It was a beautiful sunny day in my neck of the woods. I ventured to a nearby town to participate in a vigil for Black lives. I ran into a man named Steve, whom I had met in a Zoom book club on Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. With him was a Black man named Paul. We held our signs on the corner while getting to know one another and engaging with the motorists as they passed by. It was a peaceful time.
But peace has so many ways of being disrupted. It all happened so fast. I looked up to see a tractor trailer making a wide turn through the intersection, and heading straight for us. A half dozen had already passed through, so this was nothing new.
Until it was.
I could see the anger in the driver’s face in that split second as he had swung wider than needed and was now driving straight at us. He aggressively turned the massive vehicle, accelerating through the turn, and passing within inches of Paul. As the tractor-trailer passed by I was shaken.
Paul looked at me and Steve and said, “He knew what he was doing, but I will not be moved.”
I will not be moved.
This was courage in the face of hate.
I pray that the man behind that wheel would experience the courage and love that held Paul in that moment.
I am still shaken by that moment. I am also thankful that it didn’t end in injury, death, arrest, or any number of other things that have happened to men like Paul throughout the decades and centuries in this country. It was but a glimpse.
What will it take for you and me to be like Paul?
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