While I’m reading, a sentence will grab me and force me to stop. I pay tribute to other authors by sharing their Damn Fine Sentences with you. Then I recount a memory the words bring up for me. It’s about how books connect with your life.
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“Something that needed to kill found someone who wouldn’t be missed.”
———Katherine Addison
——--The Angel of the Crows
The YMCA calls it Silver Sneakers Enhance Fitness for Active Older Adults. I call it Dawn pretending to be a Fly Girl. Monday mornings, I look forward to this intense dose of endorphins that lifts my spirit for the entire day.
Before class, I folded my coat into a cubby. A regular walked past, tossing off a cheery “good morning,” then about-faced. Her expression turned earnest. “Do you remember Ruby?” she asked.
My blank look must have telegraphed a no.
“The girl who was escorted to school by U.S. Marshals?”
Mary Janes, white anklets, hair bow.
My shoulders sagged. Intuition screamed Dawn, save yourself, get the hell away, but politeness pinned me.
She continued. “Racism is an adult disease, and we shouldn’t use our children to spread it, and we still have so far to go, and it’s sad that ….”
A white woman’s fleeting discomfort about race needed a black body to land on.
###
“Something that needed to kill found someone who wouldn’t be missed.”
———Katherine Addison
——--The Angel of the Crows
The YMCA calls it Silver Sneakers Enhance Fitness for Active Older Adults. I call it Dawn pretending to be a Fly Girl. Monday mornings, I look forward to this intense dose of endorphins that lifts my spirit for the entire day.
Before class, I folded my coat into a cubby. A regular walked past, tossing off a cheery “good morning,” then about-faced. Her expression turned earnest. “Do you remember Ruby?” she asked.
My blank look must have telegraphed a no.
“The girl who was escorted to school by U.S. Marshals?”
Mary Janes, white anklets, hair bow.
My shoulders sagged. Intuition screamed Dawn, save yourself, get the hell away, but politeness pinned me.
She continued. “Racism is an adult disease, and we shouldn’t use our children to spread it, and we still have so far to go, and it’s sad that ….”
A white woman’s fleeting discomfort about race needed a black body to land on.
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