Post 6: Balto?

Elizabeth and I saunter down 66th in the heat of the day, talking about Disney movies.

"You ever see Balto?" I ask.

"Like a million times," She flails. "He's at our museum!"

I'd seen him there before.

On a basic level, I empathize with Balto because, like a half-wolf and half-dog that finds it difficult to fully identify with either half of his heritage, so much of how I understand the world comes from my sense-of-self as a person of two places.

My mom was the first of her eight siblings to go to college, and she worked her way through as a totally financially independent woman. But we come from a place deep in Louisiana that doesn’t value education the same way that the rest of my immediate family does. I love my huge extended family, but my upper-class, predominantly white, suburban prep-school education often makes me feel estranged from them. Simultaneously, I will never completely feel at home with my cousins as they race each other on tractors in the southern heat.

But this dual nature, I’d like to think, gives me a unique perspective in the world, much like it did for Balto. He saved hundreds of children once he was able to marry the two parts of himself. I think, if I could do that, I could do good in the world too.