Hello! Thank you for visiting my little blog. I hope you will find something in the words left here that makes you look at things differently or strengthens your own convictions about things that matter. I’m no great writer or thinker, but I feel compelled to express my feelings and share them with others. So, here goes!
Did you ever dream when you were a little boy or girl that you would grow up one day to become an important person in the world? I did. I would stand in front of the mirror and pretend that I was accepting an award for doing something so amazing that the whole world was watching on television. CNN didn’t exist at the time, and our TV set had rabbit ears antennae, but a child having an imagination is a good thing, right?
So much for childhood imagination. Now that I’m kinda, sorta grown up, I know that being important by the world’s definition isn’t necessarily a good thing. There are too many “important” people starting unnecessary wars, doing nothing about poverty, inciting racial divisions, and fomenting hate in the name of God and country.
I’m a person of faith. I love my country. I appreciate the liberty guaranteed by our Constitution and greatly respect the men and women who serve to preserve it, but I don’t pledge allegiance to a mere symbol that doesn’t equally stand for everyone. I don’t subscribe to a fundamentalist perversion of any religion. Sadly, many of the institutions we trust to protect us harbor and legitimize discrimination in its many subtle and not-so-subtle forms.
I not only stand for equality and strive for the rights of others, but also for my own. We live in a patriarchal world of white, straight, male privilege; a privilege I had naively enjoined, reaping the minor benefits of that world as “the dutiful woman” for a price I am no longer willing to pay. I traded that counterfeit currency for the genuine currency of authenticity, which I now enjoy by leading an abundant life with more self confidence.
Looking back at that innocent little girl standing in front of her mirror, I grieve. The world seemed smaller, safer and more certain then. With the encouragement of the previous administration in the White House, our nation has become more divided than ever along political, religious, racial and economic lines. Women are still fighting for equal pay, people of color are racially profiled, immigrant children are left in cages at our Southern boarder, and the LGBTQ+ community is under siege by religious fundamentalism.
More than ever the little girl with a dream wants to make some noise and make a difference. She doesn’t need to stand in front of the whole world on CNN to do it. She only needs to live authentically as God intended and change what she can where she is standing with the talents she’s been given. If my experience, my actions and my words can make a difference in someone’s life, that little girl will have lived her dream. I resolve to live her dream.
May God’s love and peace be with you.
Beverly Anne Smith
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