Brave.

I’ve been wanting to visit the Center for Civil and Human Rights since it opened in Atlanta a few years ago. Today I finally had a chance to go. A component of the museum includes a lunch counter 2-D experience, where you don a pair of headphones, close your eyes and place your hands on a counter, as protesters did. The words and sounds that came from the headphones were more than enough to make my heartbeat quicken and jump in my seat. As I closed my eyes to fully immerse myself in the experience, I was afraid, if only for a moment. I knew what I was going through was going to end, but for the brave people who really sat at those counters, there was no end in sight.

I couldn’t imagine what that was like– to believe in a cause so much you’d literally die for it. It made me think, would I have been brave enough to live during Civil Rights Movement? Would I have been willing to risk bodily harm or death to fight against injustice? I don’t know, but I’m grateful for the people who were.