The baby's crying again
©One of my life’s greatest disappointments is that I never brought a child home to my father. He always thought I’d make a great parent and I would’ve loved to have gifted him with another grandchild but, as the old saying goes, some things just aren’t meant to be. But while I don’t have any children, all my friends do and over the years I’ve lived the life of a parent through the stories they’ve shared.
I remember one telling me how proud he felt the day he and his wife brought their first child home. He said all day, they huddled over the little bundle, staring in amazement … attending to his every need … making sure that child knew they were there. He said even when the baby drifted off to sleep … they sat with eyes fixated on that little life of theirs in utter disbelief.
Night fell and they retreated to bed and so too did the newest member of their family. They were all sleeping soundly when out of nowhere … the baby began to cry! No worries there as they both jumped up, trampling one another, speeding down the hall … eager to attend to him. They rocked him back to sleep … stared some more before eventually retreating back to finish their rest.
As the days progressed, that baby continued crying at night, but unlike the early parts of their parenting journey when they showed up as a team … now, they took turns. “It’s your night … it’s your night … I got to get up early … so do I …” They went back and forth like this for awhile and a funny thing happened … the baby fell back to sleep. This became the norm; the baby would cry at night the parents would open their eyes ever so slightly before reminding themselves that he’d fall back to sleep.
More time passed and that baby still cried, but along the way, he had learned to climb, scoot, and crawl. So, now instead of just sitting there crying unattended, ignored, and eventually falling back to sleep, he became bold. That’s right he became bold, climbed out of his bed, and made his way down to his parent’s room.
My boy said the look on that baby’s face the first time he did it said it all. It said “you used to come check on me when you heard me crying. You’d pick me up … rock me back to sleep and even as I slept, I could still feel your presence. But when you found out I’d fall back to sleep, you stopped coming. His little face said, “so since you started ignoring me, here I am … interrupting your intimacy … disrupting your rest … causing you to put your favorite show on pause … forcing you to finish that book another time.”
His face went on to say … “I’ll keep crying because I want you to hear me, but unlike those times before when I cried in my room and fell back to sleep, now I’m in your room.” The face turned stern and said, “oh and one more thing. Remember, I didn’t ask to be here, it was you who brought me here. I’m awake … and no matter what you do, I plan on keeping you awake …”
“Until you deal with me …”
***
The names change, but the pattern never does. Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Trevon Martin, Freddie Gray … Tamir Rice … and this time, it’s George Floyd. They’re murdered, we get mad, chant their names, create catchy taglines, t-shirts, and hashtags and flood social media. We march … or protest, whichever you prefer, which leads to impromptu speeches given by impromptu leaders. We do all this, and the nation listens as we cry. The nation gets up, runs down the hall in unison to check on Black America … to see why he’s crying. This goes on for a few days and then one day, without notice… they stop coming. We keep crying, but the nation stops coming because they know eventually, just like that baby crying in the night, we’ll fall back to sleep.
After watching that poor brother begging for his life this time has to be different – this time, we have to be bold. Bold enough to do more than cry, bold enough to scoot, climb, crawl, or do whatever needs to be done to make it to America’s room. When we get there, look at them and say, “you used to check on me when you heard me crying … with your cameras, papers, and shows. You stopped coming, but I’m still hurting … so, now I’m here.”
To interrupt your intimacy by reminding you that I have over $1 trillion worth of spending power …
I’ll disrupt your rest … by casting my vote for someone who understands lives like mine really do matter…
I want to remind you it’s past time for this country to have a new favorite show – one where everybody gets equal airtime…
And about that book I’m forcing you to put down, you can pick it up again, but first … let’s include a chapter about my people …
And one last thing. Remember, I didn’t ask to be here. I was brought here in the most horrific of ways and to pay homage to those who came before me, I’m staying awake. More importantly, I plan on keeping you awake …
Until you deal with me…
Learning Center Manager @ Foundation Communities | MBA, Non-profit Management
4yMy God this was amazing!!! Thank you for sharing..
Billing/Administrative Assistant/Customer Service
4yBravo Mr. Pearcey! And, those of us who are sleeping...wake up!!!