Jump In

Friday, August 13, 2010 at 12:19pm
More often, in my life, it has not been others, but some nagging voice inside my head that has sent out the warning call, kept me wading ankle-deep, even while yet some other voice – excited and hopeful – has screamed, "Jump on in"!
People see a great deal of competence, creativity, originality in me. A friend who hasn't known me too long recently said she doesn't know why I'm not more of a go-getter. "Why aren't you more ambitious? You can do so many things!" she said.True, I have never been able to put my ambition up against others'. I have never really made a connection with the word. But, oh, I have heeded that other voice: "Jump in!" My big splashes have not put me on a super-career track, nor fattened my bank account, nor earned me Alumnus of the Year.
Yet, I have had more careers than many people, putting curiosity ahead of security...jump! I have stayed when others left, left when others stayed, fought when others fled, stood in the spotlight when others sat in the stands, spoke out loud when others whispered. Every time that voice told me to fall in love, jump on in, I did. And I'm glad about it.
Before jumping in, you have to know that others won't weigh your success as you do. You will be splashing around in the water celebrating the mere fact that you made it that far. You will feel refreshed, renewed, reborn. They will be measuring the distance.
I want my 15-year-old students to have the courage, curiosity, conviction to jump in, even if the odds don't favor getting rich or famous. Jump in! Make your life!

You Have

You have not written 
the best-seller.

You have not given

your Tony Award

acceptance speech for

Best Actress in a Musical.

You are not the latter-day

Ida B. Wells

(though in your heart you are).

Stevie Wonder did not

sing at your wedding.

You do not regularly have

deep conversations

with your best friend

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

You don’t walk the halls

of the academy waxing

wise and funny.

But you have dreamed anyway.

You have laughed in your sleep.

You have sung through tears.

You have danced with your sister.

You have giggled with three-year-olds.

You have rolled in the grass.

You have heard Daddy recite Dunbar

and Ma’s rich alto/tenor render

Jesus knows, Jesus cares.

You have been held in strong arms.

You have inhaled the soft

sweetness of Johnson’s baby powder

on baby brothers’

smoothbrown bellies,

and have chased their happy

short legs down hallways.

Loving eyes have smiled at you.

You have counted stars.

© Avis Matthews

Lessons from "A Raisin in the Sun"

December 19-20, 2009
Watched "A Raisin in the Sun" while snowed in -- the original film version. Never will get enough of this Lorraine Hansberry masterpiece. Hansberry knew the aspirations, frustrations, temptations, and jubilations of her people in this country. Even knowing the film well, my heart was pounding with anticipation. This is what I want to teach my minority students: know the aspirations, frustrations, temptations, and jubilations of your families in this land of America. Watch, listen, learn, grow, give. Let's teach our young people that. We don't serve them well when we don't share with them their own history. I have many favorite lines from the film, not the least of which is: "He came into his manhood today." I almost broke down when Claudia McNeil spoke that line, gushing with pride and certainty. (Black men and black women can disagree -- even fight, yet STILL hold each other up.)