I was reading a book about Sonia Sotomayor to my daughter A one day, and my older daughter M was standing behind the couch, listening. She decided then and there that she’d be the first Asian-American woman on the Supreme Court. She loved Sotomayor’s story, but she was especially fond of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She got a book called Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice by Debbie Levy and has read it innumerable times. We highly recommend the book.
M got the RBG figure from her little sister for her birthday and placed her on her dresser, pointing at the door. M says this is so RBG can “judge all who enter.” M says she keeps her there as a reminder of what women can do, and to remind M to keep going. M has since given up on the lawyer dream, in that she has decided she’s too squishy to withstand the pressure, but RBG still inspires her to keep fighting for what she wants.
The night RBG died, I was ready to give up. I’m exhausted from the despair I feel about the government and the general state of the country. I stood at the stove trying to cook and sobbing, both for the loss of RBG and the terror I felt about what might come next. I wondered if it was even worth staying here, and why I had come back.
M went outside with her headphones and jumped around. She said she was vetting her anger at the world. She then got her book and her figure and went outside, and I watched her sitting on the deck holding them. I thought for a long time about what RBG might say if she could see M cradling her figure and watching the sun go down.
That night I worried, but in the morning I found RBG’s figure on the table. I thought about how she wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t run. There’s too much I love her to pack up and leave, even if I’m afraid. And I am. I exhausted and angry. But it won’t do any good to give up. RBG knew that and weathered extraordinary circumstances to make change, and I need to do the same, as do my girls. We’ll make it somehow.
M made a makeshift Buddhist shrine for RBG, across from the one she made for her grandfather. She says it makes her feel better to got to sleep between two of her greatest role models. She’ll grow up to do great things, and we have to fight to make the world better for her. Vote, fight and keep on going. RBG did.
Edge Pieces 