“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
–Maya Angelou
I’ve thought so hard about how I could respond to a post ‘Nathan published yesterday. Finally I realized that all the words I could use, could arrange as artfully and persuasively and reasonably as my abilities would allow, already exist succinctly in the above quote. Who knows if she really said it; the Internet is full of trickery. Even if she didn’t, the words are no less true to me.
I was happy to welcome ‘Nathan and Dan into my home in 2010. I lost most of the photos I took during their visit in my computer meltdown, but a few that had already made it to my blog and to Flickr remain. I used one of them to draw this in my Fat ‘Lil Sketch Book–my first drawing of 2012. I love that they are looking at Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk outside Rothko Chapel. The sculpture found a home there after it was rejected by the city as a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. following his assassination.
Sometimes the right thing is a long time coming. Sometimes there are people who block and circumvent and disparage the right thing. But when Tim and I were talking about this in a different context yesterday, I said it’s good to remember that every step toward justice and freedom and fairness is also taken by people. There will always be those among us who will march to the beat of what is best in us. Or maybe, in a less contentious image, will dance to the rhythm of what is best in us.
‘Nathan and Dan are my friends and will always be welcome and safe in my home. I want them to feel that way in theirs, and I want their home to expand to include…everywhere.
Because I love them.
Because it’s right.
So eloquent and what I needed to read today.
Thank you, Timmy. I’m glad.
I love you. Someday I hope to have you visit our home.
Well, you know, depending on politics, I may be LIVING in your home. 😉
So beautifully, profoundly spoken, Becky. Thank you.
Thank you, Dawn. =)
Perfect. 🙂
Thank you for reading and commenting so kindly.
I love you.
That is all.
Mutual! We all have one another’s backs.
I just read ‘Nathan’s original post, and now this one and I’m sitting here crying. I’m so glad to have you both in my life. <3
I feel the same way about you and Matt. Thank you.
Thank you for expressing what I could not.
Thank you for your kind words and for reading here.
This is lovely, and so are you.
Aww, thanks. So glad you read and commented.
Thank you so much, Becky. You know how they have a national poet laureate? Considering how wonderfully you write and how wonderfully you think, I wish you could be something like the national person laureate or national philosopher laureate so your voice could carry a bit closer to the distance it deserves to reach.
Thank you for saying such nice things. I appreciate your kindness. =)
Beautiful words, Becky.
A few months ago I was coming home on the subway on a Saturday night when two twentysomething guys got on. They took seats across from me, and as soon as they sat down one of the guys put his head on his partner’s shoulder and closed his eyes.
The voice in my head went berserk. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT HERE!” I kept looking around the subway car, expecting trouble, but luckily most of the other people on the train that night had their eyes closed too.
I hope those guys get to live in a world someday where guys like me don’t have to worry about them.
Me, too, David. Me, too.
Speechless… and priceless
I used to define home as a place where friends and family gather. Now that my parents moved away and I’m on work travel that just happens by chance to be within 20 miles of where my brother and other family members are, but my friends all over the planet, I like this one better. To be continued…