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 Jamie has been staying with me for the last couple of days. Here are his words from an experience in my living room:

“Karina strikes the brass pipe hanging from her ceiling. She strikes it with a soft mallet near the top, the bottom, the middle, releasing waves of resonant sound. I stand behind the pipe and gaze out the window.

Minutes pass. I can't believe how long the bell keeps ringing. It will never stop. All of the ways it could be muffled, muted, silenced. But here it is, in this beautiful home, singing.

My gaze is drawn to the wooden figure beside the window. A lithe, muscular man, he slinks on all fours, hesitant and low to the ground. Fearfully, he peers into the light. Hesitantly, he rises.

The brass pipe hanging from the ceiling sings to me and the wooden man.

My pop's spirit will keep singing long after he has passed.”

Thank you Jamie, for being such a communicative bright spirit – a dedicated, thoughtful, sensitive, and creative teacher for your students at the community college, a generous supporter of family members in need of help, and a powerful ally for people of color. You give me much hope for the future, in a world where new ways of being must be born from chaos.

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