Please Use Everyday

Alice Walkers "Everyday Use" creates a picture that seems relavent even now.  When a poor family with few opportunities for upward mobility have children that have a chance (granted from money collected from a church congregation) at education, what results can often be a clash of worlds and expectations.  A prime example of this is how Dee and Maggie view the quilts, where Dee would showcase and use tag quilt as a center piece, drawing from and adding to its rich history with what she now deems valuable, Maggie would use and possibly continue the tradition of the quilt, adding to it and making her own.  I myself dont think about how when something is removed and preserved that is removed from use.  It make be shared and seen but it will no longer serve its intended purpose, in the case of the quilt to help comfort and warm a loved one, but now instead it will be a talking point.  We see a theme of this through the story, the idea of recreating oneself and ones family history to what someone sees as important and valuable.  Not using hand crafted wooden carved tools, but to remove them from family use and show case doesn't seem foreign to me but seems out of place in the context of the story since the family has a practical use for them still.  I was pleased to see Maggie who has endured hardships and a injury to receive something that seems suddenly so important and I hope her character would continue the tradition of a multi generational quilt that will both serve the family and remind them of who they are.  Mama also changes in that she is able to recognize how misplaced her daydreams about glamour and her educated daughter are.  There is a difference between glamorizing a history and laying claim to it, and actively doing and living it.  The quiet represents something valuable to different people but for different reasons, yet one person might continue the heritage and practice while the other will only preserve it for as long as they see value in it.

This story reminded me of a current professor.  He has traced his genealogy back to two different groups, one being a skilled worker and the other group being a family of horse thieves in Romania. he took great price in the horse thieving group, seeing that he has come such a long way, from the poorest of the poor, to a professor at a university with a loving family.  Regardless of where we come from I hope that everyone can strive towards something that benefits all people, creating a community that doesn't exclude.