Understanding Ourselves Through the Narratives of Those Who Came Before Us

An excerpt from Clint Smith’s article “We Mourn for All We Do Not Know” published in the March 2021 issue of The Atlantic

In this article, Smith shares his experience of hearing the narratives of formerly enslaved people recorded for the Federal Writers’ Project from 1936-1938. Although the lives of these people were so different from my own, it made me think of how valuable journals have been to our understanding of ourselves. Reading people’s own records of their lives not only gives us windows into the past but helps us to comprehend how much we have in common with people who came before us.

I think about the people who have been suffering during the COVID pandemic and who have courageously allowed themselves to experience moments of beauty. I hope that people find ways of remembering and honoring these “pockets of time.”