Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

I am sharing this week and in posts to follow, a few influences--videos, books, people, places, stories--that have helped me notice my blindspots with regard to racial justice. The story is ever growing. In fact, sometimes the more I learn, the harder it is to write. So I'll just start here, hoping that if I tell one or two stories, it could be a way forward to you reading or telling one or two more stories, and that could be a way forward for all of us.  I remember sitting on the couch with my seven-year old daughter and reading to her The Story of Ruby Bridges . Ruby, a brave black girl whose parents were perhaps even braver, to agree to let her integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. My daughter studied the watercolor illustrations of the angry white parents yelling at Ruby as she walked into the school protected by federal marshals.  I remember uncomfortable shock at the teacher who criticized Ruby for talking back to the mob, when in fact Ru...

This morning on our walk I delighted in the cool, fresh air.  “Oh, it’s so lovely!” I exclaimed to the children and the birds and the dog, thinking that it will soon end.  The days will come when 8 AM is already too hot and humid for a walk. The weather put me in such a good mood that I thought we ought to have some education.  “Kids, remember that verse you are learning in Latin . . .In principio erat Verbum.  Et verbum erat apud Deum . . .” They nodded, squinting in the sun, not looking at me.  “That’s John 1:1.” I told them.  “But do you know it in English?” Immediately Elisabeth began reciting, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” We were rounding the corner and Henry looked up at me and said, “That sounds kind of boring.” What could I do but laugh?  The words that delight and confound grownups simply sound boring to kids.  Maybe he was more interested in “putting on the armor of ...