What will you say before you? And what will it say about your life?:

Listen up: the daddy wants to ask you a question about something you don't want to think about: about death. No, this is not about death in general. It's about how you will act when you face death.

When you die, will you shout something to the effect of, "Give me liberty or give me death?" Okay, maybe that's too dramatic, too broad. Well, how about "Lord, please watch over my family and community, when I'm gone?" Or "Lord, thank you for helping to survive this foreign, strange new land called America. Please help them to continue to grow to be even better as a people, as Americans."

The daddy is wondering about this, because he's meditating on the John Brown's revolt (one of my heroes?), about the great Frederick Douglas agreeing with John Brown in principle but warning him that it would not work. The daddy is thinking not so much about leaders like John Brown so much as his courageous followers who decided to unite with his white brother and fight this fight, regardless of the odds.

The daddy is wondering how we regular folk will act and what we will say when we too "come to the end or our road."

If you're wondering how you're going to deal with it, the daddy wants to mention one example.
December 16th is the date of the hanging of two of the five men who were to be hanged for joining John Brown's in the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859: Shields Green and John Anthony Copeland.

(L t R) Green, Copland, Leary, Anderson, & Newby

According to the African American Atlas, as Copeland was led to the gallows he shouted, “I am dying for freedom. I could not die for a better cause. I would rather die than be a slave.”

What will you say before you die? What will it say about the life you lived?