Bacchanal

by Veronica G. Henry

Every performer who joined the carnival seemed to drag in two sets of baggage: one you could see, and the other, trickier variety, all tussled up on the inside.

A well-placed joke at one’s own expense was a cure for all ills.

“Knowledge of all things is sometimes more of a burden than the liberation you thought you were looking for.”

“The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears.”

you can keep that to yourself. I need your mind. I

“Truth is, can’t nobody hurt you like the folks you love. I can’t promise I won’t make you mad or cross at me from time to time. But if you ask me, right here and now, quit dodging around, and ask me to stay, I do promise I won’t leave you.”

Didn’t they all? What type of simpletons would fight for a country that didn’t want them?

“You must let go of your anger,” Ago said. “It will only muddy your thoughts, and to think nimbly, you must have a clear mind.”

Why could the spirits never be direct? “Have you considered that it is you, the living, who do not listen closely enough?”

The spirits desire to leave two things to our children: the first is roots; the other is wings.

What you will do, if you are lucky, is coexist peacefully with your animal guides so that you may call upon them in need and be there for them when they must call upon you.”

Today, I ask that my animal guides reveal themselves to me. I wish to receive the gifts of sight so that they may reveal what I cannot see, guide, and protect me in the coming storm.

Storytelling. Animals, African spirits, people . . . each had stories that needed telling. An audience to listen and do the retelling. In this way, you were never forgotten.

The Choctaw Indians had named the land Okla, meaning people, and humma, their word for red. Oklahoma

White people had no idea how to coexist with the earth. They ravaged it, used and abused it,

and wondered why it sometimes bit them back.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves,”

Life was a series of moves, a lopsided pattern of offense and defense.

But a person’s anger is often no more than anguish dressed up in a crusty old overcoat. Jamey

“She who invokes a storm on her own people cannot prevent her house from destruction.”

A leopard will never be pronounced innocent if the judge is a goat.