On the Way Home Today....

......I had a very interesting thought: THANK GOD I WAS NOT BORN INTO SLAVERY!!!

Before you start heee-ing and hawing about why would I be thinking such a thing, let me explain.  This time of year, folks with allergies start looking for new noses on all the latest nose sites because the allergens are in full force.  I am no exception when it comes to certain things, more specifically fresh cut grass and (more recently) cotton. 


Let me explain further--driving home today, I had my windows down low and my music up high as I was trying to press my way through 5:00 traffic.  When I reached 21st Street there was "white stuff" flying around everywhere.  At first glance it looked like the stuff off the weeds that you use to blow when you were a kid, but upon further inspection I saw that it was cotton.  Fresh off the  cotton plant.  Before I could really grasp what was happening there was cotton in my car and all over my black shirt.  My eyes were starting to burn and itch and I had to roll up the window before one more piece flew in.


Now, with that being said, go back to my original comment - THANK GOD I WAS NOT BORN INTO SLAVERY.  As a deep chocolate woman, there would have been no mistaking where I would have ended up on a plantation based on what we know of the field-slave/house-slave complexion divide during those times.  How in the world would I have managed to pick one ounce of cotton with an allergy.  I would have been done for the first harvest!

While it would have been my desire that none of our ancestors would have been subjected to the tyranny, the injustices and the oppression of slavery, I am so grateful to have not known that life.  I am grateful for those that paved the way and endured hardship that I could never imagine.  I appreciate those that died to escape bondage so that others could be free.  But above all of that--I am eternally grateful that God chose a time called now and a place called here for me to live in.
 
I know this is not something that people typically think about, but it truly was my first thought as I saw a piece of cotton land on my hand, what if I had to pick this everyday? What would I have done had this been my lot in life.  Lord knows I don't know but what I do know is that I am glad I will never have to find out....