Resurgence: the paradox trend.

The hardest decision I made as a grad student was how to frame my research. It sounds like a simple notion, but how you propose something sometimes means more than what you’re proposing. In my personal estimation, the same is true for the resurgence trend that we see in our communities, present-day. How we are pursuing resurgence from colonial baggage, and how we are presenting the path to resurgence in our communities needs to be understood. More so, there is an overarching cloud of confusion that surrounds resurgence, and that is that resurgence tends to follow our failures, and not the other way around. Which comes first, resurgence or personal development? Does resurgence occur, and then by those measures I become a sharper and more potent individual? Or am a stellar community member who helps bring about resurgence? Again, difficult questions that have not-so-clean answers. Often, it becomes a paradox of expectations when we approve of certain individuals and write-off others based on loose criteria that we have not thought out or established well. Do we disqualify leaders based on their moral failings, or do we allow for those failings and make space, knowing they will ultimately achieve success for their communities? In my own experience (which certainly does not speak for anybody nor is a definitive answer), the leaders who have bettered the lives of those who surround them have messy pasts. Pasts that are not fun to bring up except to point to their transformations. So, do we discontinue their brand? Do we shelve their efforts in hopes of finding another who’s slate is cleaner? The answer really is up to communities. One thought I will leave amongst this flurry of questions, is this: as leaders, failures cannot and should not be ignored in our quests for transformation, but at some point, as communities, we need to decide how to move forward from our own shortcomings to better ourselves and those around us.