Maren's Musings

"Our Real Work" - Wendell Berry It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work. And that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. The writing below was based off the above poem, and the writing prompt, "We've come to our real work."  We’ve come to our real work. Now is the time to learn the history. The history that was always there… but maybe we didn’t learn because it got whitewashed in all the textbooks and curriculum. Now is the time to learn the history. The history that was deemed too controversial for a high school. The history that would “ruffle feathers” or make us too uncomfortable.  Instead, we got the cursory introductory course. Now is the time to study our own history. The books, the documentaries, the articles, the memoirs that tell it straight. Thank God for these ...

“Melting Pot” Before May 25th… Before the name George Floyd tragically joined the list of names, the list that should not even exist… Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Treyvon Martin, The list that goes on, and on, and on. Before the nation witnessed the horrific killing of yet another black person at the hands of a racist wielding too much power, harboring too much hate… Before… the racial tensions were already there, make no mistake. The heat on the “melting pot” had been turned up so high, for so many years, so many decades, so many centuries. It was only a matter of time before something was going to burn. Too long in the pot. Too long have we thrown those black and brown bodies in the pot and tried to melt them into “American.” What does it mean to be “American” anyway? “American” like Velveeta cheese? Moldable and meltable? But like this “cheese,” we know deep down that the “melting pot” is not the real deal. The “melting pot” is a dange...