Making A Pivot

I just found out that Toni Morrison has died at the age of 88. I sat on my couch for a few minutes to read the article that the Washington Post wrote about her.  While on the way into work, radio off, thinking, I began to focus on the word pivot, change of direction. The only reason that I have ever heard of the Nobel Laureate is that she decided to pivot.  To change the way she was living her life with the hopes that the small change would lead her down a different path.  

Toni Morrison didn’t start writing until she was in her late 30’s.  A single mother, using stolen pieces of quiet time to gather words on paper, she made a pivot. I cannot say that she did not try to convince herself that she was too old or too tired.  I wasn’t in her kitchen or bedroom during those quiet times.

What I will tell you is that her decision to write and a publishing house’s decision to print her work just before her 40th birthday is the reason why I read, The Bluest Eye last Christmas at a cabin in the mountains of Colorado. Her life asked me, begged me, to evaluate what I understand about my dignity and what I believe about my worth in the world. I will also tell you that it is the reason why I have decided to get serious about my pivots with the hopes that you will do the same.