like a borrowed umbrella

this is a picture of a very small magnet that i happen to acquire from a deceased old lady’s fridge. i believe it’s probably homemade because it’s taped together and somewhat fragile. or maybe it’s just old like she was…in her 90’s i was told. anyhow, it reminds me of a story told in a recent book i read called “Barracoon” by Zora Neal Hurston about the life of Cudjoe Lewis. The book is set in 1927 and it’s about the last (supposedly) slave cargo ship and a man who survived. He lived through slavery since 1854, the civil war, and after he learned of emancipation in 1860, he lived out his tragedy-filled life enduring the rule of Jim Crow with his wife, Seely, & his children in Alabama. One part in the book is a story he told after his wife passed away about borrowing an umbrella from another man. in his simple way, he explained his profound wisdom.