In 1871, novelist Lewis Carroll wrote the sequel to his 1865 classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, called Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. In it he described an alternate universe, where things are contrary to the real world. The Covid-19 pandemic is a potent opportunity to use it as a kind of mirror, to see things from an alternative perspective for what might be hiding in plain sight.
The only thing making me write this blog right now is stubbornness. You see, I made a commitment at the beginning of 2020 to a year of Radical Resilience. Not just to be committed to doing the things I say I want to do, or to enduring whatever comes, but to do both of those things with a vengeance. Now, resilience is a grand and lofty word. It actually pretties up what is really going on. I liked the sound of it as my New Year’s resolution. But what I actually need is stubbornness. Gritty, dug in, mean and ornery, in it ‘til the wheels fall off.
Yes, he actually said it. After weeks of deflecting when asked about the lagging rollout of coronavirus testing, our President said, “No, I’m not responsible at all.” Some of his predecessors had a different take on what should be expected of a leader. Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read “The buck stops here.” John F. Kennedy urged citizens to “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
My friend A’Lelia Bundles has been the keeper of her family’s history almost all her life. She is the great great granddaughter and biographer of Sarah Breedlove, more famously known as Madam C. J. Walker, the nation’s first female self-made millionaire.
What a blast I had at the recent convention of Black Nurses Rock in Biloxi, Mississippi. I was invited to give a morning welcome address and the conference’s closing keynote, something I have done quite a few times for various organizations. But there were some elements that made this event especially exceptional.