social justice – The Source 4 Books

Non-fiction continues in my life, as I checked out Notorious RGB this past week. Right up my alley, she is a bodacious woman who has spent her life trying to protect individual’s rights under the law. This

close up court courthouse hammer — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

book, which had been on my TBR list, was the perfect read after Men Explain Things to Me and A Story of a Happy Marriage. Both of these books had been about standing up for your rights, your voice, and your choices, be they conventional or not. RBG is the beacon of this. She has been fighting sexism for over 50 years for both men and women. The story of how she led her life, and her passion for representing all who needed to be protected will be her legacy. As she remains a leader of the left, strongly believing in the constitutional rights of people to be heard and counted, she is a voice in the minority too often. As the men on the court continue to make decisions that are pro-business, they don’t understand the ramifications that some of the decisions made have upon women. Until the court is filled with people of various backgrounds, and different upbringings, there will be blind spots in the interpretation of the words written so long ago – “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union….” We are still trying to build the union more perfectly. For this, we need to learn from all who have arrived on these shores for a better life, regardless of where they have come from or when they arrived.

The new book I have just started A Woman of Value Clara Barton and the Civil War is takes me back to another time when women were fighting for the right to make choices on what their life should be. She chose not to marry but remained careful of conventions to not appear in public without a male escort. She accepted a job at the patent office, for a fraction of what men were paid. She kept pushing, but within the parameters that would not embarrass her family. As we continue to move forward down the road ahead, as Rebecca Slotnik stated, we are walking from the path of those who came before. While we continue to see setbacks, we must recognize how far we have come in life. As Notorious RBG has shown, a slow and steady pace will help us achieve a better world for us all.

Travel, whether for work or for pleasure, can be a chore. Away from your home, your family, your normal routines, you focus on where you are and how to fill the time. Especially if you are waiting in a crowded airport when your plane is delayed. In this current trip, uncomfortably still on crutches, going through security I realized my ereader, just updated with four new titles, remained safely in the docking station in my home office. Travelling with only work equipment, I scramble to download something to read that will download to my personal phone. It is in this frame of mind that I started to read An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.

The title is a bit misleading – while this chronicles the story of a marriage, it is actually a study in the strengths and limits of love, in all different shapes and forms. The story begins with Roy and Celestial. By mapping out the relationship by way of different perspectives, you see that these two have entered marriage with different expectations. They play at being married, sparring over everything, and not truly understanding the “communion” of the institution. Both come from homes based upon second chances, surrounded full of love and commitment. Then the scary reality of being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time, the pair is forced to face the hardship of a forced but unjust separation.

As the years go by, life charges on. Trying to survive on the promise of dreams, finding strength within oneself to pursue them alone, and realizing the foundation of the marriage was not as strong as expected changes both. The stories told from both perspectives bring the realization that the base of the marriage was lacking, provoking guilt, grief and denial at different times.

These same revelations are shown when the stories turn to the parents. Big Roy and Olive were entirely devoted to each other. Olive had been through the passion and came through the fire alone with her son. When she met Roy, after making it clear it was a package deal, they made a commitment to each other. And the devotion continued to be shown each day until the last, when Big Roy made sure that Olive was buried by the one who loved her most, filling in the grave himself. Similarly, Celestial’s parents came together after they met when he was married to someone else. Another father devoted to the new family he built on a firm foundation – symbolized by the old hickory tree in the yard.

And then there is the love between a parent and a child. Big Roy fully embracing Little Roy; Andre embraced by Mr Henderson, Little Roy and the Biological, and even Dre and his father. Even if people leave, that does not mean they don’t care. Spoiler – finding out that Olive gives up the fight once she realizes there is someone taking care of her son was very different from the belief that Big Roy had once he hear Celestial told Olive the Biological was watching over Little Roy.

Stereotypes would be easy to fall back upon here, but the depth of these characters and the basic understanding of the underlying social injustice for the black community runs below the surface of the story. Paralleled in the river where Roy goes each day to contemplate, the river of injustice can be heard if you listen closely. The reality of it being there, always under the bridge to elsewhere, is the current running through each story. This is a most powerful image – the current remains, even if there is a bridge over it, you can’t always take it to the other side, just as The Hick is a metaphor for a marriage.

This book still surprises me as I process it. Very powerful, and beautifully written.