Legacy

One of my co-workers in D.C. has a saying..."A person's passing is like a library burning down." And today the world lost Alexandria all over again.

Coretta Scott King passed away this morning at the age of 78.

I "met" Mrs. King last year on Dr. King's birthday. I sat in on a live interview between her and Tavis Smiley at the old Ebeneezer Church on Auburn Avenue. She was poised...and very strong...and very honest. That's what I remember about her. I sat maybe about 15 feet from her, but she had tight security and they wisked her away before anyone could shake hands or ask questions or anything. Not much of a meeting, I guess.

But I did take a few things away from my encounter. I learned that the black family is a very powerful institution. I learned that grace is divine. And, lives should be celebrated long before they are gone.

Family
I don't think Dr. King could have been all that he had become had it not been for Coretta. She was his strength. She (in her words) took care of everything else so that he could be Martin. That is a dedication that I admire. I think our families are missing that. Men don't want to be dependent upon their women, and women don't want to be solely responsible for holding up their men. Men need to value women more than they do. And women need to be more supportive than they are. I need to work on being better at that.

Grace
There is something to be said for keeping your private life private. Mrs. King was secretive, but she wpre the hat that the world needed to see. That they wanted to see. People wanted to see her live the life that Dr. King preached. Non-violent. Peaceful. She never raised her voice, never got emotional, even when it would have been understandable. She was always poised....which is certainly not an easy thing to be all of the time. But as far as the world could see, she was. And that is something more divine than human. (Martin and Dexter could learn a lot from their mother in that regard.)

Life
There have been helicopters and news trucks all up and down the street where I work today. And I find it funny in a sad way that we continue to wait until someone is passed to celebrate their life. I'm very interested to see what kind of awards and festivals and special tributes come out of Mrs. King's death. I would also be interested in knowing how much she would have appreciated it all if she were alive to experience it.

I think when I leave this world, I want people to know me by my work and my legacy. I want to be my own testament. Eulogies are nice, but I want the people who speak about me not be news reporters or jouranlists, but my family and friends, kids I tutored, staff people at programs I worked to start. I want to be appreciated more in life than in death.