Category Archives: Culture

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Two Steps Forward…One Step Back.

Hello World!!!

A friend of mine told me last night that he noticed I hadn’t been updating my blog as much as I usually do. I was so touched. Someone missed me…I hope you’ve missed me too! I haven’t been updating as much as I should this month…maybe more about that later 🙂

So here’s the topic – What is your secret struggle? What is the area of your life in which you take two steps forward only to take one step back? For the divine Ms. O, Oprah Winfrey that is, her weight is her not-so-secret struggle although she wishes it were a secret!  She recently admitted that she has gained 40 pounds since 2006 which puts her weight at a solid 200 pounds. On the January issue of “O” magazine, it features a picture of the 200-pound Oprah looking at the 160-pound Oprah! I really, really, really feel for her!

I have never been obese, but I have struggled with body image issues pretty much since I realized I had a body! I apologize to those who knew me from age 20-25, my favorite question to ask was, “Do you think I look fat?” I swear if I could retrieve the brain cells I devoted to my weight, I would probably have enough to have won the Pulitzer Prize by now! Thank God I now I have a reasonably stable body image, and I no longer feel the need to weigh myself several times a day!!! How did I get rid of this demon? God..and like Forest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

So again, what is your secret struggle? I love the story about the  woman at the well in the Bible!  It seems that she was a love and relationship addict! (Theologians, you will correct me if I’m wrong, I’m sure!)  When she met Jesus, she had already had FIVE husbands, and the man she was living with at the time she met the Lord wasn’t even her husband!  She thought her issues were a secret, but the Lord called her out! That day, that woman thought she was coming to the well to get regular old water, but instead, her thirst for real love was quenched that day…Praise Jesus!!!

I think Zacchaeus had a Napolean complex.  As a result, he had chosen a career in which he dominated people, but secretly, he longed to have self esteem that was based on his inner worth rather than his job. And Jesus, being the Lord that He is, got it.  He told him he was worthy of salvation! Praise Him 2x!

I think the man with one talent had the insidious habit of comparing himself to others. It seems to me that he constantly compared himself to the man who had five talents and the man who had two talents. Rather than get into the comparison game, these two men worked hard with what they had and were able to double their talents. The man with one talent, however, seemed to be ashamed of his one talent and hit it in the ground. Unlike the other stories, however, this story didn’t end well. The one talent the man had was taken away from him and given to the man who had 10 talents because he failed to use it.  Sad, huh!  (My father’s antidote to this behavior is, “Keep your eyes on your own plate!” But Praise God 3x anyway just because HE is WORTHY!

So again, what is your secret struggle? And how do you deal with it? Please post your comments!!! You don’t have to post your name!!!

Any Thoughts???

(Aside: If you’re in the Denver, Colorado area, check out my friend, Soul Daddy!  His album release party is tomorrow!!! Congratulations!!! You go boy!!! 🙂 )

P.P.S. I have included a Rev. Paul Jones classic, “I Won’t Complain.”  It doesn’t fit this post, but for some reason the song is on my mind this morning. According to what I read, this amazing talent was killed when he was 30 years old!

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Making Friends With White People

tess7Hello World,

Brrrrrr! It’s getting cold out there. And for an island girl via Kansas via the A, that just ain’t cool…Plus in my townhouse, it can feel like hell upstairs while downstairs feels like me and Sarah Palin should be rubbing noses in Alaska. (At some point, I will stop using Sarah Palin as the butt of my jokes. It’s not the Christian thing to do. 🙂 )

Anywho, the cold weather and Sarah Palin are not the focus of this post. Since my last post about some Christians and their lack of support of President-Elect Barack Obama caused a vigorous discussion about the whole black-white issue in this country, I decided to further explore that topic personally and otherwise. Also, NBC is developing a new comedy,  “Making Friends With Black People,” “a buddy comedy that will focus on the state of race relations in the U.S.” Apparently Obama’s election is even inspiring change in TV programming! (I could have written the treatment for this show by the way. Hollywood, what’s up?)

So let me dive in…I grew up in white schools. I went to a white elementary school and a white middle school. (I went to a black elementary school in fourth grade, but I got into so much trouble, my parents sent me right back to the white school.) When it was time to go to high school, I cajoled my parents into allowing me to attend the neighborhood black high school. I went there for all four years, but when I graduated, I went to to the University of Georgia where I was awash in white people. So you would think that after spending all of that time with white people, I would have made some really close friends with somebody white…Uhh no. I was the “Black Daisy” when we played “The Dukes of Hazzard” in first grade.  I explained to them why my mama wouldn’t let me wear my hair down in the third grade. In the sixth grade, I explained why I couldn’t rap although I was black. But when I left those school buildings each day, I didn’t talk to them again until the next day. Even in college, when I lived among white people in the dorm, I managed to have a social life that didn’t include any white people. Really sad, huh?

In fact, it wasn’t until I joined a spiritual community (No, I am not a Moonie) a few years back that I began to explore friendships with white people. And after building some close friendships with white people in that group, I decided that maybe white people in the general population couldn’t be that bad. It wasn’t much longer after I had that thought that I met my girl, Tess.

It was kismet how we met! In September 2006, I went to this Christian convention at this local United Methodist church.  Anne Lamott , one of my favorite authors, was the featured speaker! (Since elementary school, I was always obsessed with white pop culture, white books – even white music but that never translated into my friendships. 🙁 ) My plan was to slip Anne Lamott an excerpt of my book. She, in turn, would be so enthralled with my writing prowess that she would immediately invite me out to her home in California where I would meet her agent, ectera, ectera. But alas, she apparently did not read the script in my mind…

So after Lamott signed my book and complimented my dreads and I slipped the contraband to her, I decided to walk out of the church. It was lunch time but I didn’t feel like eating alone. I decided that I would ask the next person that walked by to have lunch with me. I swear to you it was Tess. As we ate lunch, she revealed that she, too, had slipped an excerpt of her book to Lamott. And we weren’t even at a writers’ conference! What sly devils we were! And from then we’ve been like “peas and carrots.”

Since then, I have stayed at her house in Charlotte. (She has moved away now though.) While there, I convinced her to get a ghetto pedicure with me. Yep, that’s right, she got the designs on the big toes. I don’t care what y’all say! She has visited me at my townhouse in the A. And we have discussed for hours on end, boys, boys and more boys! (Why are they so hard to understand?) It’s a passion we share – aside from our love of books, music, pop culture and God! Plus, she is as gung ho about Barack Obama as I am. What’s not to love? (She even designed this blog!!!)

So now that Barack Obama is president -elect, let’s enact a little change of our own. Make friends with white people. You’ll be glad that you did! (Okay, my Dad thinks that I should start dating white guys to expand my dating pool, but I’m still holding out for just one just good brother… 🙂  )

By the way, in this post, I have included one of my favorite white songs, “If You Leave,” from one of my favorite white movies,  “Pretty in Pink!” (I think I wanted to be Molly Ringwald at one point!) Tess kinda looks like Molly Ringwald back in the day, huh?

Any thoughts?

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The Obama Nation v. The Hater Nation

Hello World!!!

The hate is thick! Since our first black president-elect was chosen on Nov. 4, hate , like the lava from a volcano, has been oozing out and I hope things don’t erupt…But on the other hand, I, like many other Americans I’m sure, didn’t expect the first black president to skate into the White House unfettered by the restraints of racism.

However, I am bothered by the response of some Christians’ response to Obama’s win because whether they want to admit it or not, they too, are racist. (Yeah, I said it. Shout out Michael Baisden, ha,ha)  Here’s the thing. I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believe He arose from the dead. I believe that He is coming back again. Case closed. But I sincerely believe that these Christians, these Christians who have hijacked the Republican Party, sincerely believe that if you are not on their side, then you are on the side of the devil.

A friend of mine, Ms. D, sent an e-mail to me about this big time Christian’s response to Obama’s historic win. Apparently, this guy Dutch Sheets, who I had never heard of before last week, is a minister and prayer warrior known throughout the world. His printed response is Exhibit A in my argument that some Christians are just racist when it comes to their lack of support of Obama. (Actually for the purpose of brevity, I don’t have an Exhibit B, but whatever- it’s my blog. 🙂 )

Read his  written response here. Here are just a few snippets of some of the things Sheets said. First of all, he said that Obama’s win was not God’s will. He said that “as a nation we put on the blinders concerning Barak Obama’s background, associations, beliefs, and practices and set these causes (he was referring to abortion and other issues) back years, possibly decades. And in doing so we took another step away from God and His plans for America and another step toward judgment.”

First of all, I promise you that this guy spells “Barack” as “Barak” throughout the whole article. What is up with that? You don’t even respect him enough as the president-elect and as a human being to spell his name right. This seemingly small mistake points to a latent disrespect of the man. And it’s funny about this whole association thing that the Republicans tried to make an issue of prior to the election. For months, Obama was criticized for his association with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I don’t say that I agree with all of Wright’s beliefs, but at least everyone could point to the fact that Obama had a Christian pastor. What pastor was McCain associated with? Since we are talking about beliefs, associations and practices? What does McCain believe? Who was he associated with? What were his practices? I won’t dredge up all of the issues of this past election season, but as someone said to me last night, when you would rather elect a known adulterer who shies away from any discussions of faith, than someone who you can identify as a Christian who has been the faithful husband of one wife and call that “God’s will,” then I have got to believe that another issue is really the real issue.

Then Sheets goes on to detail some of the judgments that Americans will face as a result of Obama’s presidency, “more economic woes” was at the top of the list.  Well, Mr. Sheets, if “economic woes” is a sign of God’s judgment, then God used President George Bush to usher in that judgment, and we all know that he is a true Christian as he is a member of the Republication party. (The sarcasm is dripping from my lips…) Actually, it is my belief that if Bush hadn’t been such an atrocious president, then Obama wouldn’t have had a chance to get elected. I wonder if that was God’s will too…

He then goes on to address any false predictions he may have made regarding the election and the resulting backlash. “Like many, believing I had many promises and confirmations that God would ‘grace’ us with a pro-life president in this election, I failed to consider strongly enough that all promises-even scripture are conditional 99.9 percent of the time…If this caused any harm or confusion, I apologize.” He said he was “somewhat angry at the nation in general and much of the Church.” You know what I say to that, stop writing checks with your mouth that your actions can’t cash…

And here’s the kicker. He compared Sarah Palin to women in the Bible. “I believe she is an Esther, a Deborah, with a huge mantle from God for reformation. God has great destiny for her related to this nation if she chooses to continue down this path.”  (Sheets haven’t you learned? Stop writing checks!) Goodness, I must have no spiritual discernment to miss that Sarah Palin is a Biblical woman reincarnated. If that is the case, then Bush is Abraham or maybe even Paul…Mr. Dutch Sheets, you may be “passing the dutchie” because you are sadly mistaken! And you know what else, I just think you are a part of the Hater Nation rather than the Obama nation. And since Obama will be the next president of the United States of America, it is with a special joy that I say this. “America. Love it or Leave it.”

I could say more, but I won’t because I want to hear from you…

Any thoughts?