Margaret Atwood, Ron Chernow, the mayor of San Juan and more on what we are learning about ourselves
Carlos Franklin
47, co-owner of Black Stone Bookstore and Cultural Center, Ypsilanti, Mich.
I’m in Wayne County, one of these counties in Michigan that is hit real hard. I was doing curbside [delivery]. But when they said we needed to close March 24th, that Tuesday I shut down. When things was getting tight, I’ve seen a lot of other bookstores coming up with GoFundMe. I said, “Man, am I hurting myself and my business by not doing these things?” Because I used to give stuff to people, always give, give, give, give. And when people would give me stuff, I said, “Nah, I’m cool, I’m all right.”
One day, I remember a gentleman I looked up to, he told me, “You know how you give things to people, and you get a joy out of it? Well, when people try and give you something, you rob them of that same joy if you don’t receive it. When you turn down something, it’s not always doing them a favor. Sometimes you hurt them because you take away that blessing that you feel.” That made a lot of sense. And I always go back to that. Though honestly speaking, it’s still a little uncomfortable.
The community has stepped up. They supported me even before all this, and I always was amazed by that. Itjust shows you how much love that’s in the world. But you won’t experience that love until you put yourself in that circle of love. That’s kind of like how I look at society. That you have everybody pulling in all directions. But if you dig deep and just pull the layers back, you realize that we all in the same fight. And some of them are willing to fight for you and get on that front line. And that’s a beautiful thing.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLSzrc%2BhoJyrX2d9c3yOpaCfnaOpxq2xjqaYoJmqnrume8CmnKuhk5Z6s7HSoqOinZ6peqS70ailmq6Zp8K0ec%2BapZ2dnZ6wcA%3D%3D