It seems I’ve developed a penchant for sudden ejections, like a misbehaved WNBA star, mouthing off to refs with truth sometimes too assaulting to absorb but difficult to deny, or using an unnecessarily rough body check, with brutal language that beguiles.  Correction, more akin to NBA stars, like Andrew Bynum, cuz the ladies hardly ever get ejections, but then I digress.

One of my wing gents Sharath Mekala once told me, “You need the [24-second] shot clock rule!”  By this declaration, I suspect he meant that my (over)zealous self-expression overwhelmed him like a full-force verbal fire hose, took too long and left him feeling hurt and unheard, instead of informed and inspired.

Apparently, on this court of life, although I COULD become a highly skilled player, more than likely I won’t get any playing time or achieve acclaim if I don’t learn to work the rules to my advantage.  Even more threatening, I soon won’t have any team mates or opponents with which to hone skills. Given these bleak prospects, I see the serious need for change.

I sincerely regret that my uncivil, disrespectful behavior has driven some of you out of the arena of our relationship.  This game ain’t even fun anymore without you. I miss you and want you back.

For those who’ve experienced my exuberance as exhibitionism instead of excellence, my zest as zaniness instead of Zion, my opinions as obstacles instead of opportunities, I sincerely apologize. I ask that you please forgive my self-absorbed, self-serving schemes, my brash and baby-ish banter of the past.  I also request that you call me out during any future lapses, whether large or small, and hold me accountable for cleaning up any harm/damage I unwittingly do.

I trust you’ll be patient while I seek and destroy residual “LOOK@ME!” demon roots, pull them like pesky weeds in an otherwise Eden-esk Garden I’m endeavoring to make of my life.  A simple sign will do: just say “SHOT CLOCK” or make a buzzer sound and I promise to pause and hear you out, then take some self-imposed quiet time on the bench, after getting counsel from The Coach.

I therefore commit myself now to being a “good sportswoman,” more attentive, flexible, respectful and open, less argumentative, opinionated, judgmental & irreverent.  Now won’t you come back to the game?  Let me practice my new “playing well with others” techniques?  I trust when you’re ready, we’ll all be better players having had these sometimes painful growth experiences. I anxiously await your generous and gracious return.  Namaste.

I am constantly amazed at human ingenuity and ignorance. Give us a mammoth problem, and we’ll give you a magnificent solution; then we forget it! We hide our bright lights of hope under bushes of –isms: Nationalism, Racism, Sexism, Colorism, Ethnicism, Ageism, Sexual Orientationism, Disabilityism.
Cases in Point: Charity As Commerce (The New/Old Concept of Making a Way Outta No Way)
About 50 years ago, my grandfather, William Holmes Borders, Sr. embarked on a project of parochial community investment that became approximately 30 acres in downtown Atlanta of housing, retail and banking assets unparalleled nationally. The project stands as a testament to what can happen when a few good people take a seemingly insurmountable problem, e.g. 1950-60s African-American Poverty & Segregation, and transform it into something spectacular, e.g., Wheat Street Gardens, Towers & Credit Union, a Cinderella story of “Urban Blight to Bright.”
In 2010, the 22-acre Wheat Street Gardens apartments, a low-income housing community, were replaced in part by a 4-acre farm, this in response to the Food Desert challenge in the area. The project, brainchild of Rashid Nuri, founder of Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture, has been recognized in the media, but I’m wondering how long it’ll take before this brilliance will be forgotten. Will history revisionists leave this story out because many of the project volunteers are white? Will African-Americans continue to shrink from such an empowering initiative for food sovereignty because of residual slavery associations, or as Dr. Joy DeGruy would suggest, Post-Traumatic Slave Disorder?
Two years ago, an architecture competition inspired amazing ideas for resolving Jakarta overcrowding and waste problems, the winning entry involved building housing over trash dumps and using unemployed neighbors to recycle the waste. I digitally stumbled upon this gem and can see its applicability to my own community, but will it be discounted because it WASN’T INVENTED HERE, but by a firm in The Netherlands for an India drowning in people, pollution and paper?
Can you imagine where the world would be if we could get out of our own way?? See through our fears and prejudices to an unbelievably bright future? I think we’re infinitely capable of such greatness, and we can begin with each of us seeing bold change AND THEN being that change. I invite you on this tempting, titillating & tumultuous journey with me. Where and how will WE continue together?

What a cool Sunday I had yesterday! It seemed to be all about Sankofa: looking back to go forward. My graphologist (handwriting seer) Rev. Mother Sharon speaks of it often, mostly in ancestral terms, like going back to the Mother Land, tracing one’s roots in search of the sources of one’s ghosts, gifts & greatness. I’m thinking of it in those previous generational ways, but also in the context of my own lifetime. Sunday was a day for recollection and reverence but also progress and prosperity.

It started with a rousing service at Impact V1, the hip & happening, doing-church-differently spiritual collective launched by visionary Olu Brown, formerly of Cascade United Methodist Church in the SWATS (that’s SW Atlanta for you uninitiated folk). He brought an uplifting message entitled, “What Do These Stones Mean?” based on Joshua 4:4-7 (http://www.impactdoingchurchdifferently.org/sermon/what-do-these-stones-mean-). As I listened to his talk, I began to re-cognize the significance of the wisdom of the ages, and the faith of our ‘foreparents’ in our everyday challenges, the YES WE CAN (Obama & will-i-am style) available to all of us because WE ALWAYS HAVE.

How odd to have him speaking about this topic, since I’d journaled along similar lines that morning, in thinking of my plans to take on the Grady High School Stadium stairs that afternoon…a Sankofa experience. You see, when I was a grad student at UCLA (http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/) in the mid-90’s, I had a crew of female classmates intent on getting bathing suit bodies. So we set out every Saturday on an outbound tour past-Golden-&-Kurt’s-beach-crib-to-Santa-Monica-stairs then return through Downtown-Santa-Monica-city-route sojourn in pursuit of this blissfully fit state. And we’d always stop mid-way at Canyon Beachwear (http://www.canyonbeachwear.com/) for a browsing session as added incentive to stick with our rigorous program. MBA/JD student and type A personality Tsan (http://campcobalt.com/tsan-abrahamson.html) came up with this crueling, yet scenic workout, and tricked us into it the 1st time out. Anyway, more than 10 years later, I now have Cigna director Cerise to thank for inspiring a similar ritual in 2008: weekly stair-climbing at one of our finest Atlanta Public Schools, named for local icon Henry Grady. SanMo Stairs Remix!

This particular Sunday, I had a Wing Dude (instead of Chick), Harvey was good sport enough to be my playmate on this playdate; back in the day, he was one of my younger brother Eric’s crew. So after the inspirational message from Olu, and fellowship with other Impact enthusiasts, some of whom we’d known since high school or before, off we went to Arden’s Garden (http://www.ardensgarden.com) for a carb boost, then to the imposing concrete Grady stadium stairs. After a grueling set of trips up & down, we jetted to join a Jack & Jill (http://national.jackandjillonline.org/) touring of the Courage exhibit at the Atlanta History Center. Another looking back to go forward, from SC-spawned Brown vs. The Board of Education to 2007’s overturning of that ruling. Another set of high school or earlier reconnections, with parents who’d participated in Jack & Jill as children, now bringing their own kids through a similar rights of passage.

I am so grateful for this intellectually, emotionally, spiritually fulfilling day of village-wide remembrances. It can do no less than catapult me forward, on my workout, on my friendships, on my life’s work, all these, my passions. I can see the synchronicity in occurrences both large & small, historic and everyday. How about you? Have you recently had a déjà vu remix-type experience that hailed from your past, a past life or a previous generation’s? Did it leave you awed and inspired? If not, I trust you’ll be on the lookout for such experiences, because I suspect we can see them all around us, if we only take the time to notice. I wish you great inspiring memory hunting this day and always.

So my blog title may make you think of our 44th president’s boyish good looks or understated, classic wardrobe, but what I’m talking about is his ability to turn silly arguments on their heads.  I adore that he is such a master of this tricky art!

Consider his Philly race speech.  The Rev. Wright firestorm would have taken any other candidate out, but not BO! Instead, he transformed this potential debacle into a racial divide/harmony teaching moment.

Now there’s the ASU speech. Instead of ignoring the flap about his ‘lack of a significant body of work,’ he made this supposed weakness/insult the crux of a commencement speech and captured the students’ imaginations with suggestions for creating a body of work that positively impacts their world.  Wow! I ain’t even graduatin’ and I’m inspired!

I’m anxious to see what other game changers BO has in store for us.  For all you haters, keep the barbs coming, cuz My President’s got a way of turning them into golden moments. Thanks for providing him the platform to make us all the best that we can be, in his role as Educator/Facilitator-in-chief.

Any guesses on his next turn-the-argument-on-its-head scenario? More False Choice 101 lessons, anyone? My money’s on Notre Dame Commencement-Pro-choice flap, but then there’s the  Transparency vs. Nat’l Security Torture pix/memos flip-flop. What do you tthink?  Let me know your thoughts!

Being ME…

What does that mean?

I sometimes catch myself

Unconsciously thinking of me

In static terms,

As if ME is who I’ve always been,

Or whom I’ve become

After that last hurtful scene,

The one that had me

Put one more brick

In that wall that’s suppose to

Protect ME from IT/THEM,

That thing/those others

Out to get me.

But what if I’m like water

Subtle but strong

Flexible but true,

Live-giving, and fatal,

Depending on my mood?

Then no wall can forever

Protect or hold me.

Boundless me.

And maybe, just maybe,

Them being out to get me

Is a figment of my imagination,

A FEARful hallucintation,

False Evidence Appearing Real,

Fully Fooling me.

They don’t mean no harm!

Or if that’s how they feel,

It’s only a defense spiel,

With secret code, disarmed.

So who AM I, me?

Am I the main attraction

Or background scenery?

The quiet calm

Or bold, brassy melody?

Point is, I/me certainly

Is NOT static.

Au contraire,

I can be quite erratic,

Unpredictable, whimsical,

Invisible or blindingly bright,

In your face or just plain outta sight.

Or some middle ground,

Not so easily found,

For now…

Looking for the space

where being me won’t harm anyone else.

Does it exist?

Will I ever find it?

Where are the sign posts, the clues?

Am I allowed a compass or map?

In this high-tech, Reality TV world, can I get a lifeline?

Or will I be voted off the journey?

Is there rapid rail

Or must I travel on foot?

Are my feet bare?

Is the road rough,

With gravel, glass, & muck?

Am I alone, partnered, competing?

How much pain must I and others endure

Before I/we get there?

Is there room for all of us

Or just a select few?

Is it smooth sailing, magnificent seascapes,

Wise, witty, wicked wing women

Wearing sun- & breeze-kissed faces?

As Jill Scott would say:

84 degrees, melody?

Room for all who want to come

And are willing to do what it takes to get there?

Maybe it’s my/our choice, smooth or rugged,

Solo or en masse,

Really a bit of both, along a continuum,

The path to that special place.

Our experience of pain or pleasure

Determined by our choice

To don rose-colored or smokey gray glasses.

To see intermediate stops and a final destination

where I/We

Rest easy

Smell the roses

Have some tea

Feel the unconditional love of GOD,

The god within me/we,

GOD all around me/we,

GOD that is ME/WE!

Swearing-in Site Panoramic View

So The Historic Event is almost upon us! In just 6 days, Barrack Hussein Obama will take the oath of office for the Presidency of these United States of American, upon the same Bible his idol, Abraham Lincoln did many decades ago.  What a  momentous and audacious occasion, so much so that I thought it appropriate to add a little levity in these final days.

I trust that Rev. Joseph Lowery will do the same during the swearing-in ceremony’s benediction, no doubt, with grand poetic flourish. But for those not familiar with Rev. Joe’s oratory, I thought I’d try my hand at a example of  his wicked-smart humor-wielding style.

Since last month, I’ve been thinking a rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas would work for such an exercise in Sankofa creativity. This morning I scavenged the internet to discern the significance of this age-old carol (see reference below) and find political facts to convey similar meaning in an 2008 Presidential Inaugural Ditty. Reading or singing it Johnny Carson Carnac-style (in descending order) speeds the process but misses the whole repetitive riff memorization thing.  At any rate, here goes:

Road-to-the-White-House Symbolism of The 9 Days of Inaug

On the 1st day of Inaug, Our Village gave to We, Obama Unity

Our Village refers to the global community

1 Obama Unity refers to not Red or Blue States but UNITED States

2 Twins, Yang & Yin refers to Obama Cabinet of Rivals Balancing Act (symbiotic deep experience & youthful energy)

3 3-Word Mantra refers to YES WE CAN! Obama Campaign Slogan

4 Landmark Speeches refers to Obama’s 2004 DNC, Race, 2008 DNC, 2008 Presidential Victory oratory masterpieces

5 Primaries refers to 5 states holding Democraticprimaries in May: IN, NC, WV, KY, & OR (source: http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/primaries/democraticprimaries/)

6 Bouts of Sparing refers to general election candidate match-ups – 4 debates and 2 forums (source: http://www.youdecide2008.com/2007/06/13/full-2008-debate-schedule-from-dnc-and-gop-vice-mccain-obama-palin-biden-video-democrat-republican/)

7 Lands of Leaping refers to Obama’s 7-country tour spawned by McCain’s challenges to his international experience: Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan (source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article4296994.ece)

8 Teen’s-a-crackin’ refers to August ‘08 speeches in which Sarah Palin 1st acknowledged Hillary Clinton’s 18M cracks in American’s highest glass ceiling (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/30/1313178.aspx)

9 State Conversions refers to 2004 vs. 2008 Red to Blue State General Election turnovers (source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/ & http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2004/)

In case you weren’t aware of all the religious references in the 12 Days of Christmas (I certainly wasn’t), they’re detailed below. (source: http://www.carols.org.uk/the_twelve_days_of_christmas.htm)

Religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas (The 12 Days of Christmas)

I’d love to get your feedback, or better still, hear you sing it out to determine its auditory appeal. And if you’d like to add a few more days’ lyrics, I certainly won’t object!