Here is the 25th anniversary edition of this memoir of a Southern Baptist preacher who during the late 1950s worked for the National Council of Churches' Department of Racial and Cultural Relations. Will D. Campbell also served as director of the Committee of Southern Churchmen. Brother to a Dragonfly is a fascinating mix of memories, vivid anecdotes, poignant stories, and portraits of interesting people.
"Shoes were, in fact, one's most prized possession. They alone separated a man from what was at once his best friend and worst enemy — the earth. Best friend because it produced the corn and potatoes to eat, the cotton to try to pay off the mortgage. And worst enemy because it harbored the cottonmouths and rattlers, the sawbriars and stickers, the snow and the ice water."
The place — Mississippi. The time — the Depression. Campbell grows up a sickly boy whose older brother Joe is his best buddy. In his description of shoes and the earth, the author intimates something it will take him half a lifetime to really understand — the paradoxical nature of reality. After returning from World War II together, Will becomes an activist in the Civil Rights Movement while Joe becomes a drug addict.
After working hard to win freedom for blacks, the author decides to minister to their enemies — the Klansmen and other bigots. Campbell writes: "I had become a doctrinaire social activist without consciously choosing to be. And I would continue to be some kind of social activist. But there was a decided difference. Because from that point on I came to understand the nature of tragedy. And one who understands the nature of tragedy can never take sides."
Brother to a Dragonfly has lost none of its zip and bravado over the years. Campbell's memoir is an emotionally charged account of the deep bonds between two brothers and the demons both had to struggle to exorcise. It also presents an idiosyncratic and very needed approach to the spiritual practices of compassion and justice.
