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Dreams Of My Great-Grandfather: A Conversation To Get Me Through Today’s Pain
If we ever had a chance to rap, I think our conversation would go something like this
When things are truly beyond my control, I pray.
In these impossible times, I pray for wisdom, reconciliation, and solution. During my quiet time a week ago, my great-grandfather came to mind. Robert Peoples was born in North Carolina on June 10, 1848. He was 17 years old when slavery was abolished and was a Civil War veteran. (Yes, those two things are consistent.) Robert was a father to 23 children. Despite having been born into slavery, he acquired a 160-acre farm through his own enterprising. I never had the chance to meet this man who overcame obstacles I can’t fathom.
“If you have breath in your lungs, that means God ain’t done with you yet.”
When I look at the current state of the world, it feels like the imagination is the only place to find reprieve. In a cathartic exercise to release some pain, I imagined what advice he’d give me in these treacherous times.
“Pop-Pop! Thanks for sitting down with me. Man, I have so much to tell you. I don’t even know where to begin…”
“What’s that in your hand, boy?”
“Oh, it’s just my iPhone.”
“How you calling yourself a phone?”
“No, it’s a smartphone, Pop-Pop. It doesn’t just make phone calls. I can send text messages, go on the internet, and even download apps.”
“Go on the what?”
“Nothing. Pop-Pop, there’s a lot going on right now. I’m angry. I’m sad. I’m honestly a little afraid. They’re beating and killing us with no solution or retribution in sight. I don’t know what to do.”
“There’s always been violence against us. We were beaten onto ships, and they beat us off the ships and into the fields. I know what it’s like to see a man’s life taken from him. You’re not supposed to know what to do with that; no one does. You’re not less of a man because you’re afraid. Being Black in this country comes with a certain dose of hopelessness.”
