My Lord, What a Morning Notes

Marian Anderson’s quote on racism, “There were times when we heard our relatives and friends talking, and we knew we might come in contact with this, that, or the other thing.” p39

What a nice way of thinking of such ugly treatment, undeserving of a name. This reminds me of a universal self-preservation tactic. We tend to forget the names of those people who are rude or hateful when discussing them amongst others. For example, “oh, what’s her name” or “what’s his face” instead of saying the offending name. Is it because, to say the name, it conjures the person? Could Marian Anderson be experimenting with the same magic? To say the word is to cause it to happen?

“…if one only searched one’s heart one would know that none of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin, and that we could not change it if we wished to, and many of us don’t wish to, and that this fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.” p42

Amen!

“‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep,’ the realization comes to him that there is Someone else to whom he can commit his soul when he cannot take care of it himself.” p96-7

For when the child’s bedtime prayer becomes the adult’s touchstone in crises, habits have meaning.

My Lord, What a Morning Notes

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-lord-what-morning-notes.html