"It's too painful to talk about. Let it alone," is what they always said when asked about it.  "Ain't no good gon' come from talking about it. Move on".  All too familiar words I often heard from my elders when I asked them about their lives growing up in the South. 

I wanted to know what it was like for them during that time. Sure I had read stories about other people's lives, but I wanted to know first hand how my people were affected and felt. For me it would have been more than a glimpse of the segregated South but a feel for it. Unfortunately, what I was asking for was more than what they wanted to give or remember.

The memories were too painful to remember.  To speak of such memories did more than bring up the past.  It actually placed them back in time where a way of life was a haunting reality. So they did what helped them live. They did what they thought best for them. They chose to forget it all and at the same time taking with them history my history. A history, that was brutal and inhumane, but I needed to hear it told so that I could appreciate where it was I came from, where I am now and where I am going.

Neither black nor white likes discussing it, but it is a part of our society's fabric which has been interwoven in our daily lives. Some say it is a stain. I say it is merely a piece of a complete which binds us all together making history. 

On January 20^th, 2009, the memories that had seemed so hard to remember or talk about were talked about and remembered.  This time the pain which always seemed to come with the memories was replaced with pride and hope of possibilities that had always existed but now fully realized.  It was the swearing in of the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama _ a man who is a product of a union which a few centuries ago and perhaps a year ago was looked down upon.  But now at this present moment represents all us as humans are and can be.  Possibilities.

This was a day many US citizens stood shoulder to shoulder and remembered the thirteen original colonies that started it all.  On this day, many reflected on the lives and deaths of so many brave men and who women who fought tyranny and marched against injustice to make this history possible. 

Now my history, while not complete, will journey on with endless Possibilities. As for my elders, they can now live out the remainder of their lives knowing that history in their lifetime ends with a possibility they never thought would be possible.

Possibilities.