The week started with quite the experience, as I found myself teaching a class of Boaz & Ruth apprentices at 8:00am Monday morning on the topic of “Giving back and supporting society.” It was an eye-opener for me to facilitate this class because I got to hear a lot of the emotions that the people in the program have towards society and how it has treated them. Coming out of prison, a majority of them are struggling just to ‘make it’ through this time in their life because of the obstacles society places on them for being convicted felons. Many of them are relying on the support of family or friends to just have an extra pair of shoes or a couple changes of clothes. Obviously, they are frustrated by these mainly financial constraints, so it is understandable why many are frustrated by the small wage they receive from Boaz & Ruth. Therefore, the idea of giving back to society is completely foreign to a lot of these individuals, which is completely understandable given their perspective on society.
Another focus of this class was the importance of knowing thyself and taking care of you before giving of yourself to a community. It only makes sense that you must be able to live with the way you are before you can confidently go before the rest of society. One trainee by the name of Melvin of whom I’ve spoken before shared some very enlightening insight during this part of the class. Over the weekend, he wrote some reflections on his life and life in general that really can apply to any person. I will be sure to post these sometime during the week for everybody to read as a lot of the words really touched my heart.
Another highlight of the week at B&R was getting to partake in their celebration of Juneteenth on Tuesday evening. I am guessing most of you from the Midwest have not even heard of this, and would be surprised to learn that it is one of the most important dates in black history and American history that this country has seen! In short, Juneteenth is the day that the last enslaved Africans in this country were notified of their freedom (they were in Texas). The date is commonly known as June 19, 1865, or almost two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. During the festivities of the evening, I learned some fascinating things about our country’s history that are unfortunately not well known within society. For one, I was shocked to learn that the Emancipation Proclamation was written as a political maneuver by Abe Lincoln. Its sole objective was not to free all the slaves of this country, as it only proclaimed freedom for those slaves in states in conflict with the Union. States like Texas were not in direct conflict with the Union by definition; therefore it took a few more years before total emancipation became a reality.
What’s even more interesting is that many African Americans, even today, see Juneteenth as their Independence Day rather than the traditional 4th of July. A perspective that I had actually never realized before was that Independence Day pre-Civil War was only a holiday for whites in the South. I got the impression that some blacks still celebrate the 4th with a grain of salt, if you will. I guess I will find out for sure in a few weeks!
While work is always a pleasure, all week I was really looking forward to Friday night and the Drive-By Truckers concert. Every Friday on Browns Island near downtown Richmond there is an event called Friday Cheers, where a fairly well-known band plays a free concert outdoors. This week, one of my favorite bands was coming to town and I was pumped! I ended up being in about the third row for the performance, which was one of the best I had ever seen. It was the perfect kickoff to an absolutely fun-packed weekend!
Earlier that Friday, I had been invited by friend and co-worker Josh to head out with him to his family’s lake home on one of the tributaries feeding into the Chesapeake Bay. Josh is a great guy who graduated from Davidson in 2006 and moved back to his hometown of Richmond to take an AmeriCorps intern position with Boaz & Ruth. Thankfully, I had no plans for the weekend yet so it looked like a weekend of boating and fishing was in store for me!
On Saturday morning I headed out to the area, which is only 1.5 hours from Richmond. There we met up with a lot of Josh’s friends and roommates from Richmond. We spent hours on high speed cruisers, being pulled on tubes and having battles of male supremacy to see who could knock who off the opposing tube. We even casted a few lines in the water and pulled some Croaker fish out of the saltwater which we later fried for dinner that evening!
As fun as Saturday was, Sunday took the cake for the weekend. Most people left for Richmond on Saturday night or early Sunday morning, but Josh, Justin, Elizabeth and I went out for more fun and physical punishment on Sunday. I tried and failed to wakeboard for the first time, but did get up on water skis for the first time ever! I definitely came back battered and bruised from all my falls and all the saltwater I swallowed, but it was well worth the reward.
In many ways, being back on the water in the Chesapeake Bay area reminded me of Minnesota more than any other experience I’ve had out here so far. The beautiful houses amongst majestic trees on the shoreline seemed like something right out of northern Minnesota. I guess the Minnesota accents that the four of us imitated through the day helped as well! In any case, I was grateful to have made some new friends and rejuvenated myself for what should be another unpredictable week. Just 7 more hours until I teach class again tomorrow morning!
Me, Josh & Justin
Gettin up on the skis
Simply beautiful
Josh, el capitan
Elizabeth, Josh & Justin
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