by Bryan Ripley Crandall & Ger Duany
In 2020, Ger Duany concluded his memoir, Walk Toward the Rising Sun, with “I look toward the future with happiness, hope, and excitement, because having climbed my way out of and faced all that is my past, I know I can face and surmount any obstacle life tosses me” (p. 289). For those living in Sudan today, the endless war and looming starvation continue to toss obstacles their way.
In 2021, we wrote about reflection and the importance of looking forward and backward in pursuit of happiness, friendship, and possibility. The verb ‘hap,’ we realize, means to ‘come across & to happen upon.’ Historically, it is kin to fate, chance, and even luck. To be happy is a blessing, indeed.
We are happy that “Walk Toward the Rising Sun: A New Year for Reflection & Offering Wisdom with Refugee-Relocation Stories” has been included as part of Ethical ELA’s 10th-year celebration. Congratulations on a decade of amazing, collaborative work.
As readers know, the last few years have brought tremendous change, and sadly, the lack of empathy and the overabundance of greed are adding immeasurable fuel to the global fire of displacement, homelessness, hunger, and need. Currently, 120 million people are uprooted worldwide. The political decisions made in the U.S. by a few will likely add to the suffering.
Even so, we continue to look towards a rising sun for hope. As it rises each and every day, so shall we.
Last spring, we happened upon luck ourselves when Ger visited southern Connecticut and presented to over 100 students at a Writing Our Lives & Cultivating a Community conference. The event offered an opportunity for us to walk together, to sit by evening fires, and to reflect. We choose to be inspired by human beings who work tirelessly in support of human belonging, togetherness, diversity, and love.
We realize way too many in power work in the opposite direction.
Ger is currently living in Sudan where he continues to work on the humanitarian crisis. He is also editing a screenplay of Walk Towards the Rising Sun. Bryan remains Director of the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University, a Jesuit institution, where he finds himself reflecting even more teachings of social justice and humanity – how to be a human for others.
We were both born in the 1970s – Bryan to a world of educational opportunities, wealth, and global power, and Ger to Nuer traditions, culture, and rituals, before being relocated to the United States. Recognizing our hybrid identities (p. 185), we still choose to see the rising sun for possibilities: growth, warmth, and recentering life, itself. We know history should come first. A human being is a human being because of fellow human beings.
Communities that work towards the good of all…locally, nationally, and globally…provide location for all to succeed. As Dr. King, Jr. stated, “I believe unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
We believe this, too. The walk must continue.
Bryan Ripley Crandall is Professor of English Education & Director of the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University.. Raised in Syracuse, New York, he began a teaching career in Louisville, Kentucky, where he first volunteered with refugee families and learned the power of diversity and heterogenous classroom spaces.
Ger Duany is an actor, model, activist, and author who survived the tragic exodus of 20,000 Sudanese children, often referred to as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” He is a UN Goodwill Ambassador, a High Profile Supporter to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), an international speaker, a husband, and a father.