Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America
By: John Lewis / Narrated By: Keith David
Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
Beautiful, brutal, at times disheartening but ALWAYS filled with such love
To say that I was bummed when I heard John Lewis died would be an understatement. I kinda would’ve wished that he was able to leave the planet when we were, as a country, at a higher state in our evolution, rather than devolving into scenes of chaos, Tweets of hatred and racism. But after listening to this, his Across That Bridge, I can say that now I understand that the man was no pie-eyed dreamer but was a realist. But one whose guiding principle was Love.
History meets and is made by people and ideas coming together, when action follows dreams. Lewis was a man firmly rooted in time and who made history. Tho’ not pie-eyed, he was a bit of a dreamer, spending his childhood orating to chickens, working in fields, hiding under the porch so that he might hop on the (Black children only) school bus to go to school rather than work the land with his family. It wasn’t that he was shirking familial responsibilities, and his parents never punished him, but he was fully aware of the differences in the Jim Crow South, and he saw education as a way to a better life.
And then he grew up and Reality came to guide him. He marched, he completely believed in Non-Violent Protest, he was kicked, beaten, left bloody and broken upon the ground, and he never met such violence with even the smallest, loosest fist raised in self-defense. This book chronicles that history, but Lewis goes further.
It’s sectioned off into chapters such as: Faith, Patience, Study, Truth, Act, Peace, Love, and Reconciliation. And it’s meant as a guide for people today to learn from what he’s seen, what he went through, what he came to believe was Truth. It’s meant for those who wish to fight the good fight, live the good life, to improve the lives of our fellow man. It’s BEAUTIFULLY written, quite lovely, as only a grand orator, a true Statesman, can write. The way he chooses words, weaves sentences together is lovely to behold.
Lovely, even as it’s heartbreaking. He says that we’d thought we’d ended the journey when Barack Obama was elected President, riding the groundswell of hope and faith and optimism. Uhm, no, he says. And from his special vantage point, we can see that each time we make strides, there will indeed follow a horrific backlash. Time and time again, he tells us of atrocities that occur with these backlashes; they’re not to shock the listener. They’re simply what he’s seen and experienced in his time on earth. These things would’ve been incredibly depressing (Especially given what a terror we’re currently living through, what came after our first Black President), but Lewis also chronicles how people carry on, the movements continue. When he found himself at a loss during hard times, decisions to be made about how to or how not to act, his guiding questions were: What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would Bobby Kennedy do?
How AWEsome is that? How sobering considering where we MIGHT be had those two men continued to live?
Still, though the book is of such hard times, at no point does Lewis give up his faith. It’s always about Love, it’s always about the Higher Path, it’s always about acknowledging that we are one people, people created in the image of one God, no matter our religious beliefs, our political leanings. It’s not about Black/white; it’s not about Blue/Red. It’s about people and humanity, turning the other cheek and putting one step forward, following with loving kindness.
Near the end, Lewis says that of all the people who attacked and beat him, only one person apologized to him. But it meant the world. He was able to meet this man with true forgiveness and understanding in his heart, to listen to this man’s story and of how he came to evolve as a human being, acting in hatred, cruelty, and ignorance at first, then coming to a true understanding that people are just people, no matter the skin color, no matter the other differences.
Keith David narrates this masterfully. He sounds like the grand orator, the true Statesman. Such lovely and stirring prose is given life and depth with his resonant tones; it’s almost like hearing the most inspiring of sermons from a beloved minister. No problem with the narration; just bouts of poignance and heartbreak. Sure, there’s plenty to be outraged about, whether it’s how long memorials come to be, or it’s impossible literacy tests to vote, or it’s one wrong move and you’re working the fields for free as part of a prison chain gang. But Lewis has oh soooo much more here for us all.
There’s a reason Love and Reconciliation are the two last chapters, and that’s because the man honestly believed those were The Ways to go. That he believed they were possible, even if they weren’t seen within a lifetime, gives me hope that he wasn’t disheartened when he passed, that to him, it was just that the journey would be continuing, new people raising their voices to be heard.
It left me?
With Hope.
RIP to a tremendous man—One who lived his words. May we all be as bold, as loving.
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