Changes

I am currently reading The Heart of A Woman by Maya Angelou, which is the forth installment of her five series biography. Somehow, I've read the previous three with different appreciation for her personality, as if I am getting to know three separate persons. I never grew accustomed to reading them in a continuum which I taught only appropriate because somehow, she just seem so segmented and transformed in her ideals and approach to life in the each decade of life she has endured. Seems pretty untrue huh? These honest accounts of her life which are often dissimilar in tone although highly comparable to Toni Morrison's subject matters teach us to appreciate changes sometimes just for the sake of it. It made me realise that as a community as well as a person, we all change with the course of time although some of us would rather deny this, undoubtedly for the fear of resolute time ticking.

In this book, the African Americans are still striving to receive the treatment they deserve in their own country. They are still being associated to their own land (ie Africa) regardless of the fact that they may have been the 13th generation of Americans. It might not be the same in Malaysia but accepting changes becomes terribly important for us and realising that having apparent privileges compared to others in a country does not bridge us closer but instead drifts us apart regardless of how neutral or noble our intentions are. It proved right in the United State about 50 years ago as the changes brought upon by the people has commandered a milestone of achievement. It did took the United States tremendously long to achieve the idea of equality (I still think they have not fully) and I can only wonder how long it would take for us to change. I want you to think of the word "us" and determine who that is before asking yourselves, has there really been an "us" anyway...

Just like the words of Tupac in Changes
"It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive."