I didn’t emigrate to the US out of fear or to escape an oppressive regime. I emigrated for love, and I jumped through a lot of hoops. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to wait on the slowly turning wheels of bureaucracy while in fear for your life.
Continue Reading...whatever you are celebrating this time of year or even if you’re not celebrating, it is worth remembering the intent of the season – light triumphing over the darkness.
be a light in the darkness, for yourself, for someone else, for your community. as dark as it may seem even a tiny light may help bring others to you or merely help you see you’re not alone in the dark.
happy holidays.
As I type this a woman named Elaine is laying in a hospital bed, unresponsive, her kidneys are failing and she is intubated. I suppose I should call this person my mother but the tiny frail body I put into care six weeks ago wasn’t my mother and what’s left laying in a hospital bed now is even less of her.
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for what it’s worth, every time I see flashing lights, I automatically slow and open the voice memo app on my phone. This is my reality. I am a six-foot plus, 320 pound, dreadlocked and tattooed black man. I am the ultimate suspect.
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A year ago, I awoke in less pain that I had been in for the previous six and a half months. A year ago today was the first day after a surgery to correct my hip impingement. You would imagine that having a surgeon shaving off portions of bone would leave you in an excruciating amount of pain, you would be correct but as I’ve always stated, all pain is relative.
From January 1 to June 15, I spent my every waking moment in an incredible amount of pain. The kind of pain you could see in my face. Sitting, standing, moving, I hurt. In my first visit to the doctor after the surgery his comment to me was, I’m surprised you could function, most people with that amount of build-up in the joint are generally immobile. I dealt with the pain for six months with mostly OTC pain meds and the day after surgery coming off the minimum dosage of prescribed pain killers I immediately felt better.
Now it’s a year later and I still get twinges when I overdo it or as the weather changes but it’s better and I am truly grateful.
When we think about sound, we think about the score, dialog and effects working together to evoke a mood, the opening 11 minutes of Once Upon A Time In The West was one of the first films to simply use the ambient sound to evoke a mood.
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I am sure my political views differ from some, possibly, a lot of you. At this point, that’s not important. What is important is that you do research and consider all your options. Sure you don’t like the other candidate, but can you articulate what your issues with them are, without resorting to ad hominem attacks? Or the three things you heard in your social media echo chamber? Are your candidate’s platform and promises realistic and/or executable? Are the people running locally, locally funded? Have the best interests of your community at heart?
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Today was not a particularly good day for me, at least in terms of pain.
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Today is my 14th wedding anniversary and as expected with birthdays and anniversaries, it’s always a time of reflection. We spent the first two years of our marriage apart and a few days before we officially began our lives together I posted this:
vic and i are not living in a fairy tale and we know that. things are not going to be peachy and perfect all the time. we both have our off days, luckily we seem to have them when we can provide the most support to each other.
we`re both strong willed people and we`re both accustomed to doing things a certain way, we`re sure it`s going to take some getting used to.
what we have going for us, is our ability to talk about anything without discomfort or contention. we expect there will be problems, but we also thing we can sit and talk about them and work them out. there are going to be external forces to deal with as well, but we will try and work those out in the safest possible manner for us and that`s a family us.
we`re going to try and deal with each day as it comes. we have shared long term goals that we`ll be working towards when i get settled. in the interim, it`s about learning to live with each other and getting comfortable sharing a physical space.
i know it`s not going to be perfect all the time but i think if we abide the rule to not go to bed angry, i think we can face whatever challenges come up, together.
It’s been 12 years since I wrote that and in that time we’ve faced a number of challenges and seem to come out stronger and better for it. Thank you Victoria for choosing to make this journey with me. I’m looking forward to more adventures with you.
days between when I first experienced hip pain and surgery to resolve said pain: 165
days since my surgery: 200
days without any kind of hip pain: 0
days since we moved to Knoxville: 127
days at my new store: 116
days until graduation: 127
days until classes start: 18
credits needed to graduate: 10
number of classes being taken: 3
may the numbers be in your favor.