
The subject of my book is the work of Marilyn Washington Harris. I think Marilyn discovered a previously-unrecognized human right to support after the violent death of a loved one and I want to tell the story of how she came to discover this and what she did and continues to do about it. I’ve spent a lot of time with Marilyn, but early on in my encounters with her related to the book, I had to tell her that I would need to begin recording all of our conversations because of her habit of saying profound things in clever ways in the middle of a conversation about nothing in particular. This was after I had made a comment about pain stripping away so much of life’s veneer, its bullshit. Referring to her own experience and the experiences of those she works with, she said, “You might as well come out nekked.” She also referred to the fact that the one who lays the groundwork for things, for change, seldom gets to enjoy the final fruits. I thought of Moses and the Promised Land and will have to ask her what the Promised Land looks like to her.
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