Mindfulness and Meaning in Charles Johnson's "Dr. King's Refrigerator"

Charles Johnson characterizes his third collection of short stories, Dr. King's Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories (2005), as "bedtime stories," in part because he wrote five of the collection's eight stories for the annual Bedtime Stories Gala, an event sponsored by the literacy organization Humanities Washington. Each year the Bedtime Stories Gala centers on a specific theme; the theme of the "midnight snack" shaped the title and composition of this collection (Conan 1). The stories in Dr. King's Refrigerator explore the aspects of ethical decision making and moral examination characteristic of bedtime tales. Perhaps because of the volume's association with bedtime stories, and readers' assumptions about that genre, some of the initial reviews of the collection dismissed its value altogether, considering it simplistic. Bedtime stories, however, are a perfect medium for this collection. Because they are told at night, bedtime stories encourage creativity and contemplation. While bedtime is a space where parents want children to "lose consciousness" and "become vulnerable" to sleep, bedtime often raises questions that engage children's minds and fosters imaginative thinking and creativity (Griffith and Torr 26-27). Interestingly, the expectations for the bedtime story have poignant parallels to elements of meditative practice. While meditation asks us to "quiet the monkey mind," it also requires us to be aware of our surroundings and open to the possibilities that are before us. Johnson's use of the bedtime story, then, is even more telling, since Johnson sees meditation as inextricable from the creative process. "I cannot help but marvel," he comments, "at the striking analogues between meditation and moments of intense creative inspiration and how both overlap in my life and literary offerings" (Johnson, "Interview" 373). Thus, "Dr. King's Refrigerator," the title story within the collection, may seem simplistic, but it provides important insight into Johnson's literary imagination.

In addition to those who dismissed this collection as simplistic, some critics also failed to consider Johnson's spiritual imagination in their assessment of the collection. Johnson's focus on meditation as an extension of the creative process undoubtedly reflects a spiritual understanding. Indeed, numerous scholars (both before and after the publication of Dr. King's Refrigerator) have in fact developed an extensive body of work examining Johnson's spiritual imagination, his religious eclecticism, and the importance of these elements in understanding his writings.¹ Johnson's works often create a syncretic blend of common religious traditions to examine moral and ethical conundrums confronting his readers and to challenge his readers' expectations for black fiction. Gary Storhoff notes that "Johnson's work cross-fertilizes Buddhism and Judeo-Christian tradition" and initiates a "call for a highly complex, syncretistic synthesis of Buddhist and Judeo-Christian" thought (Understanding 14). Additionally, Johnson's religious syncretism often leads in his work to "alternate pictures of reality" and promotes creative and personal liberation both within and outside of his narratives (Storhoff, Understanding 15). Johnson consistently pushes his characters to search for what he calls "whole sight," or a "broadening of [the] expressions and vision" that shape perspectives of black life and art (Byrd 87). With "whole sight," Johnson proposes that readers accept various narratives of the African American experience and move away from the myopic view that renders the black experience as a one-dimensional reality.

Thus, when we consider this collection from the perspective of Johnson's literary and spiritual imagination, we discover a complexity underlying the volume's surface simplicity. I argue that the literary and spiritual imagination Johnson invokes in Dr. King's Refrigerator, but more specifically in the title story of the same name, exemplifies the possibility of expansion that Johnson posits for the black narrative. In this story, Johnson repositions Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous kitchen conversion not just within the contexts of Christianity, but in the context of Arjuna, a warrior and prince from the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, and the principles of Eastern and Western meditative practice. In addition, Johnson creates a small, intimate portrait of King struggling with his family, his financial concerns, his physical condition, and other burdens of everyday life; this...