Did she abandon us or surrender to God’s will for her life, our lives? Is my sister taking off after our mother or Jesus? Is there another possibility? After all, Shakespeare had the deposed and exiled Duke Senior in As You Like It avow:
Sweet are the uses of adversity which like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
If, as the quote continues, there is good in everything then, as with a childhood interrupted there must also be good in the racism we encountered as we arrived in the Bronx circa 1965, the height of the civil rights movement. I’ve figured out at least in part how each must be true. But how do I convey this to others a generation or more removed? This is the challenge for tonight’s panel presentation.