A Lesson Well Learned by Erica Anderson

This Education Narrative was written after Frederick Douglass. Fall 2012.


I was raised by my maternal grandmother, Lenora Melton, who I witnessed go to work every day except Sundays. Sunday was her day with the LORD! Every time I saw her I wondered why was it so important for her to carry on a conversation with someone who was not there, yet never mustered up the courage to question her about it. My grandmother was a hard worker; she owned her own home, paid her bills on time and didn’t bother anyone. She was a God fearing, sweet, yet stern woman when it came to discipline for my siblings and me. I remember my granny always emphasized “Train up a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Later in life I found out that saying was Proverbs 22:6, a scripture from the Bible. She was so nurturing like that, always feeding my spirit without my knowing. My Grandmother was always quoting “The Good Book” as she called it.






I experienced a tragedy at the age of thirteen when one of my siblings was killed by a random shooting, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dealing with the loss of a sibling, Eugene, was very hard for me; my grandmother tried to soothe the pain with some of her quotes; reminding us that 1 Corinthians 5:3 “To be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord”, something I didn’t want to hear. The anger started to build with the questions I asked myself concerning this God that my grandmother was always talking to and about. I wanted to know why he took my brother away when my grandmother prayed to him all the time. At the age of sixteen, my oldest sister, Lenora age twenty four, another one of my mother’s children was murdered because she was dealing in drugs. I felt alone, my sister was the only one besides my grandmother who truly loved me, I thought. Subsequently, my life spiraled out of control, I was getting in trouble at school, hanging with the wrong crowd, and missing curfew. One evening I arrived home late, my grandmother told me that she had noticed the change in my behavior and I needed to get my act together, walking away saying Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” My behavior got worse; I no longer cared about anything and didn’t want to hear any scriptures either. I had never felt more alone and hurt than I did at that moment.

As I look back on the quotes from my granny, she was teaching me how to rely on God by praying and reading his word for all of my needs and concerns. She recalled Lamentations 3:22-24 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him!” I didn’t pass this learning lesson with flying colors. I did not fully understand the magnitude of the lesson until I was thirty two, at a turning point in my life: I was on my way to prison. I want to tell you why I was sent to prison but I can’t because it is too painful. I had to quiet my inner spirit and have one of those conversations with someone who was not there, in the same way as my grandmother. I did not have her here for some much needed nurturing food: The Word of God, for my spirit. I had to reach deep into my teachings that I had shunned so long ago for some peace I didn’t know what to do or who to turn to. I started destroying the wall I had built around my heart towards God and knelt down on my knees, as my granny taught me, and began to pray and ask for forgiveness. I was able to get a grip on my emotions to begin to think rationally about my next step. My brush with the law was enough for me to realize that I didn’t want that for my life, and after being released from prison I began to surround myself with positive people, staying connected with my church congregation, and most important, continued my relationship with God. God placed a lady a few years younger than me, yet very wise in my life. I learned a lot from her. I watched how she honored God with her life and the continuous blessings he bestowed upon her. Her life mirrored the teaching of my grandmother, and now my soul thirsted for it. I had come to realized that I could no longer and didn’t want to run from my destiny: having a relationship with God.

Unlike Douglass, at the time of my teachings, I wasn’t interested. He wanted to learn how to read and write. To me his teachings were essential to everything. I thought my teachings were just something that my grandmother used for disciplining us. Frederick Douglass wanted to experience reading and writing after his mistress stopped teaching him. He said “The plan I adopted, and the one I was most successful, was making friends with all the little white boys whom I met in the streets” and by befriending them he turned the white boys into teachers, furthering his desire to learn. Douglass was running towards the understanding of having something sacred; I on the other hand was running from the teaching that would be essential in my understanding of a sacred teaching.

Douglass’ ambition to read and write was the motivation and urgency of wanting to be a free man. He said to two of his young teachers at the shipyard that “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life!” I was free, yet incarcerated my heart from being able to receive peace in my life. Looking back I came to the place later in life where Douglass was at an early age, learning how to communicate with my Creator as my grandmother had taught me so long ago. Our stories are different yet similar, my feelings changed later in life just as Frederick Douglass’ views did. As he continued his quest to educate himself, he was becoming more agitated concerning his freedom. Douglass said “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers”, knowing the prison that he was immersed in was because of someone else’s selfish reasons. My slavery was because of the hurt and pain that I was engulfed in growing up. Lessons are learned throughout life, we have to know how to apply the proper teaching in your kayos when it’s needed most.