The older I grow the more I see the influence of my family on my life. I didn't always see it. It was up to our parents to see that we had our education in a town that hadn't yet realized what racial prejudice was but actually knew and practiced it on occasion.
Interpretation
Family greatly influences our lives, often in ways we may not immediately recognize.
Katherine Dunham reflects on the profound impact that family has on an individual's life. As she grows older, she recognizes the unseen influences that her family imparted, particularly in shaping her education and understanding of societal issues, including racial prejudice that existed in her community, despite it not being openly acknowledged.
In practice
During a family gathering, you might reflect on how your upbringing shaped your values.
So many dancers paint. I used to paint. I started again recently. While I was dancing, I was very busy with my career. Start something else that makes use of your creative ability because if you don't you will die inside as a person.
If you dance, you dance because you have to. Every dancer hurts, you know.
I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'
I have a tendency to coddle my sons because I want to keep them safe, but I also want them to be strong and independent and curious and bold, and I worry that my coddling is going to have exactly the opposite effect.
In A Man With a Pipe, my brother observed that although my father had been seen as intellectual and my mother more a creature of temperament, she had often been the more levelheaded of the two. In sum, we miss them as we love them, equally and always.
Our greatest hope is to bring up children inspired by their opportunities for being helpful and loving.
The door', replied Maimie, 'will always, always be open, and mother will always be waiting at it for me.
No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?
Time and experience have taught me a priceless lesson: Any child you take for your own becomes your own if you give of yourself to that child. I have born two children and had seven others by adoption, and they are all my children, equally beloved and precious.
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