This week I’ve been thinking a lot about how to end racism, probably like a lot of people these past few weeks. I don’t think any reasonable person is desirous to see the recent tensions remaining as something we “just have to live with.” (Perhaps this is, in part, what so moved me about the film about Mr. Rogers that I’d watched yesterday.)
While reflecting on these things, something my mother used to say came to mind.
“A man convinced against his will
is of the same opinion still.”
The saying was made famous by Dale Carnegie, though its apparent origin is from the pen of Mary Wollstonecraft, early British feminist and mother of Mary Shelley the famous author of Frankenstein.
Racism has to end. It’s bad for all races. But the how of it is going to be the thornier problem. This saying gives a glimpse of the kinds of tactics that won’t work.
Thinking about this led me to recall a couple other things Mom said when I was growing up. Here’s a second.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive.”
If you always tell the truth, it’s less likely to get you tripped up under cross-examination.
* * * *
A third saying that came to mind was this one: “Boys will be boys.” My mom had four of us and she would know. (We had no sisters.) But when I talked with her this morning, she gave it a quite different spin.
“People would say, ‘Girls are different from boys,’ and I would say, ‘Boys are different from boys.’ All four of you were different.”
This was an interesting observation, and very true. Each us were very different and our life paths bore this out.
One trait that I share with my mother is an appreciation of poetry. I’d always assumed I gained my fondness for reading and writing poetry through my grandmother, who likewise wrote poems and had been influenced by an uncle who…
