Feeling Warm and Sunny

Feeling Warm and Sunny

by Ernie McCray

It’s such a warm
and sunny feeling
to sense
human progress
in the air
like the other day
in a Zoom meeting
with a few athletes
at the U of A
about inclusion,
human beings being
valued for who they are,
me sharing
how, in my day,
there was little to no interest
in social
or political change,
how we athletes, in the main,
just played our games.

But this generation of young
ball players
and runners
and swimmers
and divers
and the like
at the U of A
are “woke”
to humanity’s
needs today,
eager to have a say
even when
they don’t feel up to it,
acknowledging
any bias they might possess
so they can begin dealing with it,
building up the courage
to stand up to
those who’re
slow in getting with it
or don’t want to get with it,
opening themselves
to a culture
or belief unlike theirs
to better understand it,
collaborating
and building the trust
needed to
look at the world
in order for them to change it,
coming to know that
it will have to be done
inch by inch
bit by bit,
that they,
because it’s
a never-ending pursuit,
will not have
an easy time with it,
that they just have to do
what they can in their lifetimes
and let generations down the line
carry on with it.

Oh, they are so with it.

And I can’t help but feel
warm and sunny
just thinking
about all of it.
So grateful and glad
simply
for living to see it.