There's Always Something Left to Love

I promise you, it is the simplest and most unexpected things that offer the greatest inspiration. It is those things that always have a way of striking true before we can put up our superficial defenses.

Lorraine hit me with a haymaker I couldn't prepared for! She was/is a genius. A master at conveying rich wisdom in simple ways, developing characters you feel like you've met before and illustrating the enduring beauty of black life. All of this I discovered after reading A Raisin in the Sun...for the first time.

Just bored, and working at a library at the time, I went searching for something to pass time reading. I was looking for poetry as I usually would, but this materpiece called out to me. Unexpected.

There was a bunch of stuff from this work that spoke to me but it was one line in the play, the haymaker, that struck me. It was this:

"There is always something left to love. If you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing." (This was in Act 3, Pg. 129...for anybody who may go check it out). Simple.

A little context without spoiling. This line appears during a scene where the play's main character, Walter Lee, is in a rock bottom moment and is a broken man. His sister, Beneatha, has no more faith in him and has essentially given up hope in him doing anything right. At which point their Mama had to drop this wise gem and put things in check.

Aight, so now to the greatest reason for even writing this. The power of this statement.

For me, it was a timely reminder of several things. At that particular time for me in life love was a difficult element to process or embrace. Partly because love had been reduced in many ways to romance (which I had failed miserably at and resented all love because of it) and honestly, I was lacking general empathy. I was in a slightly cold and unforgiving state of being right then.

Its such an essentially human truth and I needed to rememeber that you can never stop seeing your reflection in what and who is around you. I was both Walter Lee and Beneatha. I was broken, felt I was failing and I was an impatient and harsh judge both toward myself and the world around me. We can get so immersed in pain that we forget love is even there to be given..and most importantly recieved!

Shit, Mama in the play was talking to me!

It was eye opening and snapped me out of a very destructive vibe.

There's this too...

Have you ever felt like there is a universal message syncing up in your life?

Something that keeps being expressed to you internally and through different people and instances?

Thats what was happening.

It wasn't just Raisin in the Sun. I was also reading some Sonia Sanchez and Maya Angelou at the time (I be bouncing from book to book smh) and it made me think of something I heard Sonia say in person over a year ago: "People can change". I heard Maya say the exact same thing in an interview I had listened to around that time. Again very simple and indicative of compassion, forgiveness and yes...LOVE.

Theeenn, I was youtube surfing and came across a new joint...Talib Kweli feat. Anderson Paak called

Traveling Light. The song and music video are super dope (check it out!) but it wasn't so much the song. At the end of the music video is a raw, unplanned segment of Dave Chappelle (my all time favorite comedian) just real talking lol. Something he said synced up. He talked about being a "superhuman empathetic person" in this age of digital detachment and second hand experiences.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up!

Idk, maybe the universe just needed me to know that I can't give up on love or the fact that transformation can/must happen or that empathy is a super power. I know two things for sure. Sombody else had to have gotten this message and there are many more who need it.

As we encounter dehumanization and brutality, commodifying and desensitizing, straight up hate and ignorance, doubt, fear...there is ALWAYS something left to love, ALWAYS a place for empathy and understanding and though people may not like to change they can (just acknowledging the possibility) and something divine WILL inspire them to.

Just a simple (and maybe unexpected) reminder from those beautiful minds to me to you.