Independence Day Reflections with Frederick Douglass and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 45 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 10-15 minutes
“This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn.” - Frederick Douglass
Pause.
Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Prompt.
Practice.
Journal or take notes for 10 minutes on what you are waiting for. Below are some questions that may be helpful to consider.
What are you waiting for in your own life, and who can or cannot join you in that waiting?
What kind of “rebirth of wonder” do you long for in America, in your community, and in your creative life?
When Douglass says, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine,” whose joy and freedom feel centered in today’s celebrations, and whose are sidelined or silenced?
What forms of freedom feel unfinished where you live — and how might your writing bear witness to that unfinished work?
How does the tension between Ferlinghetti’s waiting and Douglass’s mourning show up in your own experience of this holiday?
Want More?
A Nation's Story: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Here’s the full speech by Frederick Douglass.
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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