"Happiness can exist in a moment"

A most eloquent forward to Barracoon,  by Zora Neale Hurston written by Alice Walker includes this beautiful quote " That though the heart is breaking, happiness can exist in a moment, also. And because the moment in which we live is all the time there really is, we can keep going. Life, inexhaustible, goes on. And we do too. Carrying our wounds and our medicines as we go. Perhaps our planet is for learning to appreciate the extraordinary wonder of life that surrounds even our suffering, and to say Yes, if through the thickest of tears. "


The reading of Ms. Hurston's series of interviews with Cudjo was challenging, because of the reality presented of our inhumanity to man over the course of all generations and cultures, and specifically in the case of  the slave trade. How lonely, desperate and traumatic was the experience of the men, women and children who were taken by force to a land far from home and all that they knew to be sold and treated worse than animals. We must not let that past be forgotten.  We need to continue to be reminded and to tell our young people of this past  to avoid it's recurrence. And yet, our discussion led us to consider how today in our country and communities, we seem to have not evolved beyond a self centered and uncivilized culture.  No, we won't solve the world's problems by talking about them, but perhaps we will be encouraged to act when we have the opportunity to stand up for what is right,  when we can give of our time, resources, and talents in small and large ways. 

It seemed that working in his garden was nourishing and healing after such a hard life,  and  Ms. Hurston's gifts of food and conversation were welcomed. He needed to tell his story and she needed to hear it . We are the fortunate readers to learn of it.