Maria came back from the Gee’s Bend Quilters in Alabama with many gifts, one is a small quilt called “My Way To Go,” by Nancy Pettaway, one of the Gee’s Bend Quilters. As temporary curator of the WIndowsill Gallery At Bedlam Farm – are is where  you want to find it – I suggested hanging this wonderful creation in a living room window, maybe Maria will make some things for the window. It is a great work of art, even in the rain.

Maria and I have been talking a lot about her trip and she was stuck – me too, from listening to her and watching many videos – by the character, creativity and worldview of the Gee’s Bend quilters, all descendants of slaves, all survivors of brutal and difficult things, from racism to poverty to sickness and isolation.

None of them complain, they go to great lengths to say they do not think of themselves as slaves in any way, they are not angry, they do not describe themselves as poor, they do not to on Facebook trawling for sympathy and outrage, or wallow in self-pity or struggle stories, as so many more fortunate people do.

Their suffering became their creativity, literally, they are champions of creativity, carriers of the creative spark, it has sustained and enriched them, as well as everyone else.

I am struck by the degree to which Maria identified with them, felt so at ease among them. Maria is shy and guarded, she was instantly at home with these amazing women, creative peers and sisters.  There is no way for someone like me to truly comprehend the literal nature of slavery, it is almost beyond my imagination, almost too painful to really consider. But Maria’s identification makes sense, in some ways Maria was a slave, a different kind,  in some ways I was also.

There are so many different ways to become a slave. Joseph Campbell wrote that anyone who lives and works only for money has become a slave, and in the Corporate Nation, there are countless slaves withering in the soulness and meaningless service of greed and profit. It is possible to become a slave to health care, to retiring, to fear and manipulation.

I became a slave to fear and delusion, I surrendered my life to it and nearly lost it. I can watch the Gee’s Bend videos all night, they inspire me, they are affirming, these women – my wife as well – speak to the power of creativity and the real meaning of freedom. In every interview, in every song, in one way or another, their work celebrates freedom. They say again and again that they are free to create what they wish to create, no one can tell them what to do.

A life surrendered to the dictates of others, to enriching others while we give up whole pieces of ourselves, this is a kind of slavery the Gee’s Bend Quilters have refused to surrender themselves to ever again.

Slavery can be a state of mind as well as a savage experience. When we give up our own voices, we we stifle our own spirits, when we live out of fear and at the whim and pressures of others, when we give up the idea of creation, when we live only for money and never for love, when we give up on the idea of love,  and imprison the most radiant parts of ourselves, we have become slaves.