By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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A Long Walk … Towards Care, Concern, Respect, and Advocacy - "Book" Summary (1618 Words)
(72nd, 73rd Days Of School) (Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - Wednesday, November 19, 2025)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
Empath Remixes #99 ( A Long Walk … Towards Care, Concern, Respect, and Advocacy - "Book" Summary) (1618 Words)
Prelude … A Season That Called for Stillness
There are moments in a life when the noise becomes too loud … the strain becomes too constant … and the soul begins to whisper truths that the mind has tried to outrun.
This fall became that moment for me.
After years of navigating unpredictable school dynamics … cycles of containment … blurred boundaries … diminished trust … and the quiet burden of being a Black male educator in spaces that often prize my labor more than my life … my body and spirit finally asked for stillness.
The leave that followed was not an escape.
It was a Selah.
A holy pause.
A necessary exhale.
A moment to see clearly again.
During this pause, I turned to what has always steadied me … writing.
Writing became the place where my thoughts found shape … my wounds found language … and my hope found breath.
It became the place where I assembled seven foundational documents and a Letter of Transmittal that attempted to speak honestly about what I have experienced, what I have built, what I have endured, and what I still believe is possible.
It also became the place where I imagined walking with the people who have shaped my life … my human thought partners … one conversation at a time.
Those imagined and remembered conversations became the twenty-nine Virtual Walks collected in Empath Remixes #98 (1-16 | 17-29).
Each walk functioned as both mirror and lantern … reflecting my truth and illuminating a way forward.
This is the story of that journey.
The Seven Documents … A Portrait of a Life in Motion
Before the walks, there was the writing.
Seven documents took form over the course of this fall.
They were not planned.
They emerged.
Each one carried a different part of the story.
One documented my experiences at school … the confusion … the encouragement … the racialized patterns … the moral injuries … the unspoken expectations … and the thin line between support and surveillance.
Another turned a careful eye toward the classroom itself … the students who rose … the students who resisted … and the students trapped in what I call “Lie-Lie Land” … where truth becomes negotiable and emotional instability masquerades as strength.
Two more documents outlined what I want to build next.
One imagined #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab … a year-round learning space grounded in #StandupStorytelling and honest dialogue.
The other described Born(e) Witness … a one-man show designed to merge music, testimony, reflection, and pedagogy into a form of teaching that lives beyond the classroom.
Another document explained how I arrived here.
It named the patterns I had been living without knowing their names.
Another document offered a framework for the “tough conversations” I want to model … conversations that turn conflict into understanding instead of accusation.
Conversations that teach people to breathe before reacting … to humanize before judging … to choose clarity before chaos.
And finally, the document titled “Who I Am (and Who I Was)” traced the long arc of my professional life … including the years when I learned the cost of leadership … the challenges of visibility … and the responsibility of being a witness in complex environments.
These seven documents formed the scaffolding of everything that followed.
They were not simply reflections.
They were the opening chapters of a larger testimony.
The Letter of Transmittal … An Invitation to Walk With Me
After writing the seven documents, I needed a way to share them without collapsing under the emotional weight of their contents.
I wrote a Letter of Transmittal addressed to the people whose care, concern, respect, advocacy, and wisdom I have trusted across different seasons of my life.
Some were family.
Some were colleagues.
Some were pastors.
Some were students.
Some were leaders.
Some were friends.
The letter delivered the documents.
But more importantly, it delivered an invitation.
I asked each person to take a walk with me.
Literally.
Figuratively.
Spiritually.
I asked them to help me see myself with clarity.
I asked them to hear my heart before interpreting my actions.
I asked them to help me discern the next right thing.
The letter became a threshold between the life I had been living … and the life I needed to walk toward.
The Virtual Walks … Twenty-Nine Conversations (1-16 | 17-29) That Walked Me Back to Myself
Once the letters were imagined, the walks began to unfold.
Some were based on real conversations.
Others were imagined as a way of rehearsing healing.
All of them were grounded in the truth of my lived experiences.
Walking With KS … Returning to the First Mirror
The first walk retraced the steps of my early years at Tech High.
KS was the person who heard my unfiltered thoughts long before I learned how to articulate them.
That walk reminded me of who I once was … and how much I have grown.
It also reminded me that strong voices sometimes overwhelm fragile systems … and that visibility can be both a gift and a burden.
Walking With Pastors Who Saw My Spirit Before They Saw My Story
Several walks took place with spiritual mentors.
PastorJH helped me name the difference between endurance and bondage.
PastorWH saw the calling behind the chaos and reminded me that rest is holy.
PastorYH offered gentle wisdom grounded in her experience as a superintendent.
She understood the pressures of schooling at a level that allowed her to read my wounds without needing every detail.
These pastoral walks stitched together the spiritual dimension of my journey … the truth that calling is not confined to a classroom … and that peace is not found in performance.
Walking With Students … Witnessing the Seeds I Had Sown
Some of the most powerful walks were with students.
DW and DH emerged as unexpected messengers of grace.
Their words reminded me that my work had meaning … even when the system around me struggled to see it.
Their affirmations arrived at the moment I questioned everything.
Walking With Colleagues … The Complexity of Professional Relationships
Walks with colleagues like OMcR, DrBM, CoachTroyD, CoachTerD, CoachBD, and others revealed the layered dynamic of being respected interpersonally … yet misunderstood institutionally.
These conversations allowed me to articulate the tensions that arise when gifted teachers are both relied upon and contained.
Walking With Leaders … A Hope for Better Conversations
Walks with district leaders helped me imagine what honest, humane leadership might look like.
These walks were aspirational … rooted in my belief that systems can change when people choose to see with clarity.
Walking With Family … The People Who Carry My Heart
The most tender walk was with my parents.
It was honest.
It was vulnerable.
It acknowledged the distance that sometimes grows between people who love deeply … but communicate imperfectly.
It was a walk that held more questions than answers … yet still carried hope.
Walking With Myself … Through the Fellowship Map
The Fellowship Map wove together all twenty-nine walks into a coherent arc of transformation.
It showed me that these conversations were not random.
They formed a path.
Each step … each voice … each memory … each walk … became part of a mosaic of healing.
The Core Pattern … Creation Instead of Retaliation
As I reflected on the walks, a pattern emerged.
Whenever I faced instability, marginalization, or chaos … I responded not with retaliation … but with creation.
I wrote.
I taught.
I built.
I clarified.
I bore witness.
Every walk confirmed that this pattern is not a defect.
It is a calling.
It is the way I keep my humanity intact.
It is the way I help others find theirs.
The Paradox … Peace That Disrupts
The paradox of the journey is simple.
The clearer I write, the more disruptive my clarity becomes to systems that depend on silence.
The more I name the truth, the more uneasy some spaces become.
The more I practice peace, the more I expose the environments that cannot sustain it.
The Virtual Walks helped me accept this paradox instead of fighting it.
They helped me see that clarity is not chaos.
Truth is not rebellion.
Reflection is not resistance.
Peace is not passivity.
The Destination … A Life Rooted in Care, Concern, Respect, and Advocacy
After walking through all twenty-nine conversations, a simple truth emerged.
I am ready for a new chapter.
A chapter defined by peace instead of panic.
Purpose instead of pressure.
Fellowship instead of containment.
Teaching that heals instead of teaching that drains.
Relationships rooted in care instead of fear.
Work that strengthens instead of work that wounds.
A chapter where #StandupStorytelling becomes curriculum … and #TheSeeSayShow becomes a fellowship of learners … and Born(e) Witness becomes a living testimony … and ethical prompt design (enhanced by AI thought partnership) becomes a new field of teaching.
A chapter where I reclaim the dignity of my own story.
Coda … The Walk Continues
A long walk is not a march.
It is not a sprint.
It is not an argument.
It is not a performance.
A long walk is an act of faith.
A long walk is a way of listening.
A long walk is a path toward clarity.
This season has invited me to walk with people who have carried parts of my story … to walk back through places that formed me … to walk toward the future that is calling me … and to walk with myself in a way that honors the truth.
This is the beginning of that walk.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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