This is part of a series of interviews by Debilyn Molineaux, project director for AmericanFuture.US. The project's mission is to help everyday Americans to imagine a better future for themselves, and together we’ll write the next chapter of the United States of America.
I was introduced to Deborah Carter by a mutual friend specifically for this project. Deborah has been a lifelong resident of the North County portion of St. Louis. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Debilyn Molineaux: First of all, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed about your future self and the world around you. To do this we're gonna do a little time travel, somewhere between two and 20 years into your future. How far would you like to look ahead?
Deborah Carter: Let's say 10 years.
DM: Ten years. We're going to 2033. Let's get in our time machine and take a couple of deep breaths. We're in the time machine, hurtling towards your future. When we get there, you'll be yourself today in 2023, observing yourself in 2033. And – ding – here we are in 2033. And the first question that I have is, where are we?
DC: So I can see myself on a farm. We have fruit and vegetables all around us. Abundance of stuff. And clean air, the breeze. Nature fills the breeze, filling the air. So I just want to have clean and quiet all around. And I guess that's it. That's where I want to be in – a quiet environment. It's quiet. Yeah.
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DM: So I have this kind of sense of a peaceful farm setting, lots of food, quiet. It's like peace personified.
DC: Right, except for the birds. I'm just enjoying all the freshness of the air, it’s clean and I’m able to breathe without putting on a mask.
DM: It sounds beautiful. Any idea where you are geographically? Are we still in Missouri?
DC: I wouldn't say in Missouri. I'd like to move out of Missouri, but in 10 years I'll be 80 years old. I hope to still be able to do things. I'm not the typical 70-year-old now. I'm very active doing stuff, so I could see myself still being active but not as much with community work. I've been doing community work a long time.
DM: Do you have some help on the farm?
DC: On the farm I have my husband and sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews. It's like a family thing, where we all share food and share the work and if we have anything left, we can offer it to the other folks, people in the neighborhood. Or even sell it if we want. But that's what I really want to do and I'm working on it right now.
DM: Is what you are working on in Missouri?
DC: Well it’s in Missouri because I live here. I have a piece of land that we’re trying to set up. We've been going constantly for about 15 years now. I've always had a lot of tomatoes that I got to share with people that are green, and you know, but I want to get bigger. So when you start gardening, I think it catches you! You start little, and then you want to do more, so your appetite gets bigger for gardening, and I’m always trying different things.
DM: And now you've got a farm-size appetite.
DC: Yeah.
DM: So as you're observing your 80-year-old self, what are you most proud of?
DC: Well, I'm actually proud of myself. As far as I have grown, because I was a foster child and grew up with no family. I went back and forth several times. I would run away from a home because I was getting abused by one of the people there. When I told people in the foster care system, they wouldn't believe me. I would just run away. And so I ran away three times. When you run away three times they actually take you out of the homes and put you in juvenile detention. So that's why I was in juvenile detention from age 9 to when I ran away the last time. I was 15.
DM: Oh wow. I can see why you are proud of yourself.
DC: So all those years I was alone, I didn't even have a person to come and see me. You have people come and check on their kids, you know, they might want to bring them back home. Or somebody adopts them. Well, I didn't have any people that wanted to have me, so I was supposed to stay in the system until I aged out. But before I aged out, I ran away, and when I ran away I stayed on the streets for two years, just going from place to place. So I am very proud of myself that I came out of that. I decided that I'm not going to be one of the statistics. I'm not going to be a foster child that goes bad. I want to turn it around, do something positive. So that's why I spend my time helping people as much as I can. I'm a giving person, I know from my heart. I just give because I remember when I didn't have a toothbrush. I'm thankful for what I have, what I worked for all my life. I have no children, so my life is kind of slowing down. That's another thing that scares me a little bit about my future because with no children, when I need someone like when I'm 80, 85, that's when the connection with the family comes in. And we need to have more love for each other as a family.
DM: We have to take care of the physical needs –
DC: Right. I look at that too a little bit with my husband. He’s older than me. He'll be 80 in three years, but we still get around. We're not in the house all the time. Mostly we get up and go. He’s got his schedule. I do too. We go and then we meet up in the evening. But we’re happy, we don't have kids or anything – we’ve just got ourselves.
DM: So I’ve got a couple of things that I hear that you're proud of, with your 80-year-old self. So one is helping others. You're proud of your own accomplishments, of what you've done with your life. I also hear that you are proud of your generosity. That's part of helping others? And you're proud of your independence but with a little tinge of concern about how your needs are going to be met as you get older.
DC: Yeah, I have a gerontology degree so that's one of my things that I have done. I know it's going that way so you have to address it in a positive way. You know, even death is not gonna scare me because I know I'm going to die. So I know I’ve got to prepare for that. So with some people they don't want to talk about it, but you’ve got to talk about it.
DM: So 10 years from now, you're on your farm, and you're surrounded by family, with your husband and nieces and nephews and such. How do you spend your day?
DC: Well, get up in the morning and get out there on the farm and work and, well, in the wintertime it would be more like picking the bounty we have and probably preserving and doing some canning. Doing some cooking, I love to cook. I cook outside on the street too. Feeding people.
DM: What do you like to cook?
DC: Mostly tacos. I like different kinds of tacos. I come up with great combinations of grilled stuff. I've been practicing at home because I've been doing a lot of outside work for the community. We do it from the produce that we grow. I usually take the produce and do a quick cooking demonstration at the market once a month. I always have some kind of healthy twist to something that is easy to cook. And people love that! They really do. I get people gathered around me, waiting. They ask, “What are you cooking this time?” But I enjoy that, I enjoy feeding people.
DM: So 10 years from now part of your day is spent cooking and cooking for others. Is there anything else that you spend your time doing?
DC: I like to make jewelry. I'm a jewelry designer. I teach jewelry making. I'm a crafter, I'm a maker, I'm all that, so I do a lot of hands-on stuff. I like to teach.
DM: Yes I can see that, you have a lot of wisdom.
DC: Thank you. I don't know if I've been here before but I know through my life that growing up taught me a lot. I grew up fast.
DM: I'm hearing, too, that instead of being bitter about what you didn't have, you found a way to take all of that pain and transform it or transmute it into something positive and helpful and that's just really wonderful. So in your future self, how do you feel most of the time?
DC: I feel like I have done everything that I need to do. I mean ...
DM: So satisfaction?
DC: Yeah. And I haven't really been completely satisfied with what's going on in the world right now. I listen to politics and I've got my opinion, which everybody does but I don't know how it's gonna be fixed. There’s so much wrong with what's going on.
DM: Well, yeah, that's why in this project, I'm not trying to fix everything I'm just trying to help people think about their own lives and what is your future life like? Cause I think that our answer comes from that.
DC: Yeah, you're right it's just too much. I mean, my mind is all over. I tried to inform myself on things that affect me and my family and my future, you know. I've always felt like I'm strange and some people say I'm strange, well I probably am. I do try not to hurt people. I try to say things in a nice way. I pay attention to people's feelings, that's why it's important for me to talk to someone face to face, rather than through social media. Because social media, actually, it kind of gives people the wrong impression. You can't really express yourself unless you're talking to somebody, looking them in the eye. You know what I mean.
DM: There's an energy exchange that's much more easy to read when we are speaking face to face, than it is through social media, right? Now let back up. You spend your time when you're 80 cooking and making jewelry and teaching others working the farm, obviously. And I'm hearing a lot of time spent in the community?
DC: Yeah, right.
DM: And then I hear that you have some kind of national dissatisfaction or discontent but with your own life I'm hearing that you're actually satisfied with who you are in the community that you're part of, is that accurate?
DC: I'm probably well-known because I’ve been working in the community so long. And I went through this leadership program. So I’m a community leader. I can talk to the council people and the mayor and everybody one on one, and tell them what's going on and then you know, everybody knows me so I'll give them the truth.
DM: If you had to identify three to five principles or values for your 80-year-old self, what are those values or principles?
DC: I would always like people to trust me in the community. Community betterment. And being financially stable. So those are three things that are very important.
DM: Okay, anything else that leaps to mind?
DC: I just want the world to change. I mean, just for the better
DM: You and me both (laughing). We're coming into the home stretch here, okay?
DC: Alright.
DM: So for your 80-year-old self to have this farm with a sense of community that you want, and for you to be satisfied with your own life, what does the community itself need to include?
DC: We're paying more attention to what's going on with the environment. It is one thing that I really really want to see happen to stabilize the community, to be sustainable.
DM: Are you talking about financial stability?
DC: Financial, yes, we need to just live day to day, you know. So the community might need to include things to help people to get together and learn all this stuff, and then, you know, take it and apply it to the community, and make the community a better place to live, for all of us.
DM: So the community needs to include opportunities to be a contributing member and the individuals actually need to take advantage of this opportunity. So there's a healthy spiral, right?
DC: Right.
DM: A healthy loop that goes back and forth. And so this mix of personal responsibility and community support.
DC: Yeah, definitely.
DM: And is there anything that you could do today, or in the new future, that you haven't already started doing to help make that community of mutual exchange possible?
DC: I tried everything I can. I'm the community leader over here on this side so we get together and meet and we still have a few people that come. Since Covid people have dropped off. I'm trying to get people together so we can do stuff together.
DM: Okay, what kind of stuff?
DC: We have 12 neighborhood associations here in Ferguson and we get together with each other. We invite families and kids. The last event we did was soulcraft, and we made wooden bird feeders. This is part of the neighborhood improvement. It’ll help bring birds back. And we have a mascot flower for this community, and it's the purple coneflower. So we passed out purple coneflowers to anybody who wants to put them in their yard. That’s like a mark in this community. We have cookouts and play dates for the kids. We do a lot.
DM: Yeah, it sounds lovely, and it's all centered on getting to know each other and then making a visible statement like, “we're part of this.”
DC: Yeah, we want to better our community and make it shine and be safe for the kids. We try to work together on it, and I’m the chairperson.
DM: So this last little bit is really just an invitation for you. Neuroscience research has proven that when we spend five minutes a day thinking about a future that we want, and having feelings of awe and wonder, gratitude about that future, we actually cannot help but create it. Our subconscious just goes to work and starts creating that future that we want. And so my invitation is to think about our conversation here today in that future that you're thinking about and spend five minutes a day thinking about it.
DC: I can do that.
