Days of Remembrance and Hope

Where you are makes such a difference in how you see things that happen, I'm learning. The back to back days celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday followed by the inauguration of Barak Obama as the first black president are days I think I see differently because of where I live.



About half of the houses on my street are owned by older black people who raised their families and lived out their careers in this neighborhood. They have lived through the decline of the neighborhood in the 80's and 90's when more and more of the neighborhood was taken over by drug dealers and gang members, suffering as poverty and crime affected everyone.



Each older neighbor I have met told me that they moved here in 1963. What does that mean? It means that as soon as one black family bought a house here, all of the white people sold their homes and fled to the white suburbs. The pastor of Paradise Missionary Baptist around the corner told me the building was sold to his congregation by a white church in 1965.



My neighbors have changed how I see this election and the new president. My neighbors lived in the Jim Crow south, being turned away from restaurants and the front of buses, drinking from separate water fountains and using a different entrance to the theater. My neighbors lived through the civil rights movement and encountered all of the resistance and recriminations of those who hated change. My neighbors have been teachers, pharmacists, firefighters, and housekeepers. They sent their children to college. My neighbors experienced continued oppression in neighborhoods that became neglected and blighted partially because they were primarily black.



Even if I can never fully know what it is like for my neighbors to watch the inauguration of President Obama, living here has given me a small taste of how momentous these days have been. It doesn't take the media hype for me to see the connection drawn from the dream of Martin Luther King as he spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to what the oath taken on the Capitol steps symbolized.

Copied from my home blog:

Fiscal considerations have caused me to put my gym membership on hold for now, so any running I do must be done outside. (Brrrr!) It's been another opportunity to venture out in the neigborhood in search of the miles I need. I can go in circles around the park on my own block, but since this is the only place I walk the dogs, I'm rather bored with that.

So far, I've ventured down the main road that runs through the neighborhood on a quiet Sunday morning and during daylight rush hour. (Don't worry, I have a neat little elastic wristband with pepper spray for stray dogs and other unsavory characters.) Soon, my work will relocate to a new building only a mile and a half from home. Since we'll have a shower there, I'll be able to switch 2 runs a week to my lunch hour and run home, let the dogs out and run back.

One Sunday I passed Chris and Star, a couple who live on my block, on my way back from a run. They were on their way to church, but we took a moment to talk about running and a half marathon that's in late March here. To my great surprise and delight, Chris showed up at my door several days later and asked about the race. We talked about running routes. It's so exciting that they may do this run. I may even gain a running partner.

Running 'round here

Fiscal considerations have caused me to put my gym membership on hold for now, so any running I do must be done outside. (Brrrr!) It's been another opportunity to venture out in the neigborhood in search of the miles I need.

I can go in circles around the park on my own block, but since this is the only place I walk the dogs, I'm rather bored with that. So far, I've ventured down the main road that runs through the neighborhood on a quiet Sunday morning and during daylight rush hour. (Don't worry, I have a neat little elastic wristband with pepper spray for stray dogs and other unsavory characters.)

Soon, my work will relocate to a new building only a mile and a half from home. Since we'll have a shower there, I'll be able to switch 2 runs a week to my lunch hour and run home, let the dogs out and run back.

One Sunday I passed Chris and Star, a couple who live on my block, on my way back from a run. They were on their way to church, but we took a moment to talk about running and a half marathon that's in late March here. To my great surprise and delight, Chris showed up at my door several days later and asked about the race. We talked about running routes. It's so exciting that they may do this run. I may even gain a running partner.

I have discovered that things move slowly here (or maybe it's me). It's the first time he's set foot in my house. Most people on the street, no matter how kind and friendly, have not invited me into their homes. Only Miss Mamie and Johnnie (a young woman from the next block) have come into my house before this.

New Year, New Thoughts

I've been so slack writing about my home and life in the neighborhood. A conversation after
church today and some recent opportunities and experiences reminded me why I decided to track this new life.
Last year at Christmas, most of my house was under plastic and dropcloths, there were sawhorses in the dining room, and I was wearing a brace on an injured knee. I managed to stick a wreath on the front door, but Christmas was a non-event. This year, I was giddy about pulling out decorations that had been packed away for 2 years and deciding what to use. A friend helped me pick out a big tree and get it in the stand. Somehow, it was the decorating that made this house really feel like home. (Well ,that and finishing the closet project in the front bedroom that allowed me to finally finish unpacking).

Here's the closets and window seats added in the front room.


Here's the living room decorated for Christmas.