Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself?

Thank you for letting me be myself?

If you have to thank someone for letting you be yourself, they have power over you.

So I thought watching Summer of Soul, a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a free performance by legendary black musicians in what was then Mount Morris Park. This segued into Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), a documentary about Sly and the Family Stone, the group behind the song, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” 

The humor, of course, in the song’s title is that at times we all feel like mice or elves, about to be squashed.

But why?

If we are doing nothing criminal, why should being ourselves be treated as a criminal act? 

Why should distinctiveness be punished? Persecuted? Killed?

As someone who has never fit in, it is vital to me to defend my own uniqueness, and to celebrate the differences that make others unique.

Art is what is snatched from the jaws of conformity. It is a life preserver and a weapon. It is a declaration and a celebration. It is defiance and strength.

After nasty times in my life, when I feel more powerful people and institutions pressing down on me, I delight not just in singing my own song but in appreciating the songs and the dances of others, willing to put themselves out there, willing to both assert themselves and let their guard down.

This is courage, the courage to be yourself, even though there are forces in the world who would gladly silence you, erase you, or see you dead.

Freedom is opening your throat and letting your voice be heard. 

Freedom is finding the rhythm only you can invent. 

Freedom is moving as if no one and everyone is watching. 

As if you are the center and the source. 

As if you have nothing to fear.  

Find the rhythm only you can invent