I’m tired. I’m tired that we’re having a public debate over whether or not human beings should wear masks in public to protect each other from a deadly virus that doesn’t care about individual freedoms, political affiliation, age, religion, or race. I’m tired that a president who has shown himself to be corrupt, lacking in sound judgement and leadership, lawless, and morally depraved is even on the presidential ballot this November. I’m tired that in 2020 anti-blackness is still a thing that has to be spotlighted, explained, argued about, and protested against in the streets. I’m tired that it takes the Supreme Court to rule that LGBTQ people have a right to work. I’m tired that the debate over Dreamers remains an issue. I’m tired that Mitch McConnell is still the Senate Majority Leader despite his devil’s horns on full display.
Being so tired this week and looking for a way to rally, I called to mind a poem I often read in my youth titled, “Don’t Quit”. The author is none other that American Quaker and abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier. It just so happens that this past week, his statue was vandalized and that, too, makes me tired because the vandalism was an assault on what this man stood for. But even before I heard about that incident, I was fixated on one particular line in the poem that I repeated over and over this week as a mantra. The line was, “…..rest if you must, but don’t you quit.” This week I will simply share the first part of this poem as I rest. But rest assured, I will NOT quit.
A few my Marine husband would say when things got tough for us: *”Quitting is not an option. Adapt, Improvise or Overcome all obstacles in your way.” *”If you need to take a hill or conquer a mountain, first get all the pebbles out of your shoes.” His, “Marine-isms” became a way to change my attitude, open my mind, or re-direct my efforts. On the masks, social distancing, staying in… I can’t be bothered by what others think. I’ll educate myself, err on the side of safety & follow my own heart. In today’s world, I don’t like the way others are thinking, anyway. “To thine own self, be true.” That works for me. “Rest if you must” – recharge – “but don’t you quit”. I like that. I may not live to see the all the coming changes, but hope lives that greater awareness will keep those changes moving forward. I learned so much this week, it depressed me, but knowledge is power. I am thankful to be learning “hidden history” that is being exposed to sunlight, finally. Quitting is not an option.