My cousin Ruth had a saying: “If it’s on you, tell it.” Meaning, if something is always on your mind, or heavy on your heart, speak on it. What’s constantly on my mind are the questions of who we all are and why we humans are thrown together in these crazy ways, with the pains and joys and fears and triumphs that we have. I’ve truly come to believe that, when stripped bare, humanity is really a matter of souls.
So I’m telling you the stories of people who love and want to be loved; who have faith, lose it, and sometimes find it again. They hope and long and fight and dream for particular kinds of freedom that we today may have forgotten. As separated, segregated, distanced as we may appear to be by time or experience, I’m telling you that our souls remain connected. Our souls remain alive, always and everywhere.
Without my connections to these people, I would never have trusted myself: Austin, Mommie, Matthew, Bobbie, Mary Jack, Danah, Sharon, Sally, Hector, Deryck, Carol, Wise Andrew. And thanks to everyone else who listened to ideas, read, or has otherwise been bombarded by the details of this collection.
Jill, you deserve a stand-alone shout-out.