REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

Once upon a time, difficult to imagine pain inspired a dream. The dream inspired a song. That song inspired a little girl to look beyond. And now that little girl has become a teacher, a painter, a poet, a seamstress, a cook, a mother, a parent, a story teller, and an inspiration to anyone who takes notice of her.

The sad thing is that not everyone has taken notice.

Perhaps there is not enough pain to go around?? Or, perhaps, not the right kind of pain??

What kind of pain does it take to inspire appreciation for the beauty of that dream that inspired the song that inspired the little girl who became an inspiration in and of herself?

What if no such pain were ever to exist again? Would the beauty of the dream be lost? Would it then become a meaningless artifact of history, a fading remembrance on a deteriorating wall, mostly ignored by those who pass? And, if no such pain ever existed again, would that be a bad thing?

The fact is pain does inspire. But not all that pain inspires is in itself inspiring. Many many times, what pain inspires is anger and viciousness, selfish vindictiveness, walls, guns, bombs, and war, all to separate those experiencing pain from the possibility of further pain. Only rarely does pain inspire to something that includes a respectful, even endearing, appreciation of that pain once suffered, for it grounds and reminds why we do what we do, why we seek to build something that includes, rather than excludes, something that is fair and just, far less painful, and plentiful of opportunity.

What is that right kind of pain that levels us all, that teaches and inspires to the fact that life can be good and wonderful and inclusive, and mostly without pain, except for that one pain that reminds us of why?

February is Black History Month in the U.S. May festivities serve to inspire familiarity with both the pain and the dream that still animates some of the most graceful, dignified, talented, and benevolent people on earth.