Tall and Straight

Earlier today I was looking at this photocopy of a painting of my Great,Great Grandmother.I thought,"You suffered and endured so much pain,loss and agony at such a young age...Almost immediately,a thought,(her answer?)followed,"Yes,but I also knew goodness and love. I knew life as being kind and gentle,and hopeful..."
Unlike Grandmother,we(today)do not know the true meaning of persecution. We do not know what true deprivation is.We do not know the horror of ignorance and hatred based on color of skin,or ethnicity. She did,and so much more that even recorded history cannot relate.
Is there a defining line between resignation to fate,and the primal instinct to survive despite the hell and agony involved? I think there is a difference based upon the individual's perception;and innate ability to cope,even in the face of death and destruction.
Grandmother's brief account of her own experience(in my mind,) and as has been handed down thru generations,reveals no less.I cannot begin to grasp,(say nothing about appreciate,) what hell she endured as a child...the persecution of her existence,the loss of her dignity and life's purpose.The attempt by ignorance and hatred to reduce her,(and her own,) to less than human.
Yet,being who she is,she could tell us today,"I learned to love..." This woman's character,her vision of life,her very essence,is my heritage. Through me, she walks tall and straight. She walks with incredible dignity,with love I have learned to appreciate her with increasing clarity.
She knew what it meant to truly Live and love.
I Take my heritage with me trough each day,there-in is my shield of strength and wisdom,and vision of courage. I will walk tall and straight because she walks with me...Dancingfire