A toast and a pledge
So it’s been about an hour since I learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed.
I sat with it for a while thinking that I could just let it go. That this was just another one of those moments in 2020, that tells us that the reckoning is here. We have to decide who we are, who we are for, and the world in which we want to live.
My core was already tight but I could feel it getting tighter as the minutes passed and I realized that I couldn’t pretend that this didn’t mean something profound.
So I got up and poured myself a glass of J Brût Rosé (there is always something chilled). Sat down. Turned down the TV. Closed my eyes. Took a few deep, long, cleansing breaths, easing the constriction in my chest as best as I could.
With my eyes closed and my glass raised, this is what I said:
Thank you. Thank you for carrying the weight of your people - their pain and their suffering - as well as that of females everywhere.
You did so much for so long for so many. It’s your time to rest. You earned it.
I’m sorry you had to fight for so long. I’m sorry that it was/is a fight.
I yearn for the day where we, collectively as humans, acknowledge respect and value the humanity of each one of us.
I suspect that this is going to take longer than we thought. Denying this simple truth doesn't make our reality any less stark.
So I pledge to do what I can where I can in whatever way I can to continue the work that started before you, that happened alongside you, and now will happen without you.
Thank you for your service.
Rest.
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About The Author:
Jara Dean-Coffey (jdc) is Founder and Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and the Founder of Luminare Group. For the past twenty-five years, she has partnered with clients and colleagues to elevate their collective understanding of the relationship between values, context, strategy and evaluation and shifting our practices so that they are more fully in service of equity. For more about musings + machinations click here.
