Danai Gurira can change my perspective on almost anything

Danai Gurira. I am aware of her because of Michonne on The Walking Dead, but the more I see her and hear her talk, the more I admire her as Danai Gurira.

When I first heard Danai speak on Talking Dead, I was mesmerized. She had such an amazing grasp of her character and of the show and an incredible vocabulary and presence.

But she wasn’t pretentious or haughty or condescending. She was funny and endearing. She was Danai. And she was gorgeous and earthy and ethereal all at once.

She made me think. She makes me think every time I read what she says or I hear her talk on a talk show. She makes me think. She makes me smile, and she makes me proud.

In this clip about what she did as a child when she was bullied, she makes me think, she makes me smile, and she makes me proud. She describes a situation that happened to her 10-year-old self.

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It’s a situation that happened to many of our 10-year-old selves, but she does something in her telling of the story that is very different. She doesn’t do it intentionally either. It just happens.

Danai uses herself, her spirit and her choice of words to deliver a message that the same story might not deliver in other hands.

When Danai tells that she had 1 of 2 choices, not one of those choices was fighting back physically. That wasn’t an option she gave. Her second choice was not described as “telling on the bully” or “reporting the bully” or “getting help from an adult”.

No. That second choice was described as to “pursue justice”.  She pursued justice. She told the boy what he did was not right by telling the principal. She was not weak. She did not snitch or tattle. She pursued justice.

She did not focus on the punishment or on the whether or not the boy learned his lesson. She focused on deciding that what he did was unjust. She was not going to fight injustice with more wrong. She was going to declare the unjust act as an unjust act.

Next: Some thoughts about walkers

Sometimes in life things are unfair. We can’t always change things. There will always be things we can’t control. But we have control of what we believe is right and wrong. We can declare that. Even inside ourselves. By how we act. Who we become. It may not change the situation or the other people, but it changes us if we don’t.