answer:I’ve heard several versions of this. The one that has always stuck with me is from an incredibly touching episode of Designing Women in which a 100-year old black woman in the hospital on New Year’s Eve says the following right before she dies. I thought as I got older, the bold outlines of truth would be revealed to me, but it hasn’t happened. When I was young, I was in such a hurry. And now, I’ve been here a hundred years. And, it seems like only yesterday I held my babies in my arms. I’m glad to be going home. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my family. And I wish for all of you, all the love and happiness I had in my life—and I hope the world keeps going toward freedom. And I hope that people everywhere can learn to live together in peace. As my Pappa used to say. . . “We ain’t what we should be, we ain’t what we gonna be, but at least we ain’t what we was.