The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

Life is a gift, and i try to respond with grace and courtesy.

I also wear a hat or a very tightly pulled head tie when I write. I suppose I hope by doing that I will keep my brains from seeping out of my scalp and running in great gray blobs down my neck, into my ears, and over my face.

I'm a descendant of someone bought and sold, and brought in 1619 in what was to become the United States.

My encouragement to you is to go tomorrow to the library.

That knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums. And it also liberates me. I am a big bird winging over high mountains, down into serene valleys. I am ripples of waves on silver seas. I'm a spring leaf trembling in anticipation.

To be angry is very good. It burns out things and leaves nutrients in the soil. You should always be ready to be angry at injustice and cruelty.