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people from England just decided that their contract was going to be the bomb and they forced it on everybody else?”
    â€œThere were really a number of social contracts going on at the same time,” Elijah said. “And that’s always the case, Paul. There was the one contract for the well-off white men; there was one for white women; there was one for Native Americans and another for people from Africa. But the one with the most weight was the one for white men, because that gave them all the advantages they thought were their due, and that was the best way for their society to get on with their business.”
    â€œYo, Elijah, I think you just messed up my whole day!”
    â€œNow you’re learning, boy. Put those greens in that big pot and then reach under the cupboard there and get a fourteen-ounce can of tomatoes and add that to the pot,” Elijah said. “That’s to get some acid on the greens. Some people put vinegar in their greens, but you don’t want vinegar in your soup, do you?”
    I opened the can and put the tomatoes in one of Elijah’s huge pots. He had finished cutting up the ham he wanted—it looked like about a half pound—and he added that to the tomatoes.
    â€œYou want me to stir it?” I asked.
    â€œNo, Mr. DuPree, I think you’re stirred up enough for one day. It’ll let you know when it’s ready for stirring,” Elijah said.
    â€œOkay now, where were we? Oh, yes, it’s around 1775, and the British men are getting restless. They’re thinking that they’re under Great Britain’s thumb, and they’re tired of it.”
    â€œ1775?”
    â€œThat’s right, and you know what happened next?”
    â€œThe Revolutionary War,” I said.
    â€œAll those people standing up in Philadelphia and Boston and New York talking about how they needed to be free,” Elijah said. “It makes your head spin and your heart light just to read their speeches or hear somebody recite them. They were forging themselves a new social contract. A lot of the stuff in the new contract was the same as the old deal, but a few things were different. They were going to make sure that everybody would have some kind of voice in the government. What’s more, the people of this country were going to elect their ruler. What’s that called?”
    â€œA democracy,” I said.
    â€œNo, sir, that’s called a lie,” Elijah said. “Women couldn’t vote, children couldn’t vote, and black people couldn’t vote. So what they were really saying was that the white men in this country were going to rule it.”
    â€œSo the social contract is about getting over on everybody else,” I said. “I know you’re going to say that’s wrong, because that’s your nature, but that’s the way I see it.”
    â€œThat’s the way a lot of people see it,” Elijah said. “They think that there can’t really be a social contract because somewhere along the way, somebody is being forced to accept it. But people over the years who have been thinking about this idea of a social contract think we can do a lot better than just ‘getting over.’ They break it down to the two points we’ve been discussing all along. And when you think about them, they make a lot of good sense. If you learn these two points, then you got something going for yourself.”
    â€œSo what are they?” I asked.
    â€œThe first point is that you can do anything your mind can dream up and your body can perform,” Elijah said. “Just anything in the world.”
    â€œWe’re getting back to the ham sandwich?”
    â€œThat we are,” Elijah said, nodding slightly. “And the second point is that you give up that right to do anything you want because you’ve figured out that there’s a better way for society to function.”
    â€œI can go for it. But you