Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Wore a Symbol of Resistance to the Inauguration

[Tanuki]

11. My late father was stationed in New Caledonia

In the South Pacific early in WW2. Everything was very "basic" and although all the soldiers wanted something to bring home as gifts to their wives and sweethearts, there were no shops... nothing to buy and nowhere to buy it. My dad, who had just married my mom before he was shipped overseas, struck up a friendship with a local man called Charlie who did the laundry for the base. When my dad was accepted into the officer candidate program and was being sent back to the US, right before he left Charlie stopped by with two large, beautiful spotted cowrie shells. "For Madame," he said. My mother treasured that gift until the end of her life, and I still have the two spotted cowries. For me they have a special mana.