On a frozen day in December, Eudora Welty, in her story A Worn Path, introduces us to an old black woman named Phoenix Jackson. She begins a long and arduous journey through the woods and over the hills on her way into town. She talks to herself and the animals along the way. She pauses to rest on a log and imagines a little boy handing her a slice of marble cake. She encounters other obstacles along the way before reaching the clinic where the attendant thinks, "A charity case, I suppose." The journey is toilsome for Phoenix but she has come for some "soothing medicine" for her grandson's throat. As we follow along, we witness her tremendous endurance, her persistence and belief that the human spirit will triumph against all odds and the true meaning of a grandm
For Phoenix, the love for her grandson is what sustained her journey. Unconditional love is the commitment and personal sacrifice one is willing to make for another person. In the end, as she took the two nickels out of her pocket and laid them side by side her last thought before her long journey home was to "buy my child a little windmill they sells, made out of paper."
We often take familiar journeys that cast us numerous distractions. Just when we think we are headed in the right direction, another obstacle slithers out from under the shrubbery. Old Phoenix said, "Out of my way, all of you foxes, owls, beetles and coons...I've got a long way to go." She could not change the past and the unfortunate incident that happened to her grandson but she believed that she could change
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