Ode to MJ

Picture it…1972, the Jackson 5 come to Jamaica and my sister, their greatest fan, goes to their concert. I am too young to go but I ride in the backseat of my father’s Ford Cortina to the national stadium to drop her off and witness the euphoria in the parking lot for my four year old self. My big sister, my idol, brings home a signed poster of the Jackson five that adorns the wall of our shared room until she leaves for college in the United States and I, thinking I’m big, take down the poster to make the room mine, after years of waiting. The poster is lost but my journey with Michael begins.

Summer of 1983, I’m not sure whose party on Norbrook Drive in Kingston, Jamaica. I don’t remember whether I was invited or if I was along with an invited friend who carried me in but all my gate crasher friends were there. I can still remember the electric blue halter top dress I was wearing and the smell in the air of chicken being barbequed wafting up into the sky in blue plumes that clear, beautiful, summer night.

We were all dancing en group when a change in the pace of the music had signaled that single folks like me needed to depart the dance floor, while those with boyfriends snuggled in close. So I sat on the driveway of some person’s yard trying to save my hair from being too much of a sweaty frizz, when the DJ put on “Human Nature” and the boy I had a crush on asked me to dance. I still remember being led by the hand through the crowd to the dance floor and my heart beating so loud it almost drowned out Michael’s singing while my sistrens gave me the thumbs up signal as we moved closer. That was teenage bliss.

Fast forward a couple of years; my sister, her baby and I are leaving the hospital after a long sad visit with a loved one. The drive home was draining and sad, no one is speaking, our hearts were grey and the flow of our tears had just stemmed, momentarily. Michael Jackson’s “Leave Me Alone” comes on the radio and out of nowhere this little one year old in her car seat starts to sing “Neave me ano ow ow ow; Neave me ano ow ow ow; Just stop dogging me around.” We burst into laughter as our adult eyes made four in the front seat, amazed. She could not even talk that well, much less to remember the chorus of a song plus, when did she learn to sing? Just like that the mirth was back in our lives. Good memories from my twenties.

Next, that baby turns nineteen and suddenly, excruciatingly, her spirit is called home. Her funeral is being planned and I am to eulogize her. One my sistrens calls me from yard and says ‘what can I do?’ I say send Chissy to sing “Gone Too Soon,” she says “done.” Her daughter comes to Florida with a professional arrangement of “Gone Too Soon” on CD, belts out an unforgettable rendition of that Michael Jackson classic, stuns the gathering at the emotion and beauty in the voice of a then thirteen year old. We send that singing baby home in fine style. I say goodbye to my thirties.

Then Michael Jackson dies on my sister's birthday, she is the one who calls me to let me know.

So, today during MJ’s memorial I insist my girls watch, telling them that this is history in the making. They are not impressed! But then Brooke Shields comes on and wait a minute, that’s Hannah Montana’s Mom! They are enthralled and somehow a five year old and an eight year can relate, his multi-generational appeal has touched the youngest amongst us. Remarkable!

Goodbye MJ, I did not realize I was such a forty-one year old fan until you were gone. But as I am now just beginning to comprehend, your songs were there at every metamorphic interval in my life. I heard on TV that your career spanned thirty eight years, I know, I was there. God Speed. Selah.

Dancing Between the Raindrops

I decided that I had to carry out the garbage in a deluge tonight. Why I thought it could not wait until my husband came home or till when there was less water, I don’t know but I knew I had to carry it out so I did. I had been as mean and as stern with my children as I could have been as I ordered everyone to go to bed so as to rush out on my ridiculous task ignoring the hints their worried bedtime prayers spoke out loud, I was too focused on my mission.

When I opened the front door, the downpour roared right up to my face daring me to step out flashing its promise of deceptive luminance in brilliant waves of forbidding sheet lightening. So ignoring my inner alarm of the marauding elements, I ducked my head down and made a run for it. But then a funny thing happened.

I glided outside almost as if I was moving between tears. At first while I dropped my recycling tins in the bin I thought… for real the reflection of these cans shall surely cause me to get stuck by lightening… but it didn’t. Then I became energized. I ran with the first bin to the gate not feeling the rain and the cold as it emptied down from the skies on my head, I felt curiously free and almost as if I danced. By the time I got to the second bin I had hit a rhythm, I grabbed it from the side of the house, hoisted it over the car as if dancing with the stars bound, launching my partner to the sidewalk with pure unfettered athleticism even pausing to check that it and all its contents remained intact as any good waltz partner would. For my final flourish, I jumped in full out split mode, toes pointed on my rubber boot clad feet, spread eagle to back to the front door and safety. The dance was done, mission completed.

Back inside, I walked happily back up the stairs to the quiet of a sleeping household proud of my accomplishment. Then two little voices called out “Mummy are you safe, we were praying for you.” I was struck right then. The lightening came to me in the form of the insight that:- as I looked down on my jeans in awe at the fact that all but the hem of the pants remained dry as a bone:- what kept me safe outside was not my own courage but two children’s innocent forgiving hearts and a loving God who allowed a mother who had misplaced her priorities in urgency, the chance to come back and hug her children, again. Awesome!

Dance then wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance said he,
and I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
and I’ll lead you all in the dance said he.


Selah.

At Last!!

How appropriate was it that President Obama and his wife danced to the Etta James classic, “At Last,” on inauguration night? I alone can think of so many at lasts that culminated in that dance, on that hour, for so many, on so many levels, that so very historic night.

At last Mr. Obama was no longer President in waiting! At last Mr. Bush was out! At last there was a new direction, with the world watching, feeling inspired in this at last’s wake! At last the attempt to heal a nation broken by years of divisive policies could begin! At last Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream had been realized, he had been to the mountaintop and knew this day would come! At last African Americans, no, make that persons of African descent worldwide, could hold our heads high, our young people could respectfully pull their pants up, realizing that we are no longer a minority, one of us is the leader of the free world…At last!! At last the inescapable contribution of the slaves on whose backs the new world was built, had not toiled in vain; the tears of mothers whose children had been lynched had been vindicated; at last the indignities of the Jim Crow era were satiated and we could ride anywhere in the bus, design the bus, fix the bus or drive the bus, BMWs or walk, if we pleased (shout out to AKH)…At last, At last, AT LAST.

At last in this symbolic act, children who once saw themselves limited in the reach of their potential realized that they actually could be exactly what they wanted to be, at last their potential was really limitless. So here we sit ushering the dawn of a new era of inclusiveness awestruck. For those of us who thought we would never see it our lifetime, pinch yourselves, you are not dreaming; that night, the spirits of our predecessors (TMWR) danced right up there with the first couple. AT LAST, AL FIN, ENFIN… Jesus Wept. John 11:35. Selah.

Election Day Hi – Jinx

So in a cute development this morning my five year old’s Pre-K teacher set up a mock election for her Pre-K class to participate in. It was too cool to look at. There was a little privacy booth complete with photocopied pictures of the candidates for the children to circle the aspirants of their choice. And this was completely unexpected so parents did not have time or enough information to coach their children on their own voting preferences.

I was so amused and tried to chant the name of the nominee of my choice to my baby’s ears but was quickly shooed out of the room for trying to influence the electorate. Well cut to 12:45 pm when I picked up my daughter only to see a glum face. I enquired as to the cause and the teacher happily blurted out the candidate of my daughter’s choice. To my surprise my child was unhappy because the teacher was saying that she had voted for a particular candidate, a charge which she vehemently denied, and then began to sulk about it. It was almost as if she expected to be chastised for her vote.

Quickly I tried to reassure her that her vote was her choice and she was entitled to her opinion and there was no such thing as a bad or wrong vote. To the contrary I reasoned, what was a reprehensible act is having the facility to let your voice be heard and not taking full advantage of that ability! She was just interested in the fact that her ballot did not go to the candidate that she intended to choose and was so crestfallen by same.

Subsequently, while we were waiting for her older sister to be dismissed, another favorite teacher saw her downcast face and enquired like I did as to the matter. When I told her, she was almost visibly offended and asked in an accusatory tone “So is that a bad thing?” Realizing that this could be a supporter of the other candidate I immediately backpedalled and tried to say that because there was a majority in the class my daughter was objecting to the fact that she did not have a chance to be a part of the winning ballot group. Right then and there I began to really get how much of a personal choice this was and even to a five year old the right to keep your selection private is sacred and both the well meaning teacher and myself had unintentionally violated her suffrage entitlement – if a five year old can have one!

I guess the moral of this story is that as we keep living, we keep learning.

Results of the Pre K vote:

Barack Obama 11 John McCain 4 Margin of error +/- 1

Selah.

Change is in the Air!! Notes from the Ground On This Historic Election Day 11/04/08

Even the weather feels different today…. Change is not coming, it is here! Usually the morning is brisk with a chill that would numb your bones!! Not this morning! It feels like all provisions were being pulled out even in the heavenly realm to ensure that all goes well for the voters. I did not drop my kids to school today, I walked because I knew there would no available parking at their polling station school. And What A Sight! There was a line already out the door at 8:30 am, excitement is in the air!! Everyone is happy, pleasant and polite the electricity in the air is palpable!

There are some reports already of electronic malfunctions at that polling station, everyone is wary of that situation but interestingly enough they are not leaving! All around there is a buzz that no one should leave the polling station until their vote is cast! People are on there phones calling work explaining that even though they have been at the station since 7:00 am they cannot vote and they are not leaving until they do!! The authorities have already changed out one machine and everyone is prepared to wait it out! The common feeling is that no one is going to allow an election to go the way of the hanging or dimpling chad of lore!

In the classroom, my youngest in her Pre-K class is participating in a mock election…too cute while my eldest also goes to the polls in her class!! Isn’t democracy great? I’ll post updates later.

I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promise land and I may not get there with you but I have a dream…Yes, We Can!! Selah.

Friendship Redifined

The other day I was remarking to someone that I thought I might have recently offended another person. But further in the conversation it occurred to me that I could check a popular social networking website to which I am a member to see if I was still on that person’s friends list. By that point in the conversation the person that I was speaking with was convulsing with laughter and right then the truth in the absurdity of what I was saying hit me like a ton of bricks, Facebook and MySpace are at the helm of a quiet revolution that is redefining the contemporary parameters of the word “friendship” as we know it.

Take this for example; someone else once spoke about being sent a friend request again on a social networking website, by a co-worker who was really just an acquaintance. That individual then was forced to either let this person have access to the private details of his life that a co-worker would not ordinarily have access to, or ignore the friend request. He decided to do the latter but his distress was compounded when the co-worker, several days after not getting an accepting friend correspondence, came to him to enquire as to the matter. Well needless to say, I’m sure the office became a less friendly place when an explanation along the lines of ….”I’m just not that into you,” was given.

Another person spoke of feeling very awkward about a friend request that he had gotten from an ex-girlfriend who had been very deceptive all during their relationship. Though it had been several years since the relationship had ended and both of them had moved on, he was conflicted as to whether he wanted to allow this murky figure from his past to have such a familiarity with his new and improved life.

Also, sometimes on those websites hackers disguise viruses as friend requests as that appeals to some people’s vanity. You see, all types belong to these networks including those who it seems are in a race to add to their friends lists in some sort of rabid popularity contest gone awry mode; the premise being, the more friends the more worthy thus these people become quick fodder for scams when they befriend a frienemy.

More than that, I have been privy to persons having to explain who they are and where they know an individual from when a friend request comes back with questions like, “who are you again!” At that point I believe you should cut your loses and move on, clearly a friend you are not, if they have no recall of your existence. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who develop a running online dialog with persons after receiving their friend request but do not acknowledge same. Maybe they are worried that the seeker might disapprove or be horrified by the intimate details of their life so they ignore the olive branch of new age friendship that is being waved their way. I tell you it is all so complicated.

At this point I am not sure what the current definition of friend is, given these new friendship factors. All I can do is to figure that the people who you can call in the middle of the night and disturb their sleeping baby when you are in a bind, are your friends. Those who don’t laugh at your hatred of your middle name are your friends; those sounding board listeners who don’t judge your idiosyncrasies are your friends and those who you haven’t seen in ten years but can pick up where you last left off without pauses in the conversation being uncomfortable, are your friends. Who knows, maybe the traditional definition has not really changed, instead maybe it has evolved with the times. Selah.

"It's the Economy, Stupid!!"

Years ago when President Bill Clinton was campaigning against President George Bush sr., this was the catch phrase of his campaign, “It’s the Economy, stupid!” Well fast forward sixteen years and it constantly befuddles me how come none of the campaigns have seen it fit to focus on the economy. I mean with Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch and AIG all recording major trouble in the same week, where is the rally call…”It’s the economy, stupid?” I have heard about a bridge to nowhere, championing voting rights in congress and lies in the media, but no one has clued into, …”It’s the economy, stupid!”

On the street where I live, the man across the road, the lady beside him and my neighbor directly beside me have all lost their jobs over the last year. Certainly they were able to get jobs again but I’m almost sure their rate of pay and not to mention their tenure has suffered …”It’s the economy, stupid!” There were two houses on this street that recently sold after being on the market for over a year and a half and when they did sell they went for almost twenty per cent below asking price…”It’s the economy, stupid!” I was speaking to a friend of mine who was having a migraine headache and when I enquired why she did not go to the doctor, she told me that she had a choice of making the doctors co-payment or putting gas in her car so she was taking Tylenol instead…”It’s the economy, stupid!” My sister in law in the medical field speaks of getting less hours on the job because people have to make co-payment choices, my sister speaks of massive layoffs in her sector …”It’s the economy, stupid!” Can anyone hear me?

A lot of people on the top of the food chain think of the economy as some airy fairy, pie in the sky concept that that is to be tracked by statistics and graphs. No it is not! It is a bread and butter issue that affects the way how people feed their children. How can I expect a man whose wife’s outfit cost more than most people’s house to understand this predicament? How can I expect the first term governor in her second year of office, from an oil rich state with a population barely higher than that of the county I live in, to catch my drift? Does the regular guy from ordinary circumstances who worked his way to the top comprehend this plight? I don’t know but November is coming and these issues need to be addressed, shucks they could once again become a rally call…”It’s the economy, stupid!” Selah.