2 and a Half Hours

The One Where Dylan tours The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, AL.

2.5 Hours…that’s all we could bare.. 😐

Support the show

@soisaidmedia

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
So I said, two and a half hours, two and a half
hours, and only made it halfwaythrough. This past week, I went
to the legacy museum sponsoredby the Equal Justice Initiative
in Montgomery, Alabama. Two anda half hours. I think I might

(00:24):
have emotionally checked outmaybe hour and 20 in the, the
level of emotional and spiritualand intellectual work that went

(00:44):
into just walking through thatspace was mind numbing. Not
something that I could foresee,I was told to prepare myself
before I went in. I didn'tbelieve them. I thought that it

(01:08):
would be mainly information thatI knew already. And then it will
just be presented in a differentway. And while that was true, it
didn't prepare me for what Iwalked into. Now, I'm not going
to walk you step by step throughthe legacy Museum, I think that

(01:29):
it's worth you going. I thinkit's worth the trip. It is dumb,
accessible, the, the admissionwas only $5. And for the
experience that you got, theycould have charged 50. And it
might not have been enough. Thework that went into it to to

(01:51):
create the sounds, the feelings,the it was amazing. It really
felt like you were stepping onto holy ground. onto the ground
that was not meant to be takenlightly. That told the story of

(02:15):
your people, my people that hasbeen told, but not completely,
has not been completely acceptedas truth. Or that it has any
effect on today's world. Andhonestly, it built today's

(02:37):
world. It took you from slaveryto mass incarceration. I checked
out at lynching. I couldn't doit. When I walked in, it was
just the sounds of the waves. Ihave a spot where you come in,

(03:00):
it's slavery's. It's like thesound of these waves crashing up
against this boat. And then youwalk a little further in and I
stood at an opening for whatfelt like an eternity. But maybe
I was only there for two orthree minutes. So so long that
one of the people who workedthere said it's okay, you can

(03:22):
you can step in here. I didn'tthink that I could. Because to
the left and to the right of meor life, like figures of my
ancestors who had been enslavedand been put into these boats,
and it felt too real for me.

(03:45):
And that's how I knew this wasgonna be one. So I walked
quietly prayerfully angrily twoand a half hours. I don't know
what the other half of themuseum was, it was probably very

(04:06):
good. But I couldn't make itbecause I wasn't ready
emotionally.
If felt like at some point, Ishut off so that I could protect
myself for the rest of the trip.
Because there was still otherplaces that I wanted to go see.
And I knew that I couldn't. Ihad taken about as much
spiritual weight as I can handleas much trauma as I can absorb I

(04:30):
taken enough. And I think thatlike black people in particular,
have sort of mastered thisunderstanding of when we had
enough trauma for the daybecause we're being forced to,

(04:52):
because we're being forced, fedconsistently. lifeless body when
we engage with our history,where we're forced to deal with
the fact that like, Americahasn't cared about us period.
And we know that we hit a pointwhere if we plan to smile, at

(05:16):
any point the rest of the day, Ineed to stop here. If I plan to
have a conversation with a whiteperson, at any point, I need to
stop here. Because I can get toa point where I won't be able to
bring myself out of it, wherethe emotions will run so high

(05:39):
that that I will just express myanger, my pain, my frustration,
the hurt on the first person Isee. And so it's as to not get
into that space, I gotta pull itback, I had to check out two and
a half hours. That was my limit.

(06:05):
I don't know what your limit is.
I don't know if you would getthrough the whole museum. The
plan, honestly, was to gothrough that museum, and then go
over to the peace and justiceMemorial. And I couldn't handle
both in one day. So I made thedecision will come and see that

(06:31):
next day. Because I'd had myfill. I don't know if there's a
point to this. I want it to wrapit around. But sometimes I think
that we need to be comfortablesaying that's enough trauma for
the day. I can stop here. Andfor me, I found my limit two and

(06:53):
a half hours. That's about asmuch as I can take on a
continuous basis, beingentrenched in it two and a half
hours. Of absorbing 400 yearsworth of pain and anxiety and
frustration and separation andtrauma, two and a half hours of

(07:14):
a conversation like that. It'sabout all I can take before I
snap I thank God for mytherapist, and my wife, who I
can talk to after that to kindof alleviate some of that I am
thankful to God that gave mesome awareness that I could come

(07:36):
out of it that I'm thankful tothe peace and justice, the Equal
Justice Institute, that they putthat thing together, and there
was a space for me to come outto because I'm not sure that I
would have been able to handleit on my own. It's worth the

(07:57):
trip. I know it sounded heavycoming from me. But sometimes
you need heavy to build strengthto build endurance to know which
direction you're going.
Sometimes it's the pain thathelps you focus. And Lord knows

(08:19):
that I was hyperfocus when Ileft that space. So I'll have to
say about that. I'm out