Why do we celebrate Labor Day, historical significance or modern day celebration? Labor day originated as a celebration of unions, back in the late1800’s. Now, the first Monday in September is more about back to school, end of summer and sales. Union membership was at a record low in 2017 – 10.7% of the working population.…
“Based on a true story.” That is code for a condensed version of the story, trimmed down to be told in a short period of time and carefully edited to create a compelling story of near mythical proportion. Coming this fourth of July, amidst the parades, barbecues and fireworks, are you celebrating a holiday “based…
Memorial Day – at times it seems we are trying to hard to forget what the day is really about. Which is rather ironic for a holiday that is all about memory. Memorial day is in honor of those who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces. Formerly known as decoration day, the…
Can we stop with the Easter Bunny? Look, don’t have kids, I’m not involved in child rearing, so herein is an observation. A key objective in education is critical thinking reasoned judgment in thought and action; the ability to reason well and the disposition to do so. This means, education has to first undo the…
The Lunar New Year which is typically the second new moon after the winter solstice, started February 16th. This is different than the solar new year, which started January 1. Habit makes us want to map something unfamiliar to something we know. Which is why people unfamiliar with this start to look at me as…
Because people were bombing black churches and he preached Because blacks had the right to vote in 1870 and Jim Crow laws kept them from voting and he marched Because he protested the Viet Nam, a war in which McNamara admitted we couldn’t win and he spoke out Because his message and actions were nonviolent…
Five minutes; I watched a movie this weekend and the last 5 minutes changed everything. Stories have an arc, the conflict, the climax and the resolution. What I thought was the resolution changed 3 times in the last 5 minutes. The Pacers versus the Knicks. It was 105 Knicks and 99 Pacers with 11 seconds…
She is a mini me. This little brown girl with wide eyes sporting a leopard print hat that matched mine. We locked eyes for a moment; both of us break into a smile. A few moments later, it all made sense. The last tent on the right. There are 4 tents pitched under the highway…
I write each week out of fear. This is the perfect day to read; it’s raining, I have hot tea and a stack of books to read. So why am I writing? I could take a break this week. With over 150 posts, surely one can be reused, or can’t I just post “on vacation?”…
I’m doing nothing for Thanksgiving, I have a stack of books for a reading frenzy. I’m going on a literary feast of words; I’ll be swept off into other worlds; presented with challenges, dilemmas and triumphs. This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful to be able to read what I want. A book once disappeared from my e-reader.…
I am on a binge; a Futurama binge. It started last week and now I’m 84 episodes in with 56 left to go. I’ve calculated 20 hours left of viewing time with an estimated completion day of next Saturday. Hmmmmm, is this normal? Am I in avoidance mode? I read that binges are a way…
The bogeyman is a hoax; it’s some made up creature that spans multiple cultures, albeit with various other names, used to frighten children into good behavior. We’ve seen children reduced to tears, fearful of the threat of mythical bogeyman. But this trick is not just for kids. Consider the adult version of the bogeyman. It…
Houston is incomprehensible. The scenes of people fleeing with water above their necks, The narratives of people who fled Katrina, moved to Houston and are fleeing yet again. People have lost everything. It will take years and years of recovery. I’m just going to eat cake. I started a new job in February with a…
We’re getting eclipsed. There is a total solar eclipse visible in the US. For more than three years, I have posted a new blog post every Monday until last week. I posted eclipsed part one on Friday. After all, there are times to break the routine and do something different. When do you break routine?…
Oh crap, this is more than I bargained for; the path of obstacles. I lean back, avoiding a swath of swinging sticks close to my head when a several yards later I sounds of alarm force me to duck to avoid a bombing. When I finally reached the end and remove my shoes to go…
There is a thing I do, make white people comfortable. Survival techniques my parents taught me. Be well-mannered and respectful as not be perceived as an uppity negro. It does not matter if you are better educated, better read and more economically advantaged, just make sure ‘they”don’t feel it. Over the years, I learned, be…
Memorial Day – at times it seems we are trying to hard to forget what the day is really about. Which is rather ironic for a holiday that is all about memory. Memorial day is in honor of those who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces. Formerly known as decoration day, the…
“Life is too short,” is an over used, misguided cliché of fill in the blank babble. At least from an analytical view. The average lifespan for American men is about 76 years and for American women it’s around 81 years. Not that short. You don’t know when you will die, you don’t know the day,…
I have blogged weekly for 30 months and have published 139 posts. But this year has been different. A seemingly subtle shift happened 10 months ago, with my post about Apple versus the FBI. For 20 months, I’d pretty much avoided social commentary but there were all these thoughts demanding a voice. After that post,…
If you’d told me in 2001, when I moved into my house, people would recognize my kitchen and me from photographs, I’d not be able to imagine in what sort of world this would be possible. Yet, this year, I had 4 instances of people recognizing me from Instagram. Me and my kitchen yoga. I’m selling…
How do you reset yourself? You know, sometimes your phone goes wonky and you just need to shut it off and turn it on again. You restart your computer when it goes slow and starts to flicker. So, how do you reset? What do you do when life seems wonky and you just can’t seem…
Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today. My plans for this fourth of July? I plan to stare at the sky and daydream. I’ll think about how I have been spending my time; what I have done and what I want to do next. Then comes…
Memorial Day – at times it seems we are trying to hard to forget what the day is really about. Which is rather ironic for a holiday that is all about memory. Memorial day is in honor of those who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces. Formerly known as decoration day, the…
“I was late for the online meeting because my laptop froze up when I hit my desk and my fingers were too cold to make the phone work.” Well, Friday was April Fool’s day, but this was not a joke. I had a 5:30 am online meeting. I set two alarms set to make sure I didn’t oversleep. I jumped up…
It’s that time of year where New Year’s resolutions are starting to fade and become a distant memory. Why? The intentions were great. There is more to a resolution than those verb noun statements like “get fit,”, “save money”, “stop procrastination” or “be happy.” Between the before and after is the doing. The doing is…
“Life is too short,” is an over used, misguided cliché of fill in the blank babble. At least from an analytical view. The average lifespan for American men is about 76 years and for American women it’s around 81 years. Not that short. You don’t know when you will die, you don’t know the day,…
Unfortunately once you finally decide to live for the moment, It’s because you’ve already missed the moment of a lifetime C.J. Thompson * Don’t miss the moment of a lifetime. Here’s to 2016. Cheers. *C.J. Thompson is one of my favorite poets. You can take a moment to see her work at https://www.facebook.com/CJ-Thompson-777858232327657/ and https://www.instagram.com/c.j.thompson/
I’ve got over 1,000 followers on Instagram. One of the most unexpected things of 2015 is this virtual group of strangers worldwide whose lives have randomly interconnected on purpose with mine. It a collection of people who share losses, struggles and successes. Not just a scroll, click, like, scroll, but for some of us, conversations…
From the barren, rumbled, desolated battlefields, the poppies grew. Seeds that laid dormant for decades bloomed from the disturbed earth of battle. Hence, the poppy became a symbol of remembrance for Veterans Day which initially commemorated the end of World War I at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of…
Monday, 12 October 2015 is a controversial federal holiday in the United States in honor of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America. For some, Columbus Day represents the demise of indigenous people at the hands of colonization; with estimates of 80% of the North American Native American population was destroyed as the result of the arrival…
This Fourth of July is a watershed for me. The day marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States declaring sovereignty from the British Empire. The second paragraph that reads “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with…
Memorial Day – at times it seems we are trying to hard to forget what the day is really about. Which is rather ironic for a holiday that is all about memory. Memorial day is in honor of those who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces. Formerly known as decoration day, the…
March 17th! That’s the day the men’s NCAA College Basketball playoffs start. I don’t have a team, I have a history.The year I graduated from the University of Tennessee was the first year the NCAA sanctioned the women’s basketball event. I was there during the reign of the legendary Pat Summit who has the most…
Is the word love over used? Is there a place you love, a food you love, a song you love, a movie you love, a person you love? Can it all be love? If it makes you smile and it gives you joy, then its probably love. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Last week my post explored why wait until January first to start resolutions. A resolution worth doing is worth doing immediately and not waiting. This week is part two. There is more to a resolution than a before and after. There is more to a resolution than those verb noun statements like “get fit”, “save…
New Years Resolutions? Really? Stop. Consider, if it’s a really good resolution, why wait until January 1st to start doing it? Any reason for waiting is probably the reason it needs to be a resolution in the first place. For example, weight loss. Waiting until the first of January because it’s hard to control eating? Is…
Happy Holidays. Click here to view the BOUS Blooper reel with never seen before footage of Balancing On Unstable Objects. Photo by Sheila Thorne
Labor Day in the US means different things to people. For some it is the end of summer, others the start of school and for retailers, it is the big sale day. For me, it is a day to remember my parents. Growing up I had two models of “labor,” my mom at Hampton University…
