When I joined 'Essence,' I was a young, single mother. I was 24. I hadn't gone to college. I wasn't making any money at 'Essence' - what was it, $500 a month - and I was struggling. So I was always looking down the road, always hoping for a better, you know, tomorrow.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the resilience and hope of a young single mother who faced challenges but remained optimistic about the future.
Susan L. Taylor reflects on her early experiences when she joined 'Essence' as a young, single mother. Despite lacking higher education and financial stability, she maintained a forward-looking perspective, symbolizing the importance of hope and perseverance in overcoming life's difficulties. Her journey portrays the struggle many face, yet also highlights the potential for a brighter tomorrow through determination and optimism.
In practice
This quote can inspire young parents facing financial struggles to keep believing in their potential.
We are here to love, not to judge. I'd been blaming and raging. I certainly wasn't loving my daughter that afternoon as God loves me. God's love doesn't insist on perfection or even good common sense. Why then should I demand more of those I love? With this tiny change in perspective I began to see the need for correction wasn't in my daughter, but in me.
Everything hinges on education. Without it, you can't advocate for proper health care, for housing, for a civil rights bill that ensures your rights.
We don't have time to waste. Our communities are crumbling; our children are under siege. Failing schools and a for-profit prison-industrial complex are sucking the life out of black homes and communities. We are not going down like this!
It's hunger. It's homelessness, often. It's underfunded, under-resourced schools. It's abuse beyond the chilling. It's having overwhelmed parents and caregivers. Those are the things that young people are struggling with beyond our view.
We women feel we are here to serve. That's the mistake we make. We may have children, husbands, lovers, bills, responsibility. Those things don't own us, but too often we let them.
I'm writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My morale is improving the more I feel like a writer.
As a kid I didn't see black cowboys on the screen. What that said to me was that there were things I couldn't do or be because of my color. What we see others like us do gives us permission to expand our own horizons.
Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word. The same worldview shift that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.
I wrote 'Option B' because I want other people to know it can get better, and I want to help people make it better.
Brothers and sisters of Egypt, you have given the world the most precious gift: the belief that ultimately right will prevail.
A superhero is someone who, at some point or in some way, inspires hope or is the enemy of cynicism.
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