Questions on Life: Honoring Familial Legacy during Juneteenth

June makes me think of hot, humid, Virginia summers. As a child, I used to spend my summers along Virginia’s southeastern coast with my grandparents. I’d spend my days bumbling behind them, asking every question that popped into my curious mind, ever searching for the answers to life. At the time, my “meaning of life” questions were as simple as, “Papa, what happens if I don’t eat my vegetables?” or “Madea, how are your nails always so pretty?” The answer to both was pretty much the same, “Some things you just got to work at every day.”

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As I grew, so did the expansiveness of my questions. I asked about love, nature, and cooking. When my grandfather passed on, I got more intentional with my questions to my grandmother. I realized that in her, I had a living version of my 9th grade Modern US History textbook. I asked her about what it was like growing up in the 20s, if the Great Depression was really all that bad, what life was like during segregation, and if her world really stopped when the news broke about Emmett Till. And later, I’d go on to ask if she ever imagined a world in which the President of the United States would be a Black man. (Spoiler: she didn’t.)

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Although my grandparents are long gone, my curiosity remains. I often find myself filled with questions I can no longer ask them. There are practical ones (How’d you cut the corn off the cob without losing half of the kernel?), philosophical ones (How do you know when you discovered your purpose?), and vulnerable ones (How do I heal from a broken heart?). But today, with Juneteenth being a new federally recognized holiday, a question I would pose to them is, “What does freedom mean to you?” Juneteenth was not a holiday we grew up celebrating or even discussing. I am not sure if they even knew what it was. However, what their words can’t tell me about their thoughts on freedom, their legacy can.

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My grandparents raised a family full of active and engaged members of their community. We are educators, doctors, lawyers, elected officials, first responders, and church leaders. Each of us, in our own way, are dedicated to building a better future, removing barriers, and creating opportunity. With each accomplishment or milestone achieved, my grandparents were there to celebrate and then encourage rest. “You got to take care of yourself,” my grandmother would say. It’s clear to me that to them, freedom means choice and rest.

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If I were to answer that question myself, I would say something similar, but add that freedom isn’t really achieved unless we’re all free. It means developing that childlike curiosity to ask the questions that will lead to shaping a more inclusive world for all of us. It means speaking up, even when it’s difficult, to give voice to the right thing to say. Because, “some things you just got to work at every day.”

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Juneteenth reminds me to celebrate what we have achieved and to rest because the fight continues. It’s a moment to recognize how far we’ve come and recharge to take it one step further. It’s holding activism and rest together in my hands. And by doing so, I honor my grandparents’ legacy; watering the seeds they planted by answering the questions of an overly curious child.