Seeing the Embrace

I finally got to see the Embrace in the Boston common today. It was much larger than I was expecting – around the size of a small garage – but it’s been placed such that you can’t see it until you’re almost next to it. It’s also not really visible from the capitol on the other side of the common. If it’s intended to send a message of hope…it feels tone deaf. To me, it came across as symbolic of how only a watered down version of Dr. King’s message is propagated in the mainstream. The heart is quite literally removed. The details that are included in the sculpture are beautifully rendered, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to what wasn’t there.