Moments from the SMITH Community

Eating Crow, I Like Mine Fried I can still remember the first day I ate crow. Perhaps in the past I’d had a small taste at school: on the playground, gym class or field trip days. But, this was the first time its rancid taste lingered in my mouth and its detestable fetidness filled my sinuses. We lived in a little place called Cottontown about fifty minutes from Nashville. It may have been called Cottontown but … Making A Promise, Keeping A Promise When I was twelve years old, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror and made a solemn promise to myself. What I promised was that I would never become like them. By “them,” I meant people who cause pain, who intentionally hurt others and who generally get a kick out of being abusive toward those who are helpless to defend themselves. I had pretty good reason to make … A Scarab's Journey Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York, it is not unusual to see women’s wrists, fingers, and necks wrapped in silver and gold, and diamonds dripping from their skin like droplets of water. At twenty-one-years-old, only a golden scarab pendant hung from my neck, suspended in a crawl close to my heart. Some thought it resembled a beetle, the most abundant and varied species on the planet, and … Read More Community Moments →