I was a skinny, weak, shy, cowardly kid, which worried Jaybird, the beloved old black man who was my mentor and best friend. One day as we sat on his front porch enjoying cold buttermilk filled with cornbread junks and gazing across Mississippi Delta cotton fields, I knew he was about to teach me another life lesson when he said, “Avoid fights, but when you can’t, instead of turning coward, deliver a sinkin’ lick.”
