Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth — a federal holiday commemorating June 19th, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were finally informed of the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it had been issued. The last ones to hear. The last ones for whom the light finally reached.

I think about the porch light on days like today in a different way. Not just as a metaphor for personal kindness — but as a reminder of what it means when the light is deliberately withheld from some people and not others. What it means to finally have freedom arrive. What it means to build community and culture and joy from that point forward, against everything that tried to prevent it.

Today is a day to learn something if you don’t already know it. To listen. To sit with the weight of what this date represents and what followed it. And to ask, honestly, what it means to keep your porch light on for everyone.

The light should reach everyone. That’s the work, still ongoing.

How are you honoring or learning from Juneteenth this year?