Harvey Milk Had Some Thoughts

“You have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow.” -Harvey Milk

This week as I was digging through boxes I came across Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders, conveniently during Pride month.

When I read it to Beckett a few days later, I thought it was significant that the book began with Harvey Milk, this champion for gay rights, laying in a field with his hands behind his head. He was in a posture of sheer relaxation, imagining the world filled with a rainbow, a symbol of hope. And that symbol of hope is so important, because, like Milk, before any action happens we have to sit back and stare at the sky and have some thoughts about how we think life could be different. This is usually where our big stories begin. That “oh shit” moment where the passivity of our thoughts meets the gifts we have been given. The moment where a still, small voice calls us to action in a way we just can’t ignore.

I don’t know what the future is going to look like for my boys. The sad fact of the matter is, as adults Beckett and Oliver may still be marching with their black neighbors or their daughters or for their right to love or out of fear of sending their kids to school in a world with AR-15s. I do know that right now I have to foster the ideas that come from my boys sitting back with their hands behind their heads like Harvey Milk, even though they rarely stay still that long. Eventually, their imaginations won’t merely develop unknown worlds in blanket forts or amalgamous characters composed of old Marvel superhero costumes and accessorized with Buzz Lightyear belts. Eventually, God willing, their ideas will be how to solve food insecurity or how to transform systems of power and privilege or how to reconfigure public education and public safety or how to use their gifts to foster their neighbor’s serenity. And when that day comes they need to know that it’s possible for their imagination to have credence, to take form. So, today, it's my job to let that happen during their childhood in messy, confusing and joyful ways.

#pride #lgbtchildrensliterature #childrenliterature #harveymilk #pathwaystochildrensliterature