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“To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing. . .”

Toni Morrison continues to help us feel the sorrows and horrors of enslavement as she offers a beautifully written narrative of a four women who are bound across time and shared experience on a plantation owned by Jacob, a gentle man with a heart for children of any race, who sees each of them “as a human child.”

Florens is a child wearing fancy shoes of the senora as she first appears in the narrative. Lina is Native American survivor of the destruction of her family and community. Sorrow is named for the desperate circumstances of her early years. Rebecca is the wife of Jacob who finds community with Florens, Lina and Sorrow.

The human condition is indeed, as the women observe: “an unfathomable puzzle. Europes could calmly cut mothers down, blast old men in the face with muskets louder than moose calls, but were enraged if a non-Europe looked a Europe in the eye. On the one hand they would torch your home; on the other they would feed, nurse and bless you. Best to judge them one at a time, proof being that one, at least, could become your friend. . .”

Some moments in our lives are miracles, others are mercies.

Cokesbury Bookstore in Ridgeland offers a 25 percent discount on the monthly Bishop’s Bookshelf selections. This is a limited-time offer.