What I’m Reading: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

One of the first books recommended to me on my path of anti-racist activism. The book takes the form of a letter from Coates to his then 15-year-old son. More poetry than prose, Coates walks his son through his life, confronting a kind of fear and identity that his now teenaged son sees in himself through the murder of Trayvon Martin. It’s beautiful and bleak. How could it not be? I can never claim to understand the experiences and lessons of this book, but even its short window into this world has deeply affected the way I confront my own role and privilege. Though just a step, this has become one of the more vital pieces of my anti-racist education.

What I’m Reconciling: My Expectations

The reality of the future has never been more evident than during this pandemic. That may sound odd or counter to the confusion we are all experiencing, but that’s just it. The future has always been this way, unpredictable and unwieldy. We only see it for what it has always been. Pre-pandemic, the future we thought we knew was just a function of our expectations. We saw the lives we were racing towards, opportunities and lifestyles waiting for us to grab them. The confusion we now feel is us reconciling those expectations with the truth that none of those things were ever sure. Now we must adjust. Rather than cling to a career or lifestyle, we need to prepare to be open to change. The passing on this pandemic is not a return to normalcy. What we have learned about the nature of the future continues to be real with or without a virus. So we must adjust our mindset to prepare and be comfortable with change in all its forms. Expectations and rooted passions can unhinge us from that reality if we are not careful. The danger of the future is not the future itself but in how we confront it. Better to take what we can with open arms then deny the truth of what comes next.