Round 3

Image: © J. Cole

So, Grandma Ji, I am so happy you wrote back.

Before I get into the meat of things…gotta address that “brown” comment. Jon — not Justin (Did I write Justin? That would be funny, as I had written a post earlier about popular names for various careers, and I was all obsessed with the Justin-as-musician phenomenon. It must have slipped into my letter to you. But my soon-to-be-ex-but-wait!-maybe-not boyfriend’s name is Jon). Now, some might call him African American, Black, even Pan African, as Lenna, my bestie, calls herself. But “brown”: never that. It would be as treacherous as your errant era when you went about referring to Grandpa Julio as “negro”. I remember Grandma Isa scolding you and asking to call him, if you must, Afro-Cuban or just Cubano. He really is a mutt. Mostly of Spanish descent, actually, despite his handsome dark looks. Anyway, enough of my own scolding-cum-genealogy, especially when we gots your mind-blowing history lesson to get back to.

How come I never knew any of that stuff?

I have imagined your life a venerable experience of some 50-year-old woman (you know, that age Asian women above sixty appear for decades. Pray I’m due those genes!).

I never thought you a kid with parents, dreams, and bullies (Grams, kinda sounds like your peeps were snobby, oppressive pricks back in SK proper, with the “pagan” brutes comment and all…just sayin’).

So, thank you. Thank you for digging up some pretty difficult memories, I’m sure, to help see me through the modern-day making of my own. Real decent of you, Gramsalot.

Buuuuuut…I’m missing a few things. Not sure the bottom line.

Kinda lost me after your third or fourth big word. I’m flattered you think me that bright. But I just play the smart girl. You really have to speak slooooowly to get through the density, ya know.

Were you agreeing that I — or anyone, for that matter — needs pain and struggle?

Or were you saying that wisdom isn’t earned/learned but innate?

I did read your letter like five times.

I just didn’t get it.

In the meantime…I have even more pressing life lessons to use as cover for juicy gossip with my Grams.

Hahaha.

My evil plan. Working I see.

Hahaha!

Okay.

So, where do I begin?

I ended up going back out with Jon after our fifth, and I thought, final, break.

He was so sweet that I pitied him with one more go. I thought it in order. After all, it’s the longest — though heavily interrupted — relationship of my little lonely life.

Continued…

Dear Grandma,/Rosario→Ji: Round 3

Hannah

Written by

Hannah

Yellow Planet

Narratives dedicated to human behavior, our common history, and discovering a future by design.

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