made of the same cloth and the same intricate stitches. 

Unidad. Единство. Unité. 団結. 

Unity: the harbinger of peace. 

Though in different languages, unity is still the same term and has the same meaning. Life is embracing that meaning and weaving each stitch with the letters. Through times of tribulations, our unity is the strongest force. ​