“Forgive me if I’m wrong
But this looks like
More than I can do
On my own”
“Strong Enough” – Matthew West
Matthew West began as an independent musician before recording his first studio album in 2003 and seeing his world flip upside down when his debut album resulted in five nominations for the Christian music Dove Awards in 2005. He’s since become one of the most highly-regarded songwriters in the music industry, regardless of genre.
As part of that, West has taken on writing songs from the hundreds and thousands of stories he receives through email or letter. He has now released two full-length albums, completely populated with songs written from stories submitted by listeners of his music. “Strong Enough” comes from the first of those albums, “The Story of Your Life,” which was released in 2010.
The song was inspired by a letter from a single mother of three children. The mother talked about a daughter surviving a life-threatening car accident, and as her daughter struggled with the long road to recovery, the mother struggled with whether she could encourage her daughter and keep the rest of the family moving forward. She stated that her point of clarity was when her daughter thanked her for being “strong enough for both of us” in the midst of her feelings that she was at her weakest. She explained that she knew the strength her daughter was seeing was her leaning harder on her faith and Jesus than she ever had before.
This month is a month to reflect on the strength and inspiration of so many Black members of our nation, and the world at large, as we celebrate Black History Month.
For anyone who would have the audacity to question why we celebrate Black history and not history of your particular group, you’re wrong. January is Muslim American Heritage Month, February is Black History Month, March celebrates Greek, Irish, and Women’s history, April recognizes Arab-American heritage while also focusing on the contributions of those who are autistic or deaf, and May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander, Jewish-American, and those with mental health who are kept in mind. Caribbean-Americans (June), French-Americans (July), Hispanic (September), Filipino (October), German (October), Italian (October), Polish (October), and Native Americans (November) each have a month of recognition and/or remembrance as well.
Now that that’s out of the way, one of the things that I’ve lamented as I attempt to teach my children about their unique history and those who have informed and inspired accomplishment in their backgrounds. Being an adoptive father, I want to teach them the German and Irish backgrounds of my family, along with the agricultural values my family has espoused for many generations, but I also have my wife’s background, and each of my children is multi-racial, meaning we have multiple backgrounds to consider.
One of my favorite shows to watch is PBS’s “Finding Your Roots”, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is a highly-respected academic who has focused his work on history and genealogy to find what our diverse and collective backgrounds can tell us both about where we’ve been and how we can work together for what we encounter moving forward.
In an episode recently, Gates was speaking with television host Sara Haines about her family tree, which dates back far enough on this continent that her family predates the United States of America as a country.
Haines remarked when discussing information about some of her first family in the country that she doesn’t know how they were strong enough to make it.
I then heard a similar remark at a recent family funeral for my great aunt. June was a strong woman, and she took time to write some of her personal history from her childhood, which was read at her memorial service by her son-in-law. After hearing about living hard days on the farm without full electricity and digging a hole to store ice cut from the James River, the pastor began his reflection by expressing his amazement, stating that her personal strength was likely informed by the strength it took to survive such tough times.
A recent podcast episode I was listening to had a very interesting reflection on Black history and the things we simply pass over in our traditional teachings, even if Black history is fully explored in a modern educational structure.
One was the age of Rosa Parks. The podcast guest did a “man on the street” style walk through multiple large cities and found that most people believed that Rosa Parks was an elderly, frail woman who was exhausted from a long day at a menial job, and that’s why she declined to give up her seat on the bus. She was 42 in 1955 when she refused to move on a bus in Montgomery, and Parks herself countered the “tired” comments.
“I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day,” Parks stated. “No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Parks was then an active organizer of the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted for more than a year.
Another consideration is that Black leaders were always outcasts in the South. In fact, the first time the North Carolina legislature ever adjourned for a full day of mourning was on Feb. 21, 1895, when the legislature recognized Frederick Douglass’ passing the day before with a day of remembrance and mourning. At the time, in the era between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Jim Crow laws across the South that were encouraged by the Supreme Court’s 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, the North Carolina legislature had as many as half of its body Black legislators.
Today’s “this day in history” mentions a number of names who changed Black history, from the birthday of activist and politician John Lewis to the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X to the birthday of musician Nina Simone, who sang powerful anthems during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Tuesday also marked the loss of prominent activist Jesse Jackson, who passed away at the age of 84. Jackson was in Memphis with Martin Luther King Jr. on the day of MLK’s assassination, and he ran for the nomination for President twice, giving him a platform to continue his activism decades after the Civil Rights Movement was considered over.
All of these people offered their voices not just to help and advance Black people, but to, in turn, strengthen the United States as a nation by doing so. The efforts were not to erase any part of another’s lived experience, but to build on that to create a better nation that truly represented all its inhabitants.
As we prepare to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday, remembering the history and experiences of all those who make up this country is important. I think we’d find many stories where we admire someone being strong enough to endure for the better of the nation and the world.
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