We need to change.

There is a quote by Mary Oliver that has been sitting on my desktop for many months now.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

I used to think that I loved that quote. 

Lately, I read it and the words leave a faint, bitter trail on my tongue. They linger there and make me wonder if it isn't a privilege that I am able to ask myself that question.

Last week, a young boy in my class said that he would amount to nothing because he was "too dark." Earlier the same week, he turned four years old.

I don't know if he truly understood the implications of what he said or its severity. A part of me doesn't want to know. A selfish part of me wants to believe that he didn't. 

But it doesn't matter what I want. 

The reality is that our society does not see black children as precious. We do not value their bodies and their minds the same way we do others'. Meanwhile, police brutality rages. Schools close. Prisons expand. The death toll rises.

Meanwhile, I pray that I will learn to be a good teacher to my students. I pray that we will not tire of learning our history and acknowledging its brutal injustice. I pray that our society does not tire of change.

God knows we need to change.