We Can Make Change - Never too Old to Be Young
January can be a difficult month for me. The minimum amount of sunlight is a factor. Another part is having my birthday right after the holidays.
To celebrate my birthday sometimes feels like it’s just a comma rather than an exclamation point. And my late husband and I were married on my birthday, which gives the date less of a bounce, now he’s gone.
When 2020 hit and my birthday came, the attention and surprises I received warmed my heart (and shattered my resolve to hate my birthday). It didn’t matter the sky was gray. It didn’t matter it rained instead of snowed. The significance was the display of love I received.
Whether love was wrapped up in a gift for me. Or sent by text. Regardless if it was a card I got in the mail. What mattered most was I felt loved. Sounds simple. But it was very powerful.
I share my birthday month with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s a holiday I look forward to after my birthday. I feel like it’s been a bonus for me since I’ve moved to Ann Arbor. The events celebrating Dr. King are inspirational.
This year the keynote speaker (Hill Auditorium on the campus of University of Michigan) was Angela Davis. Normally on MLK Day, there’s a very long line before the doors open. This year in extreme, bitter cold, the line reached around an entire city block, 3 or 4 people wide!
I waited in line among enthusiastic, freezing people, excited to hear Dr. Davis speak.
When she walked on stage the audience of more than 3,500 people rose in standing ovation. She radiated calm and wisdom. When she smiled I could see it clearly from up on the third-floor mezzanine.
Her speech reminded me of why we celebrate a man who was a catalyst of social change. Huge social change. She brought home often, why it’s important to remember we can collectively make changes.
The point she made near the end of her speech, “We have to change how we think”, was my late birthday gift. Brilliant and right to the point.
We aren’t ever done. It’s not healthy for social change or for a healthy, evolving culture to keep a vise-grip on our old thinking.
https://oami.umich.edu/um-mlk-symposium/livestream/. You can hear her speech here.
I’m a year older, but I want to go back to a youthful way of thinking. Open-minded. I want to make room for new ideas, new challenges, new constructs of our world so I don’t get my mind cemented into “I know all the answers”.
(Mis)Education was the theme of the symposium. Columbus didn’t discover America. as Davis pointed out. “It wasn’t lost”.
If I don’t grow in empathy it will be because my eyes and ears are closed and my mouth is wagging, which means no new information can possibly seep in. It works in both directions. No old learning is released from its dusty cage either.
This is the yellow, sticky-note on my bathroom mirror.
Dr. Davis said, "What we need now is to generate hope."
I think like the song, "This Little Light of Mine" the hope begins with each of us.
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