Yesterday, for the first time in half a year I was in the careful company of some young adults. My daughter and her long time and wonderful partner got married in a simple ceremony of less than 10 in a park near their home in Brooklyn. She and I had discussed how the circumstances of the pandemic offered creative ways to pass this milestone of adult relationship life. Each of the families involved would have their own small, outdoor gathering to celebrate this step they had taken.
Yesterday, my daughter's father, his wife, their daughter and her partner, his brother and my daughter and her husband got together for a small backyard picnic and we had an exhilarating conversation. Not since my days at the university have I heard such enthusiastic conversation, the minds of the young, the enthusiastic, the energetic, the not-yet-hardened into a solid point of view.
When I was a student teacher over 40 years ago, I had to teach a course for which I was entirely unprepared in my formal education: Minority Literature. Many might have thrown up their hands, whined, felt overwhelmed, but for me it was a challenge and an opportunity. I started reading. And each thing I read introduced me to other books and thinkers on all the fronts of minority groups from race to religion, disability and mental health, and of course my life-long stand-by topics GENDER AND LABOR.
I was introduced to the Labor Movement by my father a devoted union man who made me curious enough to find out more. Also, a lot of the songs of my youth, songs by musicians like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Buffy St. Marie offered insights into the struggles of workers. Particular favorites were "Brother can You Spare a Dime?" and "All They Will Call You is Deportees." That last one introduced me to the farm workers movement and Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Buffy St. Marie introduced me to the confiscation of the land of indigenous people by the government in a song about a dam.
Needless to say, having been born a woman, and an observant child, the topic of Gender was a given and that was my first introduction to resistance, debate, and the struggle for civil rights that women have engaged in for millennia.
So I read the most I could fit into my life from what I could find and I LEARNED. At the picnic, one of the young people told me one of his favorite author/thinkers, Dr. Cornell West. Today I ordered one of his books.
Even now, sometimes I realize a gap, and I try to fill it. I realized how little I knew about South American literature so I ordered books by Isabelle Allende and others. From the 1970's I continued to try to add books on Raee to my reading smorgasbord, most recently Te Nahisi Coates and Zadie Smith.
Learning a new point of view is the most exhilarating thing I can think of. Learning itself is exhilarating.
This marked out historical period is a great opportunity to learn and we are surrounded by media rich with information to help us engage i that most exciting sport of seeing a new point of view, seeing how our own minds work and how they can work better. Adapting, Adjusting, and Improving our minds and our world view improves us and the world we inhabit.
Happy Trails and Happy 4th of July!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
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