Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

by John Lewis

Patience is a guiding light in all the work of change. It is an aspect of the commitment people make to finish what they start. Once you have begun the work involved in creating change, moving an idea forward step-by-step, doing all that is within your power, and understanding that there will be forces beyond your control that may support you or block you is central to the change you seek. There is a process to everything. You must follow certain steps, and each one of those steps must be patiently, persistently, and thoroughly implemented to receive the best outcome. Even setbacks can serve a vital purpose to completing your goal. Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once. In the movement, we didn’t know how history would play itself out. When we were getting arrested and waiting in jail or standing in unmovable lines on the courthouse steps, we didn’t know what would happen, but we knew it had to happen. Use the words of the movement to pace yourself. We used to say that ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. And if we believe in the change we seek, then it is easy to commit ...