THE IMPORTANCE OF STORY

When Betty Reid Soskin retired earlier this month, she had just celebrated her 100th birthday a few months prior and was the National Park Service's oldest active park ranger. For Soskin, the job was about the importance of story.

She worked for more than a decade at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, telling stories of her own experiences as a woman of color who faced segregation and systemic racism. Rosie the Riveter served as a remarkable metaphor for women's work in industry during the war, but Soskin had to carve space to tell her own stories as well, highlighting Black Americans' experiences during World War II in the public programs, tours, and discussions she led.

"What gets remembered is a function of who's in the room doing the remembering," Soskin wisely stated. "Being a primary source in the sharing of that history -- my history -- and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling."

Soskin grew up in a Cajun-Creole, Aftrican-American home in Oakland, California. During World War II, she worked as a file clerk. Alongside a number of jobs as an office worker and a political staffer, Soskin also founded one of the first Black-owned music stores, Reid's Records in Berkeley, California, that remained in business for nearly 75 years before closing its doors in 2019.

With a fierce work ethic and an unapologetic determination, Soskin had a remarkable impact on those who heard her stories. In 1995, the California Legislature named her Woman of the Year, and she has had a middle school in California named after her. In 2015, Soskin caught the attention of President Barack Obama and was selected to introduce him at the White House tree-lighting ceremony.

Soskin's great grandmother, a woman who was born into slavery in 1846 and lived to be 102, was still alive as Soskin worked as a shipyard clerk for an all-Black auxiliary lodge of the Boilermakers union during World War II, an organization that did not permit minorities to join as regular members. As Soskin herself acknowledged in a 2014 interview, she has lived "lots and lots of lives."

When she attended both the 2015 tree-lighting and Obama's inauguration ceremony in 2009, Soskin carried in her pocket a photo of her great grandmother: "It's a kind of experience that covers years, and decades, and centuries," she said.

Soskin is a living example of embracing life fully, stepping onto new paths with faith and claiming the narratives that need to be retold so we are better able to understand and love one another well. What better week than this -- as we mourn Christ's crucifixion and anticipate His resurrection -- to step more boldly into the story the Lord is calling you to?

Listen to Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 6:2 -- For He says, "In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Now is the time, Friends -- not tomorrow when the weather warms, not next week when you are better rested, and not next summer when the world is more fully open again. Now is the day of salvation. What will you do differently today? How will you reflect and embody a primary source of God's story?

Blessings on your Holy Week,

Jennie