Today I had an all day workshop about using the arts in writing. We would look at paintings and/or listen to music and then do a corresponding writing assignment. Man, I wrote like there was no tomorrow. I think that this blogging thing may be related to that. I have the urge to write a lot suddenly. I think I've always been bad at expressing myself and maybe this is a way to get over that hurdle.
There was one story that Deb assigned us, and I wrote and wrote and wrote. I gave it to her at the end because she wanted examples. I felt bad to throw it away since I don't know when I've written so much, especially a narrative.
I was able to work out. I don't realize how out of shape I am until I look at the big goals I have set for myself. I went to BJs and got some supplies that would last a while so I dont have to worry about them during the first hellish months of school. I also reconnected with my cousin Janie Forsyth McKinney, who is somewhat of a civil rights legend in her own right. When these idiot racists attacked a bus of people because they were mixed white and black in the bus, she ran out and attended to the wounded, while the people standing around that had just gotten out of church just stopped and stared or called out insults. If you're interested you can Google Freedom Riders Anniston Janie Forsyth and you'll get a story you just won't believe. How so much hate could come from the "Bible Belt" is beyond my comprehension.
I was taught that God is love. Oh, and Janie was only 12 years old at the time. She said she was tormented at school until she graduated because she helped those people. She had to leave Alabama at the first chance she could get. That's pretty much where I ended up, too.
What's even crazier is that it was 1961 which is 15 years before I was born. Hard to believe that it wasn't that long ago that black people were treated like that in the south. I guess that's why I get fired up, because these folks that tout being devout Christians can treat other human beings so poorly. There are still those that treat others poorly, but at least they can't get away with treating them like they did back then.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trashing all Christians or Southerners. It's just taken me a long time to separate the values that were instilled in me that I thought came from the church, when it was really just the culture of the people that attended the church that was being passed on to me. Once I was old enough, and had been presented with enough point of views to see what values had been passed down to me, I was really shocked. I remember being embarassed of my mother when she had finally broken free from the messed up value system, and expressed her belief that everyone was equal, and that is really sad to me now. I know these people were only human and responding to group psychology and inherent ethnocentricity. It's the ones that carry on the sentiment today that should REALLY be ashamed of themselves. Not that it takes too many scruples to see that burning people because they want to ride the bus mixed white and black people is inherently wrong. I put a picture of the bus up there so you can see they really did alot of damage. The whites started attacking the bus at the bus stations and the bus fled, and the people chased it down the highway, got in front of it and slowed down until the bus had to stop, and they threw a molotov cocktail on board the bus while the passengers were too afraid to exit because of the mob outside. One person went up to someone that exited and asked if they were ok, looked concerned, and then hit the guy over the head with a baseball bat.
This all went down in front of my cousin's familly store "Forsyth & Sons" on Highway 202 in Anniston, which is long since gone, but I remember when it was still there. The story gets worse and worse so if you're interested you should google. There is a big write up on NPR. The author of the book calls Janie little "Janie Miller" and that version is reprinted a bunch of places, but that is her. I used to have long talks with her, and I didn't even realize that she was considered a hero of the civil rights movement.
When I was going to the store after the gym, it was about sunset and the sky was amazing. I wish my camera phone would do it justice. The sunsets in Florida are just breathtaking. The picture is at the top up there, but the phone is not good, and the light is not good, so it really doesn't have the same effect at all. Florida sunsets are one of the things that makes living here so special. Don't get me wrong, I miss the mountainside and country of Alabama, but I need the attitude towards life that Orlando brings to the table. I enjoy my church that has people of all colors and backgrounds worshipping together and treating each other like God's children.
All this talk about race brings me to show you a picture of one of the pictures from our workshop today. We had to look at the picture and write what we thought was trying to be conveyed by the work. This one was pretty powerful to me. I think it says alot without any words. What do you think? I think moving ahead in this country is talking about this together and moving on to bigger and better things. This part of our nation's history is so hard to swallow.
