is grief necessary?


IS GRIEF NECESSARY?
Yes.  When a relative dies, it is a natural  priority.  When a friend with whom one has shared a mutually caring relationship dies, a lesser degree of grief is appropriate.  Water is not thicker than blood.  An even lesser degree of grief is in order when an acquaintance dies.  Sadness is a surrogate for grief.  In all cases, the emotion should be clean, honest, and genuine, and it should be followed by a return to the business of living.  The time required for return can't be predicted.



In all cases, one ought to strive to have a humble ceremony of the spirit, an epiphany of mortality. Grief is an ember.  Sadness is a flash.  If tears are needed to minimize distress or stress, cry!



Ernest J. Gaines  (1933-2019) was a giant, a Southern, African American writer from Louisiana, and John Oliver Killens, himself a giant from Georgia , listed him as a figure the American literary establishment endeavored to relegate" to a state of invisibility and oblivion."



"No matter, there is a black Southern literary tradition, a voice that is special, profound, and distinct from any other in the country.  It is a voice, more often than not, that is distinguished by the quality of its anger its righteous indignation, its reality, its truthfulness.  It is a voice that speaks eloquently, and artistically, for change." [ Introduction, Black Southern Voices (New York: Meridian, 1992): 1 ].



I had the privilege of co-editing Black Southern Voices, and twenty-seven years later I add a footnote to Killens' prescience:   When our giants ascend, study their works from new perspectives.  Transmit their legacies by instruction and example to future generations.  Honor the Sankofa links between the present and the forever.



A black Southern literary tradition of which Gaines was a sterling member has no obligation to castigate the dying American literary establishment .  Its obligation is to enhance the legacy and lifetime achievements  of Ernest J. Gaines, to thereby ennoble the souls of black folk, to bless humanity.



Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            November 7, 2019

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