Just when I thought I could finally recycle those old notebooks from college literature classes (some of them are almost 20 years old now), PBS airs a documentary on Zora Neale Hurston, called Jump at the Sun. Well, now I've got to keep those old notebooks a while longer!
For years, the quote in my email signature was a gem from Zora Neale H. : "I do not weep at the world. I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife."
Even now, in my office at work, I have a framed poster of ZNH from the American Library Association. The quote is : “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” She was talking about anthropology and research. It is an appropriate for a Librarian, or any scholar. She has been a lasting influence on me.
She was a remarkable woman ahead of her time. One of the first anthropologists, a wonderful storyteller, a writer, feminist, a libertarian. She was outspoken and independent. She was Herself.
Their Eyes Were Watching God was part of my own "becoming gold" journey. Even now, it's hard to write about without getting choked up ... This vibrant (even though she died relatively young), self-loving, confident black woman had a tremendous influence on me. You might wonder what she'd have to say to a white girl from rural Wisconsin ... Zora was in her own space, grateful, not grasping. Her books were not about racism, but about life, about personhood, about being a woman, about being comfortable in your own skin. With all the -isms that come down on us in this world, Zora was Herself. She transcended all that, rose above it. She, and Janie, was more than a label, more than an -ism. She didn't dwell on what a black woman was supposed to be in her time -- she was too busy sharpening her oyster knife, looking for the riches life had to offer as long as she went out and worked for it. She was nobody's victim.
Please don't misunderstand--I don't mean to downplay racism and its profoundly poisonous effect on so many aspects of life in these United States and around the world ... Racism (and many other labels) keeps people from really KNOWING each other. As Zora said, “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.”
This would be a great time for me to re-read Their Eyes Were Watching God. There are many discussion group guides to help raise questions about important themes, etc. Hey--I discovered that Oprah produced a tv film for Their Eyes back in 2005. It starred Halle Berry. I can't wait to see it!
Here are some other favorite quotes from Ms. Hurston :
- “I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.”
- "I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. . . . I do not weep at the world -- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
- “It would be against all nature for all the Negroes to be either at the bottom, top, or in between. . . . We will go where the internal drive carries us like everybody else. It is up to the individual.”
- “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
- “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.”
- “Don't you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday”
- “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”
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