"Coincidences" and Slaves

So, as I started my week with a smile, morning quickly went to afternoon as the work day flew by. The delivery guy came by with a small box for me and I realized I hadn't opened a package I had gotten earlier in the day. For someone who loves getting mail, I was surprised I hadn't rushed right in:) I opened the box, dvd for "Role Models." Ehh.

Opened the small package, out comes a biography on First Lady Michelle Obama. I look up and look around like I am being punked and expecting someone to pop out. I am a big fan of the First Lady and it's kinda not a secret (and if the screening committee for the government is reading, I am no fanatic and could totally handle working around her, really:). So as I wonder who sent the book, a note slides out. A publicist at the Publisher wrote me a note, sharing thanks to my online page she knew I was a fellow fan like the author. I was intrigued. Happy to have the book. Scratching my head how a stranger could so easily find out my deep appreciation for the First Family (probably was my Essence.com Community page - Friend me;)

So today on the train I was able to crack open the book (I had been reading "The Shack" with my church, but left it at work so Michelle time it is). The biography, written for tweens, quickly points out the important achievment that First Lady Michelle is the first descendent of slaves to live in the White House. That hit my heart, and just a part of the perfect combo that the President transcends so many levels and has such an inclusive background, and Michelle's is complimentary and opposite of two hard-working Black people settled in Chicago with southern roots, like most Blacks post the Great Migration.

I continue to read. The author details the rice fields her enslaved great-great-grandfather worked in the same town she and her family spent their summers south - Georgetown, SC.

My jaw drops. My heart slows.I had just been calculating a day earlier if a trip to Georgetown would be possible in my weekend to Atlanta tomorrow.

And for completely different reasons. It's where my cousins Linda and James have just buried their second son, and where the two are spending a few weeks to come to grips with the devastating lost. The funeral was Sunday, after he was killed by a man they had welcomed into the family and tried to help. Linda is my father's cousin and our family lives about an hour and a half from the town where James's family is mostly based.

Reading the fascinating history of Georgetown, which had the highest slave concentration in the nation where the average slave owner had 300 slaves and the national average was 15, and the enlslaved Blacks had the ability to hold onto so much of the culture, which we now call Gullah, all gave me some personal pride, as the physical shell of my cousin Enrique settles into that rich land and his spirit lives on.

I had been wanting to get to see Linda and give her some love, so now Im more determined than ever to enter Georgetown, SC a place of personal and national treasure. There really is no such thing as coincidence . . .

It's Not You

. ..it's me. And the fact I don't think we've really met or if we saw each other on the street I don't think we would speak. Those are the people I am losing on facebook. I was already feeling weary with all these people I dont know at all and accepting their friend requests of strangers and they didn't even say hello. Now I dont feel bad at all, and if we really are meant to be connected we will meet. And Im very aware Im not that cool and the only reason a lot of the people have friended me is because of the industry and place I work. That's what LinkedIn is for, not my personal FB

Then today a private investigator came and chatted with a few of us at work. She works some with CNN and so fab - and using facebook to get the dirt. She is hired by companies to check applicants and one place her team goes is Facebook. Crazy pictures and friends often trip people up, along with lying about the school they actually graduated from.

I had a funny experience over the weekend. I went to dinner with two publicist last week (the ladies of 135th st, they are so fab) and a writer friend of theres comes along. He's all, I think we've met before. He doesn't look familiar at all, but his name is familiar. He tells me about a hot exhibit at Studio Museum of Harlem and I definitely plan to check it out. Anywho, we have a great time and I love hearing their stories of coming up through the industry, as I dig into my Turkery Burger at Cafeteria (that Macaroni and Cheese with Truffles is BOMB). Well, the itis kicks in and I am almost nodding at the table before we head uptown:) The next morning he posts on my wall - somehow we are already facebook friends. I dont friend strangers so I must have accepted his request and not even looked at the profile. Not good. Luckily it worked out in this instance, but that PI has me thinking . . .operation access denied is in effect . . .

Joy

No matter how in a funk I feel, this song makes me smile. I had a good heart to heart with my mom (I had been highly upset with her all week) and I felt so much better getting her perspective and getting a better understanding of her. I was so disappointed thinking she was nonchalant over the tragic murder of the son of one of our cousins. She broke it down that her delayed reaction in telling me when I called her and she was in WalMart wasn't disinterest but her way of coping, as she takes care of her sick mother. She matter of factly said she had no idea what she would do if something happened to me or my brother and that ice melted I had been feeling around my heart. Seems we have more in common than I realized that we are always yapping, but clamp up on sad news. Anywho, I always thought of Joy by Blackstreet as the ultimate love song, and how every girl wants her special guy to feel about her. But seeing the video I realized it was a lot deeper than that, as they serenade their baby girls. Thank God for parents, even when they aren't perfect, for loving so hard.

*Thanks so much for the condolences and emails! I really appreciated it and feels good to know you aren't alone out here