Certification and Crowing by Sandra Horn
Certificates have been on my mind of late – the little bits of paper that put you in various boxes, à la Pete Seeger. Births, marriages, deaths, all define you, or rather, the public perceptions of you, and they are all archived somewhere so they can be scrutinised for ever by whoever. Pete Seeger describes the boxes we are assigned to as ‘made of ticky-tacky’ and ‘all the same’, but they can also be seen as defining our differences, for good or ill. We collect them as we go along, these little bits of paper – proof of vaccinations, school and university attainments, etc. I am certified to drive a car but not a lorry, bus or minibus. I’m a certified citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with my maroon European Union passport. A short pause here while I weep and curse at its potential loss. It’s good for eight more years, though. Ha! There’s an obvious difference between some of those bits of paper we have thrust upon us and those ...