Wiser on Wednesday - Sweet Honey in the Rock

26 Moments that Restored Our Faith in Humanity

Click on the link to be restored!

26 Moments That Restored Our Faith In Humanity This Year

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538

Wiser on Wednesday - Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. 

You cannot have crops without plowing up the ground 

or rain without thunder and lightning 
 Frederick Douglass

You Can't Win... You Can't Break Even...

...and you can't get out of the game!

I'm not sure if my daughter remembers but for a long time this was our favorite song. She had a friend who would say ..."you can't win" all the time. Naturally, whenever this friend said it my daughter would break out into our rendition of this song. It made her friend cringe...we might have been off key...but I remember having a good time.

A Fine Vocabulary

Once, way back, a woman called me on my use of the word "fine". She stated that I would say "I'm fine" when I really wasn't.  So this prompted me to take notice and to become more accurate --when it was warranted-- whenever I answered the question 'how are you?'

Today I was thinking about being "fine" and I want to present the case that there are degrees--or at least kinds of "fine". 

   There is the "fine" that is connected with the word then, as in "fine, then". Usually stated emphatically, as a retort , generally when one person is attempting to convince another and that other won't budge ... you know, I don't have to say but so much here.

   Then there is the "fine" that comes out so quick that the already short word is bitten back into a yelp. The "fine" that stands very close to the tears that are welling up; the "fine" that indicates a losing battle in an attempt to control a rush of  emotion.

   There is the I'm not telling you anything "fine" and the I want to tell you everything "fine".   The way I see it, there is a whole "fine" vocabulary, if one just pays attention. 

Now I'm sure this is not what the woman meant, but it is what I observed, while I took notice of my own use of the word. And there is what is mostly meant, when I say, "I'm fine"...that when all is said and done for the day...I am alive...I am healthy...there are people who love and support me

           ...I am therefore... fine...just...fine.

We Who Believe in Freedom Can Not Rest

We Who Believe in Freedom Can Not Rest

1990 - 'Voices' festival in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Happy Birthday!!! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


“History teaches that the struggle for justice is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

Wiser on Wednesday - "I Be Your Water"

Audio (and Print) Books 2012

JANUARY 2012
Heaven's Fury - Stephen Fry
Leaving Cecil Street - D. Whitstone McKinney
Hell's Corner - David Baldacci
Hell's Gate - Stephen Fry

FEBRUARY 2012
The Spellman Files* - Lisa Lutz
Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz; David Hayward
Leaving Yesterday* - Kathryn Cushman

MARCH 2012
Rain Fall - Barry Eisler
Curse of the Spellmans* - Lisa Lutz
Inside Out - Barry Eisler
Sonoma Rose* - Jennifer Chiaverini

APRIL 2012
Nowhere is a Place - Bernice L. McFadden
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
Loving Donovan - Bernice L. McFadden
10-10-10 - Suzy Welch

MAY 2012
Strangers - Anita Brookner
Choke Point - Barry Eisler
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff - Richard Carlson
The Warmest December - Bernice L. McFadden

JUNE 2012
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
On Second Thought - Wray Herbert
The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Becker

JULY 2012
The Ares Decision - Robert Ludlum
Person of Interest - Ernest Hill
Cry Me a River - Ernest Hill
The Book of Night Women - Marlon James

AUGUST 2012
The Search - Nora Roberts
The President's Daughter - Robert Ludlum
Missing Persons - Stephen White (book)
Executive Power - Vince Flynn (book)

SEPTEMBER 2012
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Killer Heat - Linda Fairstein

OCTOBER 2012
Dawn - Octavia E. Butler (book)
The Christian Atheist (book - almost done)

NOVEMBER 2012
Adulthood Rites - Octavia E. Butler (book)

DECEMBER 2012
Imago - Octavia E. Butler (book)




*Narrator - Christina Moore

Cute in the Cold

     First let me say, " I know better". But the weather was so nice, and my outfit well...it was nice too. I really like suit jackets and jeans; a scarf... maybe a necklace, shades. So grown, so pulled together. and yes I can make it from the car right into the store without putting on that coat...this time...the next time and the next. And that time after I promised my friend that it was indeed time to wear coats consistently. Well, as they say ...I had to pay the piper... and pay I did.

     Last week, let's just say I felt it coming and still had no idea how bad it'd be. I was cold and hot. I ached everywhere. My blood hurt. 

     Today ...five days later... is the first day I've felt anywhere close to my normal human self. And yes, I did too much. But in my defense, I believe getting dressed was probably too much! 'cause by mid day I was ready to crawl back in the bed and try again tomorrow! 

     and yes, I'm wearing my coat, scarf and a hat...even if just going from the car right into the store!

Wiser on Wednesday - Elie Wiesel

We must not see any person as an

abstraction.

Instead, we must see in every

person a universe with its own 

secrets,

with its own treasures, with its

own sources of anguish,

and with some measure of

triumph.

from The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code

Happy Kwanzaa!

NGUZO SABA (The Seven Principles) Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together. Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.            ­ Maulana Karenga