Feeling the Warmth of Other Suns (Week 4)

With the bus back on the road, I figured I would take a hiatus from the mindless movies and dive into some non-technical literature. My text of choice, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. This book gave me a vibe similar to an Instagram account I follow called Humans of New York (@humansofny) that tells the life stories of different New Yorkers and how they got to their current position in life. Each character's journeys in both their similarities and differences pulled me deeper and deeper into the text with every page turned. However, the greatest part about reading this book is the memories it gave me of my grandmother and my old home block of Stoepel in Detroit. As every good son should do, I called my mother and asked her about my grandparents' path from Kentucky to Detroit and based on the timing of the events, my grandparents could very well count towards the number of Blacks who left the South for the industry of the North. Wilkerson nailed the analysis of their accounts on the head. Growing up with my grandparents and next door neighbor from Louisiana, elements of the South continued to carry into their new Detroit lives. Walking the fine balance between hospitality and street savvy, fried catfish with hot sauce, biscuits, gardens in the yard, and old one liners from my grandfather such as "Get you a rabbit foot for good luck if you need it" all captured the spirit of their southern roots. The personalities similar to those who searched for the warmth of other suns are who made me who I am today. A happy tear was shed over memories of a beautiful upbringing. Thank you Isabel Wilkerson.