I understood her courage as a no. She summarizes at the end of our conversation, "Sophia, courage for me is a yes. Yes to loving others, as a yes to yourself and the love you feel for yourself." That courage is connected to trust, in oneself and one's own strength. Courage is enduring the pain of others and accepting their love.
Sometimes, as a grandchild, you forget the lives of your own grandparents. The story they lived pales behind the expectations you have of them. But it gives me strength today to know that my own grandmother made it through almost 90 years of earth. 90 years in this difficult, patriarchal world and today sits in her electric chair with books and tangerines and murmurs to me during our phone calls, "Oh my, I'm so glad I'm not young anymore."
I understood her courage as a no. She summarizes at the end of our conversation, "Sophia, courage for me is a yes. Yes to loving others, as a yes to yourself and the love you feel for yourself." That courage is connected to trust, in oneself and one's own strength. Courage is enduring the pain of others and accepting their love.
Sometimes, as a grandchild, you forget the lives of your own grandparents. The story they lived pales behind the expectations you have of them. But it gives me strength today to know that my own grandmother made it through almost 90 years of earth. 90 years in this difficult, patriarchal world and today sits in her electric chair with books and tangerines and murmurs to me during our phone calls, "Oh my, I'm so glad I'm not young anymore."