After clearing the land, planting the orchard, building the house and barn, and surviving the Great Depression, our father died suddenly one winter night when we were small, leaving us to learn about loss before we even knew its name.

Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.

Everything I learned about the Great Depression was from a college textbook.

My father was never anti-anything in our house.

It's true that I had a bucolic, truly peaceful childhood, growing up in a house next to our family's orchard. We had a lot of books and art, but no electricity until I was eight years old. Since then, I have seen a lot of inner-city life, though.

Raised by an irresponsible mother during the Great Depression in the Jim Crow south, my father was on his own from the age of 13.