Almost Angry Ramblings

This morning I am technically running late. Of course when your office is a hand-me-down rocking chair you’ve got a little leeway. I am a bit grumpy this morning. Something happened at work yesterday. A guy said something very offensive to me. My manager heard it and he was just about to say something and I gave him a look that basically told him to let it slide. I really should not have done that. So why did I?

Well, the guy that made the derogatory comment to me just happens to be black. He has drawn the conclusion that I am not black because I like to read, eat organic food and my car is twelve years old (his actual reasons, not mine). My manager is a young white guy from an upper middle class upbringing. This is how deep racial politics run. My manager and I met gazes and we both knew that any defense of me was going to result in more ridicule. Neither one of us had to say a word but we’ve learned our lessons well enough to know that this is how things are.

These are the little things that happen frequently that really bother me. Race, my friends, no matter how much we want to believe that it is, is not the thing that defines us. It is a cultural construction. In Lives Lived Jonah Dubois and his younger brother are told a lie. They are told that their mother, who grows up in a Cree family is Cree. When the boys discover that their mother is in fact not Cree, an identity crisis ensues. The Dubois boys have invested so much of themselves in a culture that the absence of it threatens their very existence. The rift between their French-Canadian heritage and First Nations heritage is suddenly a hoax. Without those boundaries to define them they have to find something else.

I love to draw parallels because it shows how every struggle is one in the same. So, in Lives Lived there is this racial divide in Michigan that reeks havoc but there is also one, different colors and cultures, in Quebec. Everyone wants to shout about their persecution and how bad they’ve had it but guess what? Everyone has that story to tell. So before you go and marginalize yourself and feel sorry for whatever history you are trying to drag out of the past just know that it has happened to everyone, everywhere at some time. So let’s just get over all of that right now.

Now that I’ve gotten all of that off of my chest…..Today I will continue reading through previous scenes. My goal is to draw parallels between the childhoods of Gabrielle and Jonah. I want to show how even though there is so much difference between the childhoods of Gabrielle and Jonah their spirits are connected because they are able to see the sameness in their experiences.

I am on a bit of a time budget this morning. One thing that is becoming apparent is the more time I spend writing, the more I want to write. I will admit that I am kind of dreading a get together-that is being thrown in my honor-this evening. I really just want to sit in front of this computer and peck away. Don’t get me wrong. I truly do have the best friends in the entire world and I love seeing them but right now, all I really see is this book. On that note, I am off.