Isn't it amazing how one woman just being tired can change a country? Isn't it even more amazing how much the passing of a person you've never met can hurt you so much?
My GIRL. I have modeled my life against your modesty. That is not a dramatic lie. You are my pillar of progress. You lived it all and died at 92. What a great age. What a wise age. What a woman.
I'm an Air Force Brat, I've barely a home ground, let alone a home state. Rosa Parks, no matter how unintentional that moment was, you've made me proud I was born in that state, if only because it bred women like you.
Rosa. Our national treasure.
Give 'em hell in heaven. Change the course of the place. Trust me, everybody there knows you don't mean to, and unless they really aren't as all that Divine, they're going to know how lucky they are to have you.
We miss you already here on Earth.
Posted by Emily at October 24, 2005 08:23 PM | TrackBack (2) |Cool lady. I just wish they'd knock off the mythology. It may have been useful at the time but the real story is at least as good as the myth.
Posted by: Ken Summers at October 25, 2005 06:51 AMI think a culture needs its myths as well as its reality. Sure you can take myths too far - but how do you control that? There were certain "myths" that I latched on to growing up - which, while they may not have been the whole truth, got me through many a dark hour. Time enough for reality - reality will come into play whether you like it or not. But it is our myths that can help us keep going when the going gets tough.
Rest in peace, Rosa Parks. Your simple action changed everything. Amazing.
I loved your words, Emily. :)
Posted by: red at October 25, 2005 07:51 AMSorry, one last thought - I'm suddenly contemplating the value of a myth, in terms of my own life:
An example of one of the "myths" that I completely subscribed to as a youngster - was the infallibility and perfection of our Founding Fathers. They were literally suffused in haloes, as far as I was concerned.
I have now, in my adulthood, read more books about each of those guys than I can count - they are an ongoing passion - and now I can see them, in all their flaws, all their complexity - and it's strange - I like them even BETTER when I see them as human beings. Extraordinary human beings, but human beings.
However - I'm not sorry that I subscribed to the myth. It kept me passionately in love with this country and with the ideals this country stands for through a couple of difficult years when I really needed that belief, when my faith was really shaken, etc. The myth was what I held onto.
Just a thought.
Posted by: red at October 25, 2005 07:56 AMAgreed, Sheila. Myths are valuable but reality is usually even better.
The myth that a tired lady on her way home from work changed history makes a great story, but that a black woman would deliberately challenge Jim Crow, knowing what could and did happen so often, is even better.
Posted by: Ken Summers at October 25, 2005 08:15 AMSee I think the myth - that she was a "nobody" - just a tired lady - is FAR more compelling to people. It makes it seem like they, too, in their "nobody-ness", could make a difference.
Knowing the real story of Rosa Parks is, of course, fascinating and illuminating - but the myth is very powerful as well. Obviously - since it persists!
Posted by: red at October 25, 2005 08:17 AMIt persists because it is allowed to persist without being challenged.
How many people know the the true story -- that there were two other women arrested for the same offense BEFORE Rosa Parks, but weren't considered good enough to use to spark the protest by the NCAAP. (One had an out-of-wedlock child, and the other an allegedly-alcoholic father.) They planted Rosa Parks on that bus because she was "good enough".
Those facts don't diminish her accomplishment. They don't discount her bravery in doing what she did. But when you know the true story, it tempers your view of the incident. At least it did with me. I felt manipulated.
Posted by: Lisa at October 25, 2005 08:53 AMBut when you know the true story, it tempers your view of the incident. At least it did with me. I felt manipulated.
Agreed. I liked my illusions, but I'm glad that I now know the truth.
Posted by: Cullen at October 25, 2005 10:14 AM