Share your favorite quote about change.
“There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” - Zora Neale Hurston from Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Although this quote comes from a beautifully written story by Zora Neale Hurston, I didn’t get this line from the novel, I heard it in a movie. When the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC opened its doors wayyy back in 2016, they screened a film by Ava Duvernay, August 28: A Day in the Life of a People. The documentary short moves through six significant moments in Black history that all take place on August 28th: The lynching of Emmett Till, the landing of Hurricane Katrina, the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act, Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency, the first radio broadcast from Motown Records, and the March on Washington where Dr. King delivered his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech.
If I remember correctly, during the scene depicting the March on Washington, Angela Bassett is providing narration and says, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” And, in my theater seat I got chills. History remembers the moments in the movie as monumental, hugely impactful and highly significant to the development of Black people, Black liberation, and Black culture. But I wonder if they knew that then.
I wonder whether the everyday people who were experiencing August 28 in real time knew they were experiencing something that would change the course of their lives and future generations. I mean, I’m sure you can be aware that something is important or newsworthy or never-been-done-before. But how could they know an ordinary day in your life would go down in the history books? How could they know what would grow from the tears they shed? How could they possibly conceive of how much would change in each passing year?
I don’t know what’s coming the future, but I can trust that a future is coming and that it will look very different from today.
We can never really know what tomorrow will bring. But knowing that tomorrow can (and likely will) be different from today actually gives me some peace.
I think this quote in that 2016 film (outside of the context of the novel it’s written in) is about patience. It’s a quote about how times inevitably change, there are going to be bad times but there will be good times, too. There are going to be sowing seasons and there are going to be reaping seasons. There are going to be times in life that challenge us, but again, those times change, and you might be able to look back on your story and see how many things had to happen in order for you to be where you are and where you need to be just as every action and reaction to the August 28ths of the past brought us to where we are today. We can’t conceive of how things will change as time moves us on. There are years that are all about questioning what, who, how, and why, God, why?? And there will indeed be years that are different.
This year has asked me more questions than a damn toddler. I won’t lie (it’s my journal blog, why should I lie?), I’ve been going through a tough season of loss: loss of friends, loss of family, loss of home (temporarily), loss of income, loss of stability. And on this shaky ground, I haven’t always been able to get my footing quite long enough to take the next right step, let alone know what direction I should be stepping in. There are times when I feel a bit hopeless.
But I try to remember that whatever I’m feeling, whatever I’m going through, it won’t last always. I don’t know what’s coming the future, but I can trust that a future is coming and that it will look very different from today. And that’s something to look forward to, in my opinion. That’s something to move forward to. Whatever I’m going through will change because it has to.
To be clear, I don’t think there’s purity in suffering. I don’t know if everything happens for a reason. Some things just suck. Some things just hurt. Some things are just hard and there’s no rhyme or reason behind it. But I do know that things keep changing. If things suck now, there will come a time when things won’t suck or hurt or be hard. At least for a while. There will come a time when moments I thought were significant don’t feel like that big of a deal anymore. And moments I never thought I (or anyone else) would remember might be the things that change my life (or the world!) the most.
Times are always changing. Something is always coming. And, for as long as I’m able, I want to stick around and see what the future brings. I want to see what the answers are. I want to see tomorrow for as many tomorrows as I can.
This entry was written for WEEK 2 of the Finding the Right Words October Challenge under the theme of CHANGE. Follow along using the graphic above and write about whatever comes to mind with the corresponding prompt. Share with me using the tag #FTRW or email me at jdoggett9 [at] gmail.
There’s no wrong way to journal. You just gotta find the right words. Happy Writing!