[Sweet-yet-tart red, salt-in-the-wound white, and so, so blue, July 3, 2017]
In a couple of hours, people will gather on Boston Common to take turns reading aloud “The Meaning of July Fourth for The Negro,” the deeply moving speech Frederick Douglass gave on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York. At this heart-breaking and fraught time in our nation’s history, such a fireworks-free, no-rockets’-red-glare, somber ceremony speaks to my condition (although, alas, I will only be there in spirit). For, like Douglass, “. . . [A]bove your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions!” I hear that wail, too.
Earlier this week I was gifted to hear something different: a “returning citizen,” imprisoned for twenty-five years and released a couple of weeks ago, described his joy to eat in-season, perfect, all-he-could-eat cherries. Wanting to vicariously taste his sweet-yet-tart exhilaration and to be reminded of how precious freedom is with every bite, I’ve bought some, too. They’re delicious!
I’m trying to hear, I am trying to taste all of it.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hi, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you and for very especially you my so, so very For Always absolutely awesome and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much, sister!!!!!! Sister, I’m FINALLY able to write to you and to very joyfully respond to your beautiful, absolutely beautiful, very deeply profound and poignant blog post article here, my so, so very dearest and darling friend!!!!! WOW, I so wish, pray, and hope that you and yours had such a very delightful and meaningful 241st Birthday of our so, so very precious, special, and beloved United States Of America and that you all had such a wondrously wonderful Independence Day on Tuesday, July 4, 2017!!!!! I’m starting to feel better from being sick for awhile-I had a nasty bout with bad summer cold, flu, bug, stomach trouble, respiratory stuff and my asthma acted up a little bit. I haven’t had this so bad in the summer in a long time. Sister, WOW, you just went straight to this black woman’s very, very heart, and very, very heart, mind, soul, and spirit as the so, so very dearest and darling, so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful white woman who you’re For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with how you have very graciously and generously featured and included here a marvelous link to our late great Frederick Douglass’s greatly empowering and enlightening talk here. WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!! WOW, my so precious white sister and friend, Patricia, I so appreciate YOU for this and I just so love and cherish you A WHOLE BUNCH for this and just in so, so very much loving and cherishing YOU, sisterfriend, for the absolutely fantastic person who you’re For Always A WHOLE BUNCH, Patricia!!!! I love how Frederick Douglass started out in such a full of grace way in honoring our amazing America and in finding the good with our founding fathers and in the great although imperfect document with the Declaration of Independence. I really like how he sought and found the good still in America and with that powerful document and with the founding fathers, and, in fact, the founding mothers very much need to be mentioned and to be given credit as well because they are very often overlooked and minimized. I am just so happy that our late great Frederick Douglass gently and in such a lovingly firm and assertive manner challenged the racism and oppression in the country and with the heinous and grave injustice of slavery which belied the very words of freedom that our country was posited on and that were very often spoken by white Americans, in particular white male Americans. Sister, I just so, so very much love the yummy, delectable, and delicious looking picture which you have very graciously and generously featured and included with this very powerful blog post article. I’m just so, so very thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that that the former prisoner is a returning citizen being released from prison after a quarter of a century and that he is enjoying those juicy cherries and his sweet, new-found freedom. Sister, I’m with you here. I’m hearing and I’m tasting all of it, Patricia!!!!! WOW, sisterfriend, I thank-YOU as well for very graciously and generously featuring and including all of these great links with your very powerful blog post article. I so love, like, enjoy, and appreciate all of the great links. WOW, it is just wonderful here revisiting the Glossary of Quaker Terms and Phrases link here. It is just so, so very much indeed true that our Sweet Jesus can ultimately speak to our condition and that Jesus is there in the long run for each and every one of us, sister!!!!!! Sisterfriend, I hear that wail, too, my dear, dearest Patricia!!!!! My friend, despite it all I just so, so very much love and cherish our very special, blessed, and precious United States Of America warts and all even with all of the imperfection and problems like with racism and all other oppression so, so very much loving and cherishing our great America and loving and cherishing being an American as the indigent, disabled lesbian black woman who I am who has multiple physical and even other permanent disabilities receiving my low, fixed income with my disability benefits. I so, so very much love other Americans no matter what and I have such complete confidence and faith in other Americans. Sister, as I For Always say, think, feel, do, and believe I so, so very much love and cherish YOU, Patricia, and each and every one of you as my absolutely awesome white sisters and brothers as our So, So Very Dearest and Darling God’s children, very, very especially YOU, Patricia, and other so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful white women with each of you being my very, very heart, and being my very favorite people among white people and also my very favorite people among all people in general!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'll For Always have such confidence and such faith in and love for our absolutely fantastic United States Of America, and in other Americans like with YOU, my so, so very dear sister and friend, Patricia, and in other superb white Americans no matter what EVEN with racism and oppression, and EVEN when that racism and oppression continues to happen. I'll never ever give up on other Americans and I'll never ever give up on our astounding and outstanding United States Of America no matter what and I have all of the very time and all of the very patience in the world to work with other Americans in particular YOU, sisterfriend, and other white Americans so believing in each and every of you and your greatly abundant potential for such actual and bountiful good, and I believe in the very greatness and goodness of our very fine and excellent country and that our country can heal, grow, and excel into even greater goodness and greatness. I'll For Always be very gentle in my constructive criticism of other Americans like with white Americans and very gentle and sweet in my constructive criticism as well of our very special country being like our late great Frederick Douglass in being firm and assertive but still loving as I very sweetly challenge other Americans like with white Americans and our beloved and precious country to learn, heal, and grow in doing even better at realizing the country's ideals and the ideals of a great many Americans like with each of you as such marvelous white Americans. I'll For Always so, so very much love and cherish our superb United States Of America and also in loving and cherishing For Always being an American never ever wavering from all of my very love and support, and in just so, so very much loving and cherishing all Americans like with all of you as white Americans and my very sisters and brothers and our So, So Very Good Spirit's children, very, very especially YOU, Patricia, and other super white women very much loving and cherishing each and every one of you as you all try so, so very hard in doing your absolutely very best, and I'll For Always give each of you as such wondrously wonderful white women a chance in having such complete love for, confidence and trust in, faith, belief, and hope in each of you as the so good people you all very often are being very good-natured and good-hearted, sweet, loving, caring, kind, friendly, thoughtful, and sensitive toward me and others!!!!!! 🙂 <3 It is such so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful white women like YOU, my so, so very dearest sisterfriend of mine, Patricia, and other special white women who just keep this black woman keep on keeping on in keeping my very faith and hope alive with such a sweetly enduring positive optimism, sister!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! WOW, do I have all sorts of optimistically positive reasons to have such faith, belief, trust, hope, and confidence in my very, very heart, and in my very, very heart, mind, soul, and spirit just overflowing with such strongly ardent love in my very heart and spirit with all that I have with all of my very being!!!!!! WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!
Sister, I thank-YOU and all of you for thinking of me sending to me such great positive energy and for praying for me so hard and so much the way you all do!!!!! I can just feel all of your very love for me and all of your lovingly caring and sensitively heartfelt prayers and thoughts for me which are truly helping me-God sure knows that I need all of these very endearing and loving prayers and thoughts!!!!! Patricia, I pray for and think of daily and very frequently YOU, my sister and friend, of your so, so very dearest and darling husband, of your Loved One in the long term care facility, of your great children, of your very precious grandchildren, for your beloved siblings and for the rest of your special family, for your so, so very blessedly pure in heart friendsfamily at your holy Friends Meeting at Cambridge, for your sweet and steadfast yoga friends, and for all of your other loyal friends, sister and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!!! Wow, what a very joy, honor, blessing, and pleasure it is for me to pray for and think of all of you and for other folks, too, and it is also just such awesome fun for me to be a constant prayer warrior praying without ceasing for everybody!!!!!! Sisterfriend, I feel even better and brighter with such greatly increased cheer after very joyfully reading this very spectacular and moving blog post article here which has touched my heart and spirit and very joyously responding with my very detailed and heartfelt, thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments!!!!! Now I feel even more re-energized, renewed, rejuvenated, and reinvigorated being even more encouraged and emboldened to carry on, to suit up and show up, to resist, to interrupt, and to persist in never ever giving up, never ever losing heart, never ever losing spirit and in never ever losing Spirit!!!!!! Patricia, you are just very good for me and for my very walk with Jesus, sister and friend of mine!!!!!!! My friend, I thank Spirit continually for YOU and for YOUR very presence in my very life!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for your very brilliantly inspirational blog post articles, all of your other insightful writings and books, and for all you do in such a diligently conscientious manner in such a great way!!!!! YAY for our very friendship and sisterhood, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!! Patricia, God so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU and so do I A WHOLE BUNCH!!!!!! Please have such a very fantastic and a fun-filled Friday, a wondrously wonderful weekend ahead, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!!! WOW, I'm just grateful for YOU, Patricia, and I so appreciate YOU, and YOU are my very eternal blessing, sister, as I know that you are for a whole lot of other people, too!!!!! 🙂 <3 I thank-YOU so, so very much For Always, my friend!!!!!!!
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very awesomely precious and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with My and Jesus's Peace and Love For You For Always, my friend, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, my sister,
Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa