By Princess Haley
I thought it would be Toni, or Zora, or Maya who would comfort my soul and give me the courage to continue during my bout with “Covidity.” Instead, I was greeted with the spirit of a new-to-me ancestral writer who gave permission to tie a blue ribbon in my hair for the pain I feel; the pain that others feel.
I guess if it’s possible for me to be fed by The Parable of the Sower (1993) during this time, then it’s also possible that her blessing to me could also be a prediction of our world to come (or a bit like today). Octavia Butler has helped me escape my current reality which has been overstimulating to say the least. I have enjoyed retreating to my thoughts about how to prepare my legacy for a future of survival without the system for support.
I’m not sure how to start to build a wall around this side of our block, like in this parable’s telling. I don’t even know my neighbors that well. I have had previous visions of the concrete on the street in front of our homes being scraped up, with exposed rods and crumbling stone making it impossible to travel. What would we do? How would I ever recover? How do we recover?
The truth sits at the kitchen tables of all Americans. It wears an overpriced gaudy sweater, while staring at a bowl of cold fear that proves itself to be most edible as well as paralyzing. I continue to think like Lauren (the story’s protagonist).We have to be prepared. This is the time! We have to be storing up, learning and building. Am I the one making a culture of planning for and prioritizing our daily survival? Must I never let my guard down, and I have to train my daughter to put her dukes up, as well?
I’m not sure who screams louder, the man in the valley from the story pleading for his life, or the silent screams in our minds from the fear of losing our comfort in the amenities we access with our false freedom. So selfish, are we not thinking of our legacy? Will we continue to believe everything we hear? Why toilet paper, and shouldn’t we have always washed our hands? Will the evolution of virus and our own animality outlive us in this world we have created for ourselves?
