Clint Smith

I think part of my project is to ask us to hold all of the both andedness of what it means to be human in the context of our personal lives, in the context of our identities, in the context of our history, because I think that is the most perhaps central element of being human is accepting that we are a bundle of contradictions.

Like there are values that I have

There are things that I believe I hold firmly and I am cognizant of the way that I fall short of those values every single day.

I don't think that makes me a bad person.

I think that makes me a person who's reflecting on the fact that, okay, well, I say I care about this or I say this matters to me or I say I'm not the kind of person who does this.

And today I fell short of those things.

My hope is that every day we wake up

and try to get a little bit closer to the version of ourselves that we want to be relative to the version of ourselves that we are.

That's like an ongoing praxis.

It's not necessarily trying to cross a finish line, but a recognition that this is an ongoing part of what it means to be alive.