What It Means to Walk Around a City Without Purpose
My mamma’s constant trips around town influenced me to wander despite the potential dangers
My mother is a homemaker. Growing up, I saw my mamma bend over backwards, stumble forward, and squirm sideways to allow no comfort to escape her family. My father, my grandmother, and I could barely measure up to her meticulous love. My mamma never spared a breath to pat herself on the back for work she considered her duty. “Your baba brings the bucks. I hold it all together,” was her matriarchal pride. She allowed me to help her. Sometimes. I could do the dishes or dust the windowsills, but venturing outdoors to bring home household items was a task that no one dared take away from her.
Making numerous trips to fetch groceries or medicines or whatever the hour needed punctuated much of her daily life. I once asked her why her multiple trips could not be condensed into one visit to the store. Would she forget all her needs in one round? Was my mamma losing her memory? She never had any one solid answer. Over the years, I have come to realize that those engineered trips were her way of claiming a life outside the private walls of homemaking. A bottle of liquid Dettol or a jar of Horlicks were reasons for stepping out. My mamma loved her walks, but to walk without purpose rarely…
