I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

Brian Stevenson is a renowned lawyer, social justice activist and founder and executive director

of the Equal Justice Initiative.

And as you'd expect, he's much in demand as a speaker.

In his brilliant memoir, Just Mercy, Brian Stevenson tells a story that I've been thinking

about a lot.

He explained that he'd been befriended by Johnny Carr, a woman in her late 70s whom he described

as charismatic, powerful and inspiring.

She'd been one of the chief architects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and she succeeded

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.

He recounts the kind of conversations they would have.

Brian Rosa Parks is coming to town and we're going to meet over at Virginia Durshouse.

Do you want to come over and listen?

When Ms. Carr called me, she either wanted me to come someplace to speak or to go someplace

to listen.

Whenever Ms. Parks came to town, I'd be invited to listen.

Oh, yes, ma'am, I'd love to come over and listen, I'd always say, affirming that I understood

what to do when I arrived.

I love thinking about this distinction as I head into various conversations of my own.

Am I there to speak?

Or am I there to listen?

I'll put a link to his book, Just Mercy, in the show notes.

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