My Internet connection was used up last night, so I thought my submission of my Blog entry did not go through. As I thought through the day though, I had an opportunity to consider the Day 4 entry, to pause to consider how to add context to my thoughts. One reason I want to address context, other than the writing teacher part of me, is well stated through one of the quotations posted on the Slave River memorial site we visited here:

Before you let words pass through your lips, be sure they pass through three gates:

Gate 1: Be sure it is true.

Gate 2: Be sure it is necessary.

Gate 3: Be sure it is kind.

This thought has given me cause for consideration many times over the last few days. I will have much more to consider when I speak to people based on these three gates of consideration. As such, when I think of my Day 4 post, I think all three gates are worthy of passing through, but I think some items always need to be explained better.

For the truth of the post, I think there is a truth within it that can be transformative and healing for many of those who embrace it and grown from it. For the necessary part, I want to add a few more thoughts that address providing balance and realism for the visit with idealism of what is good in what I see. When observing our African brothers and sisters, we see something about them that draws us to them that we want to embrace. This does not mean that my message is to strip away the heritage we have created in the United States since I can find significant value in my heritage line: my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends are part of my current and valued ancestry that have shaped me to who I am. Losing this part of my history would abandon a most valuable part of my life. So I want to caution the reading of the message. I see that Africa has a spirit and integrity that we may have had stripped away, beaten away, forgotten, but there are ways to return to what once was lost. Never, when thinking of how to find a lost or misplaced jewel, do we abandon our current treasures; such thinking and behaviors would be a disgrace to the totality of one's ancestry. I wanted to be clear that the intention should be to reconnect and repair a missing element of our spirits but not to replace what is already valuable for our more present life.

For the kind gate of consideration, I think the further explanation and clarification provides a deeper understanding of how I see both the opportunity and realistic aspects of looking in a different country that has difference but clearly has aspects of grass being greener but still recognizes that the richness of the experience is not in destroying one experience for the other, but in elevating both by finding a new way of viewing the world by combing the richness of the African American triumphs to the dignity of the African ancestral experience.