Hey, it's Latif from Radio Lab.

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how did I live this long and not know that?

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You're back with the takeaway.

I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.

Let's talk about grief.

I would have done anything for a few hours where I didn't have to think or even dream.

But my thoughts kept returning to the terrible truth I'd learned in the hospital that day

and all the unthinkable moments and tasks that were still ahead.

For some, grief tightens the chest, clenches the jaw, churns the stomach.

It can sit unmoving on our shoulders, a quilt stitched from trauma, or roll across us in waves that crash against our consciousness

before receding to a hidden place.

Finally, I got up and wandered over to the bookcase in my living room.

There sat works of literature I discovered at Westland,

classics that dazzled me with their melodies and prose.

Love poems by Nikki Giovanni.

I know why the Caged Bird sings by Maya Angelou.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.

They were required reading for my college courses,

but I continued to reread them on my own.

...