My friend Dr. Reggie Shareef lives in Roanoke, VA, and I met him while studying the urban renewal program there. He has looked at that process from the economic perspective and this has given him unique -- even dazzling -- insights. I was bothering him about pulling his pieces together into a book. He said no, he is retired (and maybe tired?) and didn't want to do that.
This reminded me of Zora Neale Hurston getting to know Cudjo Lewis, a man who arrived in the Americas on the last slave ship. She sat with him and ate watermelon and listened to his extraordinary story. This encounter was published in Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo. Alice Walker wrote the profound introduction, in which she says:
Here is the medicine:
That though the heart is breaking, happiness can exist in a moment, also. And because the moment in which we live is all the time there really is, we can keep going. It may be true, and often is, that every person we hold dear is taken from us. Still. From moment to moment, we watch our beans and our watermelons grow. We plant. We hoe. We harvest. We share with neighbors. If a young anthropologist appears with two hams and gives us one, we look forward to enjoying it.
I was imagining the young anthropologist with two hams who might wander by Dr. Shareef's house and listen intently to his wisdom! Maybe collect the papers into a book?
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