Remember to Eat, Dress Warmly and Stay Together

I just got off the phone with my grandmother, a woman for whom I am abundantly thankful. I was near tears when I dialed the phone. Exhausted. I just finished protesting in Copley Square but it wasn’t the sort of tired you get from standing out in the cold, it was soul-tiredness. A deep awareness of the length of these next four years.

I let the phone ring for awhile, knowing my grandmother is the greatest at screening her calls. If you’re “unavailable” for her, she’s unavailable for you. I could hear her delight that I called and her cheery youthful voice was nothing short of music. She asked how I was doing and, per usual, with her I knew it was okay to be honest.

I told her I was tired and angry. I don’t know how to feel anything but this bizarre mingling of sadness, fear and rage right now and I was desperate to know how she made it through in times as dark, or even darker than this one.

“Grandmamma, how did you do it? How did you stay strong during the Civil Rights Movement?”

“It was by Almighty God. We had to, honey, we knew that if we backed down they would put us back in segregation times. But y’all have a better foundation than we had, because now y’all have Hispanics and Latinos and Asians and people of all colors fighting with you.”

She told me stories of how she marched and of how the Lord provided. She told me of times when, in the midst of vitriolic racism, the Lord opened doors for her to be a voice for the oppressed. She told me of when she was denied school integration but of how she became the first teacher to integrate the faculty at her school. Her voice was a song of fighting and of victory.

I feel lost in this fight. How do I do this? How do I stand up for the oppressed against injustice? I often feel I have no blueprint for this. But I have my grandmother. Today my grandmother comforted me with wisdom and assurance that there is hope. She’s done this all before, not long ago and she’s still doing it. Our fight is a long and exhausting one, but she’s right. She and other brave people laid the foundations that we stand on now in our fight for justice. We are not alone and there is a path before us. My grandmother helped to pave it and is still here leading the march.

“Don’t let yourself stay angry, it will rot away your bones. Remember to eat and to dress in heavy clothing to stay warm when you go out to protest. Remember to stick together with your signs and don’t go out there alone. Use good sense, not common sense.” — Grandmamma

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