Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
America: Should we stay or go?
How do you reconcile feelings of belonging and alienation in a country that seems to shift beneath your feet? This week, Besties Angella and Leslie are joined by guest Elizabeth Jenkins - the most recent honorary Bestie - as she opens up about the emotional turmoil of recent political events and the deep impact this climate has had on her mental health.
The ladies mull over the complexities of identity and the quest for peace in a society that often feels oppressive and unrelenting. They wrestle with the emotional strain of constantly being on guard, weighing the internal conflict between staying in the US to fight for change and seeking refuge in simpler, less pressured environments abroad.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/40-acres-and-a-lie/
Their reflections touch on the symbolism of displaying the American flag, exploring the tension between having a sense of patriarchal ownership and the exhaustion of resistance. This episode and all previous episodes are available on YouTube.
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Get Angie’s eBook: We’re Too Old for This Shit! The Inquisitive Older Woman’s Guide to Joy
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey Ange, hey Les, how are you?
Speaker 2:Smiling bright. I got my Alina's in, so if I slur my speech, it's only these things that's doing it.
Speaker 1:I'm not taking them out, Listen you know that that is your way of masking being my lisp, your lisp and or whatever it is that you're drinking, that, alizé, that you're drinking?
Speaker 2:Oh, come on Now. The viewers were supposed to think that this was red Kool-Aid.
Speaker 1:It's not that mauve color. Red Kool-Aid is not a blush color, it's actually red Kool-Aid crayon red. Anyway, folks, welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn. I'm Angela, and that is I don't know which direction you are wherever you see her. That is Leslie, my best friend of almost 50 years. We are two intellectually curious older Black women. We started this podcast to invite you to think deeply and to act boldly, and today we have a guest, elizabeth Jenkins. I'll tell you all about how we came to be, how she joined our sisterhood there you go.
Speaker 1:Even before we met in person, she was a part of the Boomer besties Family, sisterhood Family, quad squad. She was an honorary bestie, An honorary bestie, and we'll share how we came to be together today. We came to be together today. This episode is you're just going to see three older Black women talking about what is what we're feeling, what's going on in the world right now, and just being very vulnerable, very transparent, very edifying. Okay, so what had happened was-.
Speaker 3:There was this election.
Speaker 1:I was born a poor black child. No, no, no. So I am in a different area in North Carolina here that I have worked for a few maybe. This is maybe the fourth or fifth performance that play production that I've worked with them on and I am here in Elizabeth's hometown and so there's so many connections here. I came to know Elizabeth. You guys have heard me talk about Elizabeth before. I've given her shout outs before, so you've heard me talk about her. Now this is the one right here, right, ta-da. So Elizabeth and I and Leslie are members of Exodus Summit. Um and the um Durham North Carolina group got together earlier this summer and I was sitting at a table with these beautiful women and um, Elizabeth mentioned that she was either going to Costa Rica or just came back from Costa Rica and you were going right. And she said now, this is the first time I'm meeting Elizabeth, we're just at this table.
Speaker 1:We're first get together of this group. And she says oh yeah, I know and I told somebody in my family that Leslie was really scared when she went to Costa Rica and she went anyway, it's not about those monkeys. And I'm like how do you know what Leslie thinks about Costa Rica? And you said well, I watch your podcast and I heard her.
Speaker 2:And then the world just got like this. And then the world Mind blown.
Speaker 1:And then the world just started shrinking and shrinking. And it was like it is such a small world. Exactly.
Speaker 2:And then I said I want public. They know us and I told you.
Speaker 1:Leslie started acting the fool.
Speaker 2:I always say that when I'm talking to people that tickled me and it warmed my heart so much because you know we sit here and we have these conversations and remember, our podcast began several years ago because Ang and I I mean, we've been besties forever. We have these rather serious conversations and very often we disagree or they're controversial, a little bit different from what other people in our demographics might be thinking, and we're like you know what I think people need to hear some of our perspective. So this is how it came about. So when I'm speaking to Ange in our podcast and recording an episode, it's like a regular conversation, but I don't get a sense that people are really I don't know what our reach is. I have no idea, you know.
Speaker 3:I would say we are a unique read. We are yeah.
Speaker 2:And when I heard that I'm like, first of all, look at my girl wearing the same thing I'm wearing First of all, I mean look at my girl. I mean come on, so already it's like this. And then when I heard that you know, she had listened and understood what I was speaking about on our trip to Costa Rica, I'm like, yeah, we're in, she was in, she was really nice. And since then, we've had.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth and I have had opportunities to be together. We're now in her beautiful home and I got kicked out of my Airbnb. No, I really didn't. They extended my stay, I'm just kidding. But I needed a place to record this podcast and I was like, elizabeth, would you also not only allow me to record here, but would you, would you, would you, could you?
Speaker 2:join us.
Speaker 1:And as we talked about what we were feeling, how we were just, just how we were feeling in our bodies, tell us, tell them, what you said when I asked you and told you to think about it okay, so you asked me to think about it and you finished your sentences and your train of thought and I said can I tell you now my answer?
Speaker 3:and I said absolutely with an exclamation point, because today is one of those days where I'm just feeling. I'm feeling it in my body a lot. I have gone outside barefoot in my beautiful nice grass after the rain to ground myself.
Speaker 3:I'm doing my whole body stretches a little extra. Whole body stretches a little extra and I feel like what I imagine those in a war zone feel like. I feel like I am experiencing, I think, ptsd really where I don't. I was kind of grappling with the right word to use. I really think I feel unsafe. I think that's the word to describe how I'm feeling through this time. I feel unsafe because of what our country has chosen.
Speaker 3:And we were talking earlier that this does not make sense at all except in the light of history, and in the light of history it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:And it's.
Speaker 3:it's, I think, clear where we are headed to and it's alarming to me. It's very, very alarming to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can. I can really really relate to so many things that you just said. First of all, I love the fact that you are in tune with caring for yourself in time of difficulty, because I'm not that good at that. Many of us are not. Ange is a little better at that than I am and she has no problem pointing out my deficiencies in that regard Only in love, baby, only in love.
Speaker 2:But the fact that you went out and walked barefoot, the fact that you just said you needed to quiet or care for yourself, I think is so significant.
Speaker 2:When we were coming up with content and we were this Ange and I was discussing what will we talk about in our recording, I said and she said, well, television and what have you? Because I really needed to remove myself these past two weeks from what was going on in the US, certainly, and then even in the broader world, because I felt like too much and too much weight. So I love that you recognize that in yourself, that this was something that you needed to do, and I feel that way also. I feel some despair would be a good way of describing it and somewhat fearful, somewhat fearful. The only thing I'll say and it's not a little only is that, as a believer, I know that he has us and I know that, whether we recognize it now or not, we are equipped to handle this type of tribulation. The Bible talks about all types of difficulties that we go through and just from the history that I've had personally that I know that I'm going to end up okay on the end, but it's the trial that I'm concerned about.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know I I I Thank you for acknowledging what I've done. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And a big ditto, for sure, for sure. The last episode that aired, you know, leslie was going through something and I, you know leslie was going through something and I, you know, I just had to kind of stop her in her tracks from the very common trajectory that we go on like, questioning ourselves like why can't we do more better? You, you know enough all of that stuff, and what you did is a is an arresting of the what is so common for us to just push through. You know, right after the election, leslie and I yeah, right after the day after, I think, we had a live where I really felt led to just create space that we made this commitment to offer to hold space for other people, and I asked Leslie if she was, and yes, and so we did a live, and so we talked about it. But this is not a one-time conversation thing, this is not a. You know, what is typical in media is okay, what is the? What is the big blip of the?
Speaker 2:day You're breaking news, right you talk about it and then it goes away.
Speaker 1:It's almost like you know someone, someone dies and everyone comes to the funeral and then, okay, they're getting over it because it's someone else's family and they move on, but you grieve for years do you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of this this thing.
Speaker 1:So, um, I I starting probably yesterday, right, and I've been working intensely for about two weeks now. Today that will close and I'll move into holiday and also planning for my dating cities abroad. So I'm really, really excited about that and talking to you about that more. But today, yesterday, I started kind of letting some of the outside in. I've been seeing stuff just in email because I haven't been on social media either, except for our channel, and you know, once you go on YouTube you see stuff but I'm not clicking on anything Not at all Right.
Speaker 1:But you see the things in email and then you get a little blurb and then it's a dot dot dot and it's like, oh God, either they put the big news up front and then the dot dot dot, or they give you a little juicy juice and typically you know the clickbait to click on it.
Speaker 3:I haven't been clicking.
Speaker 1:But yesterday I started feeling like, oh, I think I might be ready to let some of it in and but, but what that looks like and what I do with the information is is what I know is going to be different. Right, I, I and when I heard about the results, one of the first things that I thought about when I was talking to Isaiah, my youngest I think it's in Samuel, and I promised myself to look it up, but I hadn't.
Speaker 2:I think you're talking about 1 Samuel 8.
Speaker 1:When Israel demanded to have a king, even though they had the king of kings, even though they had the truth, all of the things they demanded of God to have a king. And that came to mind, and Leslie and I, over a 10 year period, you know, and Old Testament was probably in year five, we finished the Old Testament, but I always remembered that and so it just came back, almost, you know, just innately. It came back to thinking about this idea, this idea, and when you talked about the context of history, that to me is what you know, there's always something bigger right, and there are in the trials, if we, it helps us when we find a way to shift our perspective right, and it doesn't mean immediately, it doesn't mean whatever everyone's timing is different.
Speaker 1:This is not about okay, get over it, let's move on, absolutely not, I'm just saying. For me, one of the things that I was able to do is to kind of elevate my perspective, as elizabeth just mentioned, and to think what is the bigger picture and what is life going to be like? Because it is going to be a shit storm. It just is. It just is it has already begun. It has already begun. So, elizabeth, you sent out a text because you were watching. Oh, could you tell Because I stopped you when you started telling me this story I'm like people got to hear about it what happened to you on your way to the Toyota dealership? Oh, okay, oh, okay, tell that story.
Speaker 3:Last night it actually started, as I had sent a friend an audio of 40 Acres and a Lie. It's a three-part audio series.
Speaker 3:I think it's through the Smithsonian and she had responded back last night saying that she and her youngest son, who's about 12, had been listening to it together. She said she'd been listening to it and he heard part of it, and I thought, well, I'm going to play it this morning when I'm taking my 16-year-old son to school, which is like 45 minutes away, and there was a part in there. I think I had listened to this podcast before the election, but then hearing it again today when, in the aftermath and I don't think I told you this- part in the aftermath of Reconstruction with the 40 Acres and a Lie, of course.
Speaker 3:President Lincoln gets assassinated, and then the president behind him is Andrew Johnson. I was getting wrong, One of the Andrews who just took it away and he said he would give it back to the planters, ie plantation owners, if they pledged to him and the Constitution. They made a pledge to him and the Constitution.
Speaker 2:I was like oh yeah, that's what we're doing. Wow, okay, that's what we're doing, Right?
Speaker 3:And it was, you know, at that time. And the other thing that struck me in that first episode was these Black I believe they were ministers who met with Abraham Lincoln and said we just want a little piece of land and to be left alone.
Speaker 1:That's all they ever asked for they didn't ask for the meal, they just asked for some land and be left alone.
Speaker 3:And I just think about through history when our people had the land and were left alone. It always uncovers the lie that we are. The lie is that we are not brilliant and that we are not self-sufficient.
Speaker 1:And then you get Tulsa and you get Wilmington and you get Rosewood and you get all these other places, and they come and they eliminate it and get rid of it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it's just like ugh.
Speaker 3:So that's why I say in the context of history for me, for this country, and then of course we've got world history to consider as well. And then after that I was driving from one city to another city that was to get my car serviced and, listening, Lurie Daniel Favors came up I think you like her too, Leslie, and she was talking about a bill that's about to go to the floor HR 9495. And that bill.
Speaker 1:HR 9495.
Speaker 3:9495, that will I'm taking notes Say that if an organization doesn't anybody, any of these nonprofit organizations can be accused of being terrorist organizations, and it sounds like they just have to be accused. They don't have to be. You don't necessarily want an investigation or anything and that they can take away that status and dissolve that organization so that can affect your foundations that a lot of D9s have. It can affect your black churches. Sure what it's laying the foundation for that?
Speaker 2:What country is this?
Speaker 3:The one called the United States of America.
Speaker 1:Yes, the Freedom Place. Yes, the light on the United States of America yes.
Speaker 3:Freedom, the freedom place. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the light on the hill. Yes, place, yeah, the beacon place. The one that looks a lot like Germany, yes.
Speaker 1:Like 85 years ago. And the one that Germany actually emulated to look like Germany yeah, yes, yeah. That one. One that germany actually emulated to look like germany yes, yeah, that one. That one is where we, it's where we're living right now. And you know, you look at the old um black and white tv reels and how could people, how could what? We're looking at it from the perspective of hindsight right, we're looking at it like how do do they who would go for that?
Speaker 1:Well, that's what we are living through. That's what we're living through and so, yeah, I don't even know if I'm in no way ready this I do know. I'm in no way ready to say okay. So, given that, what am I going to do about it? Except that, yes, I am going to date other cities and see what else is out there in the world. For me, what I have decided, even before this, regardless of the outcome, is that there is a bigger world and there is, there are places where the pressure of being the best, the pressure of hustle, the pressure of saving the world and just being ready to fight, all the time just being in that kind of stance of okay, and it it doesn't being ready to react, it doesn't mean to fight.
Speaker 1:Ready to react, right Okay, Can I calm down now?
Speaker 2:Or do I just, you know, being in this kind of nervousness?
Speaker 1:Yes. A little bit Right, right, you know and processing all the things for our safety right. What do we need to do? How do we need to prepare to walk in, to dress, to whatever, to speak, to feel safe, and so, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I tell you, what you're saying, ange, is so provocative and it's it's really inviting us to to. It's like, who needs this crap? Why do we need to fight? All my life I've had to fight, you know it's like. But who needs that kind of stuff? You know, as individuals. But the thing is because we just want I just want peace, I want to just live in peace, I don't you know. But then there's another side of it that says listen, this is our country, this is not anybody else. This is why I wear lapel American flag lapels on my clothing. This is why I hang an American flag in my home, because this is my country too. Yeah, you don't own this country. Yeah, yeah, you know. And now I need to run away from a toxic environment too. Yeah, that I didn't create.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm you know there's a side of it it's like.
Speaker 2:But you know what?
Speaker 3:I'm tired, right, and now I'm looking for, as Stephanie would say, I'm looking for ease. You know I've thought about this a lot. Part of my background is after leaving corporate life.
Speaker 1:By the way, we're both mechanical engineers, right, that's right, okay. She's wearing the same thing as you but that means nothing.
Speaker 2:That's surface shit. I have no idea what you guys do.
Speaker 3:That's what that means Mechanical engineers. I don't know, that was part of kind of what connected us.
Speaker 2:It's like oh yeah, I get it. You can speak that same techno stuff.
Speaker 1:Anyway, sorry.
Speaker 3:I homeschooled my children through like middle school for each of them and my oldest is the child who you know, just after turning three years old, was hearing a radio and says Mommy, who is Bush?
Speaker 2:You know, and then like three weeks later who is Obama?
Speaker 3:So when I started to homeschool her, I felt confident. I could handle the math, I could handle the reading. I could handle the math. I could handle the reading, I could handle science. What I couldn't handle was history, because I did not like history at all and this is the same child who said mommy, you know if, if the sun is the center of our universe, why is it dark in outer space? Well okay, so I thought I going to have to have some answers. When she started asking about history.
Speaker 3:Angie's eldest child is like that her eldest is like that so that's when I started learning about history and I'm looking at it as an adult at that point. So I would say it's been in the last 15 years that I have started to learn history and I'm looking at it as an adult at that point. So I would say it's been in the last 15 years that I have started to learn history and I've had some real aha moments about these here, united States of America, and have had some pushback as I've started to talk to people and one of the things is this is my country and it's like, well, I guess you could say that, but is it really? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Tell us about your background, Like where did you grow up?
Speaker 3:I grew up in Georgia, Atlanta. And I went to you know my whole growing up was pretty much an African-American context. And then I went to an HBCU and then I went to work for corporate in Midwest and then I came to North Carolina and have retired here to have the next chapter and so well it's a whole different train of thought that relates to this upcoming administration. But that's for a different conversation. That means she'll do that.
Speaker 1:No, it's a whole different train of thought that relates to this upcoming administration, but that's for a different conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that means she'll be back.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right. That's right, that's how I clocked it too. That's exactly how.
Speaker 3:I clocked it Like if someone comes and steals your house, right, they take your house and then they look around and it's like this is a really nice house. I don't want to clean it, I'm not going to cook for it, I'm not going to do any of this. So I think I'll just go and kidnap a few people over there and make them come in here and take care of it. And oh, by the way, I'm going to tell them if you don't clean my house and do it like I want to, I'll just shoot your children in the head, right? Would you expect them and their children to want to stay in that house later on, right? When that person dies for whatever, because they stole the house and not really theirs and they forced you to take care of the house, is it really yours, do you?
Speaker 2:really that's a right.
Speaker 3:That's some analogy, yeah and that's how I'm kind of you know it's like is it really our land? Yes, our people built it yes it was under duress, we were kidnapped and forced to do it, and it was stolen land. Yes, yeah. So, is it really our ancestors' wildest dreams? For us to stay and continue to fight for it In a state of trauma. Yes, I think our ancestors' wildest dreams is to have freedom, preferably back where home is, but even if not, to have freedom.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you know if you think about the underground railroad.
Speaker 3:Um, their geographical constraints were pretty much the United States Okay, right, but because they were, most people of African descent, were in the southern colonies, so they wanted to escape that. Because we're all made for freedom, we're not meant to be in bondage. They wanted to escape that and they did as far as they could go. They wanted to escape that and they did as far as they could go. They had no, generally speaking, no way to get over the waters. Right, right Today, we do. Yes.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yes, and even without going over the, they went to the farthest that they could go.
Speaker 3:That they could go Right. So when we talk about freedom economic freedom, geographical freedom- yeah, right um, there there are lots of levels of freedom and this notion that we have to stay here I just that's an.
Speaker 2:I have been challenged.
Speaker 3:That in myself it's like why be confined to this when that's no longer the constraint?
Speaker 2:Right, and it's up to us to determine what freedom looks like to us. Other people don't decide what is freedom for us. Right, right.
Speaker 3:And you know, historically speaking, you know, you had Harriet Tubman who said she could have freed more slaves if they knew they were in bondage.
Speaker 1:But then you've also got Okay, stop right there.
Speaker 3:Uh-oh yes.
Speaker 1:I would have freed more slaves if they knew they were in bondage. Something to that effect that part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard that before.
Speaker 3:It is that, if they is, that, if they knew, if they knew it's the it's, it's what you believe to be true it's the cognitive dissonance?
Speaker 2:yes, and if you think about our environment here, is that we are all led to believe in the superiority of the United.
Speaker 2:States and we are the best country in the world, and by whose standards, and it's a privilege to be here. Look at how many people are trying to get here and it's now this exclusionist mentality like we can't let any more people in here. If you have read something recently and obviously it makes so much sense if you are not a Native American, then you either emigrated here. You were born, you were brought here, enslaved. This is not your place. You know. You're an immigrant too, you know, but we close quote unquote close the borders when it's convenient for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But what you just said about you know this is we're so great If you know anybody who has been in a domestic abuse situation and I have family members who have been is that not what the abuser says?
Speaker 2:I'm the greatest, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know who else is going to want you except me.
Speaker 1:Yes, You're lucky to have me. Yes, what are you going to do without me? What are you going to do without?
Speaker 3:me yeah, and you ain't that great. Anyway, I'm so great.
Speaker 2:I'm so great.
Speaker 1:I'm so great.
Speaker 2:I have personal experience with that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Ditto, ditto. Yeah, I did not know that this hits home for me.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. On the other side Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I can look back at that and say yeah, right, yeah, but that is the mindset. Yeah, we have to keep the oppressed and the abused thinking a certain questioned about. Well, if the sun is, the sun why not see the sun?
Speaker 2:Oh the sun. Hey, I see the sun. I get that. That analogy is interesting because some years ago, when I was in medical school, I went through a bout of depression, and one of the things that I remember most is I couldn't imagine how the sun could come up when my whole world was so dark. The sun felt like it was a betrayal. I'll never forget that feeling, that.
Speaker 1:I had.
Speaker 2:It's very vivid for me. Thank God it's behind me. But that sun, you know what I mean, the brightness of the sun, and it's like well, what do you mean? The sun came up today. Why am I not able to experience that?
Speaker 1:You know. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I hear you. So, Elizabeth, you're. First of all, you went to Costa Rica already.
Speaker 3:I did. I went in July when else?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, you were right behind me, and then in August, I went to Portugal. So you did the Portugal thing before we were able to get there. Yeah, I know. So, what do you think of Costa Rica?
Speaker 3:It was a lovely place to visit. It did not speak to me for extended stays.
Speaker 1:What cities did?
Speaker 3:you go to. We stayed in San Jose and then we went to. We did not. I guess we went near the jungle, but we did not stay overnight or anything.
Speaker 3:And I was telling my husband so much of that country is a jungle much of that country is a jungle, but yeah, that's one of the things that I didn't care for, because we went to a water park and it was a lovely water park, really enjoyed the experience. And when we're leaving, which is dusk, um, it was just very lush, very lush and it I immediately had a flashback to my first job at an amusement park. That was also very lush and someone had was joking with me one time talking about a rat and I was like, oh, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Speaker 3:And then the next night I was working under this arbor and I saw this huge rat up there and it's just like, okay, I don't know what's in this lush beautiful foliage here and I just rather you know I'm used to- seeing some landscapes a little something in the distance, and then the mountains and trees you know, I like the little distance between the jungle.
Speaker 2:And you not just luscious time right at my feet.
Speaker 3:We were in.
Speaker 2:Tortuguera, which is one of the rainforest areas, and I'm not going to say much more because we're running out of time, but it was like a movie set. It was unbelievable. I don't ever need to go back there.
Speaker 1:Say more about the movie set. What do you mean? Like Jurassic Park movie set.
Speaker 2:Like Jurassic Park-like. It was like unreal. Like this can't be real rain. Someone's pouring buckets Like this can't be real rain. You know what I mean. That kind of thing, you know it was. How do people live in there Like your clothing could never dry. It was so wet, it would never dry. How do people walk around with damp clothing? And I know that people don't have dryers everywhere. So you just, I guess you walk around with damp clothing.
Speaker 2:Or it doesn't feel damp to them because dampness is relative, I suppose, but it was damp, to me Nothing ever dried, but anyway. So what about Portugal?
Speaker 1:I was in Lisbon and areas around Portugal.
Speaker 3:I mean areas around Lisbon. I really enjoyed that. I'm considering an extended stay, like maybe a few weeks in the summer or something like that. Maybe we can coordinate it, because that's one of the next places that I want to date and explore. Well, I'm giving a shout out to Krishan Wright with Blacks at Global. She was our fairy scout mother, as she said.
Speaker 2:Blacks at Global.
Speaker 3:B-L-a-x-i-t. Blacks it blacks at global. She's part of exodus summit as well and um she hosted a scouting group. It was just three of us, a small group, but she taught us how to get around and so like by the end of the week, you know, we had one lady in our group who went and got her hair braided and she had to go across the river on a ferry. She went by herself. I had looked into dental work but they didn't have an appointment available.
Speaker 1:I took about one back for that because it's very, very cost effective.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:It was really nice. It was very walkable.
Speaker 3:It was pretty. I liked it. And then you know you have to deal with the. They're part of the slave trade. They're called you know the OGs. Yes, they are. But the other thing okay, I know we got to wrap up, but that hit me because I've been challenged on that recently is this country was founded on the oppression of others. Right, that's part of how this country was birthed to be. But a lot of these European countries weren't birthed that way.
Speaker 1:So, they did participate in slavery but it wasn't the foundation of their country, this country is that's.
Speaker 3:Every system is built on that foundation.
Speaker 2:Right, and I would appreciate more honesty in that regard yeah right, we all have flaws that's the reason why they create mirrors so that we can look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves about what we look like and what we really look like. Yes, so that you can make change if you need to be. You know this idea that certain people, if you don't like this country, you should leave fuck, yeah, like. Who does that?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, you know you can't say when they but I'm just saying so.
Speaker 2:It's like you just want to stay with a booger in your nose I like my booger. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:I like the spinach.
Speaker 3:That's right, I like the spinach on my teeth. There ain't no spinach on my teeth, what are you?
Speaker 1:dummy, you're not a patriot. I got spinach on my teeth, exactly.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't make sense. If there's anybody that can criticize us, it should be us, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge it. Let's make the corrections before the other people see us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:We don't do that.
Speaker 1:We don't do that. We don't do that, wow. So I just want to mention that I have been thinking about Mexico more and more. I lived there in the 90s, before.
Speaker 1:I had children for four months. And every time I start because you know I've been looking at Ecuador and Cuenca, ecuador in particular, and Costa Rica, portugal is always kind of I would love to go there type of thing, but I remember feeling really wonderful when I was in Mexico. I lived in Mexico City, but I'm not sure if I want that because that's a real metropolitan city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hear that, it's so beautiful. But you were also pregnant at the time, anne, so that could have been part of your growth, but I didn't know.
Speaker 1:I didn't know I was pregnant. I was probably pregnant in month three. I became pregnant. But the surrounding areas right, cuernavaca, and I'm not sure where San Miguel de Allende is, but there are other towns, but I'm just saying the people, the things that they elevate in terms of their values family before work. You know, you work, but you take a two hour break in the middle of the day. What we in America think of as whatever lazy, or a si or a siesta, you think of that as being kind of something that, oh that Mexican. Well, what they do is they take two hours so that everybody in the family can gather to eat together Grandparents, great-grandparents, young.
Speaker 2:Maintain a connection, yes, and then they go back to work until 8, 9 o'clock at night, do you?
Speaker 1:know what I mean. They elevate value, they value family, and so so there are definitely things about Mexico that felt really, really good, good, and so I'm thinking that may be a quicker.
Speaker 2:And I was going to say it's easy to go. Exactly I also want to mention Panama. Yes, that's on the list too.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I also want to mention Panama is still high on my list. Yes, that's on the list too, so that's also for sure. I just need time.
Speaker 2:I just need time, but we're going to need to wrap up. All right, it's so nice being with you, ladies. Thank you, liz, nice meeting you I know, officially, officially, officially, officially, officially, yeah yeah, so we're going to meet in person, hopefully soon.
Speaker 1:Soon soon, and that will happen at some point.
Speaker 2:I know, Lord willing, you know things happen the way that they do. Yes, and I thank you all for listening. Were you going to say another thing, Anne?
Speaker 1:I was just going to say really quickly that, before we started recording, we did pray, because that is really the source of a lot of comfort during these very trying times. Our faith is very much a part of how we move in the world, and so I wanted to acknowledge that, because it really helped us to show up this way for you, and so I wanted to just thank God for his blessings and mercies. Yes, okay.
Speaker 2:Amen to that. Yes, so I'll say this has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn, brooklyn Bye.
