The Black Mary

The Black Mary was my favorite part of the book. It is what ties everything together and makes it all believable for me.

Lily shot her mother. I know some might argue that it was T. Ray, but I don't believe it. It was Lily, and she had to live with that. Also, if you noticed in the book, Lily was really hard on herself. Whenever she lied, even if it was for a good cause, she chastised herself and added more guilt to her already too-heavy load. I think that comes from going to church in the South at that time. There would have been a whole lot of hellfire and damnation, and not much personal relationship with a Savior.

It is clear that Lily's regular white church did not meet her need--the need to feel forgiven. She had nobody to forgive her. Her mother was dead so she couldn't come and absolve Lily. Lily's father was not compassionate enough to reach through his own bitterness to help his daughter. Rosalee (sp) loved Lily, but she was not her equal educationally so that made everything she said skewed a little bit for Lily.

The author of Bees understands one incredibly important human need--to be forgiven by a power higher than ourselves. Even August's forgiveness was not enough for Lily. But in Black Mary, Lily found a religion that was personal enough, meaningful enough, powerful enough, that she could ask and receive forgiveness. She found in Black Mary what we all try to find with our Savior. She found redemption.

I realize that the Daughters' religion was a strange mixture of Catholicism (dominantly) and slave history, and music and story, and personal need--but it wasn't silly. It wasn't treated lightly. And most importantly, it wasn't followed blindly by uneducated Southern Blacks with 9 parts voodoo and 1 part Christianity. Instead, it was understood by educated women to be Christianity mixed with all those other things to be precisely what they needed.

Maybe that is why it didn't feel strange to me. It felt warm and alive and poignant and vibrant and I was so grateful for Lily's sake that she was able to finally get rid of the guilt. To move on. To feel lovable and valuable. If it hadn't been for the Black Mary she would not have been able to do so. The most important thing in any religion is that religion's ability to provide absolution--to let a person recognize their own guilt and then let it go. I thought the Black Mary part of the book was beautiful and central, and without it, I don't see how Lily could have ever really accepted her past and given herself a future.