look back

The importance in knowing our history is pivotal to our moving forward...how can you expect to get anything accomplished while you move towards the future when you have no idea how things went down in the past?


These words are ringing in my head. I'll admit as we come up on MLK weekend, I'm grateful for the day of relaxation (which I would have had off anyway since I don't work Mondays) but it always tweaks me a bit that I don't know as much as I should about my own history. Years ago my grandfather got me a book titled Walking with the Wind, a memoir of the civil rights movement.

I never read it.

I tried to...I opened it up, started to digest what was being given and then I stopped. I'm more than a little disappointed in myself if I have to be honest because this is something incredibly important to my life because as much as people play the race card and talk about how terrible slavery was, many of us don't know the actual ramifications of what our ancestors went through. I say our ancestors because I identify more with them than I do with my actual African roots. I can't trace my family back to what tribe we were from, I can't even trace my own family back too many generations because information isn't around...but what I do know is that my grandfather, the man whose house I live in currently lived through segregation, dealt with the real issues, and for me to be uninformed is a disgrace.

Before this year is over, that book will be read...and I know there are so many months before this year is over, but I know that if I give myself a specific date, it won't happen...I'll get bogged down by the details of this decision--but this is something that I need in my life and I can't wait to learn more about the ancestors that made the most difference to my life.

reading is fundamental

13/365: If there is one thing that I wish I did more in the past few years, it's read. Though a few books have really caught my attention, when I compare how much I read in high school to how much I read now, there truly is no comparison. This became most apparent when someone asked me what my favorite books were or my favorite genres to read and it hit me that I hadn't read a book that I really liked recently.

So, what I plan to do is read more.

Plain and simple. Easy solution to a common problem. First up is a book that I grabbed from our household library based on the title alone: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The book, according to Guardian is pretty darn spiffy, in their words:

"[The] characters step from the past radiant with eccentricity and kindly humour. [The] writing, with it's delicately offbeat, self-deprecating stylishness, is exquisitely turned."

Who can say no to that right? I mean, come on, tell me that reading that with an English accent doesn't totally make you want to read it. So far it's been pretty pleasant, a simple read consisting of letters addressed between various people. Hopefully it maintains because I'd hate for my first read to be so discouraging.