Abstract

In Full Bloom

The article offers a firsthand explanation for one woman's activism. My activism--cultural, political, spiritual--is rooted in my love of nature and my delight in human beings. It is when people are at peace, content, full, that they are most likely to meet my expectation, selfish, no doubt, that they be a generous, joyous, even entertaining experience for me. In the 1960s, many of us were plagued by the notion that, given the magnitude of the task before us--the dismantling of American apartheid--our individual acts were puny. I taught in two local black colleges, I wrote about the Movement, and I created tiny history booklets that were used to teach the teachers of children enrolled in Head Start. Whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that--which is the foundation of activism. There might be years during which our grief is equal to, or even greater than, our hope. The alternative, however, not to act, and therefore to miss experiencing other people at their best, reaching toward their fullness, has never appealed to me.