PRINCE…DEAD????

Last spring while in Minneapolis I can’t feeling I was going to see Prince.   I was going to see Prince… that’s all I would think anytime I was out and about during our church convention, which brought me to Minneapolis in the first place.   But I never did.

While working as radio announcer I clearly remember when Prince first emerged upon the scene.  He was touted then as he still is now… as a musical genius.

His first album… that’s how long ago that was.   Many today have never heard of an album… and most have forgotten what they were.  But on his first album Prince was the only musician.   He played every instrument used in the recording of that album.

The man was brilliant at his craft and as a business man too.   He was a rough negotiator who fought the record company and won… to maintain musical freedom and the rights to all his work.  He was definitely not a dumbie.

I had wondered how old he was after I hear the news late yesterday evening of his passing.   And I thought about Michael and Whitney… and how they had died in their 50’s… that’s when my son came in and voiced exactly what I had been thinking.

They all had died in their 50’s.

I read today that Prince was 57.   Michael had just hit the bit five-‘o.’   And Whitney was in her early 50’s too I believe.

Three remarkable people musically… but dark around the edges.  We are all familiar with Whitney and her battle with drugs and for happiness.   And Michael’s peculiar ways… dipping and dapping into all kinds of things… and his involvement and fascination with little boy children.

But Prince…

Well, back in the day he was always seen with highly attractive young ladies… though he did admit in an interview to being bi-sexual.   I have very deep opinions regarding people who proclaim themselves to be bi-sexual.  It kind of goes in line with Biblical scripture… ‘either they will hate the 1 and love the other.’   Something is going to be more intriguing to them sexually over the other… and that is just the way it is.

In fact, I was surprise to find out that he had once married.  During the early days he lived a fast life… though he always appeared to be shy and introverted… as Michael often attempted to appear as well.  But I think more that a song writer Prince was a musician… and lived as 1.

Though he lived quietly and without much controversy through much of his musical career… except for moving from 1 woman friend to another…  Prince managed to stay pretty much out of the limelight.

During his aging process Prince still looked pretty much the same.  Though a friend told me this morning that he had had a hip replacement and a knee replacement.  I guess that came from years of dropping to his knees while performing… playing his guitar and dancing like James Brown… who was 1 of Michael’s idols as well.

Well, if you are going to mimic someone… mimic the best.   And James Brown was the best at what he did.   Truly.

And though not well educated James… based upon his movie… was a screwed businessman.  Which I guess Prince also learned to be.

In reading an article on the passing of Prince  they alluded to the possibility of Prince having suffered a drug overdose.  I seems to me every time a black person dies they want to tie it to drugs.

Maybe it’s true.   Or maybe not.   But 1 thing is for sure Prince was a decent person who gave back… and was not selfish enough to not open the door for other musicians and/or singer etc.

He refused to leave his beloved Minneapolis thereby forcing the record companies to come to him.   And because he did acts like… Ready For the World… Time… Babyface and L.A. Reid… Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam etc.. etc.. etc.. were introduced to the world.

That was a fete that not many black folk are known for… reaching back or opening the doors for others.  But Prince did and there are a ton of people who can share their stories of how Prince aided them… or  impacted their careers…  or opened a door for them.   And that truly is a great legacy.

In the end, however, there is the question of eternity.   I hope as I had hoped for Michael and Whitney that Prince was able to resolved that with the Lord.

I have no doubt that Princes funeral will be filled with people whom we all know their names… there will be weeping… and fond memories… happy stories of being out on the road.   Or maybe the family may chose to quietly bury him … just as he had lived.

Well, God bless…   It’s Friday and I hope each of you have an enjoyable weekend.

Before closing I ran across pictures of Denise Matthews… better know as Prince’s girl, Vanity.   Whom years later left the music scene and became a woman of God …while also battling A.I.D.S.   Ironically,  like Prince… Vanity passed as well but a few years ago… also at age 57.

Another 1 of Prince’s girl well known to us was Apollonia.  She had been a former cheerleader of some major league team before hooking up with Prince.    And she had won a beauty contest or 2.

Vanity often attributed her battle with A.I.D.E.S. to the life she had lived while running with Prince.

Though in life he wore platform heels to add to his short height… he sold lots of records and made lots of money.  But in the end I hope his arms were not too short to box with Satan… to have ended up on the winning side.

Imagine in 3 short years Prince would have been 60.   Wow…

Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

Add a comment April 22, 2016

SADE’S DAUGHTER…. GAY AND OUT…

I would be the last person to criticize or make a mockery of anyone’s child, as I too am a mother of a gay child.   The irony of it all is that I too was once gay… or as I like to say, ‘I was in the life.’

So, coming to grips with my son being gay should have been an easy thing for me right?

Wrong.  

It worried me.   It plagued me.   And at times in the beginning shamed me.  I went through the whole gambit of emotions trying to deal with it mentally.   And truthfully speaking just did not want to accept it… and I still don’t but for other reasons I will get  to later in this blog.

But through it all my love of my son never tethered.  I have always loved him.  In fact, I will go as far to say, ‘That I even adore him.’   And I have always recognized that he was a far better person than his mother.

I recall while teaching several years ago there was a young male student that sought me out to talk to me about his relationship with his family.  His family was made up of Saved people who rejected him.   They made him feel bad about himself and about the lifestyle he had gravitated toward.   He felt trapped because he loved them… but could not deny his sexuality

He was a handsome boy… smart and I could tell that he was kind and loved his family deeply.  But their feelings towards him tormented him.  They were pushing him away… and out of their lives.  They didn’t want him in their house.  And I guess it is fair to say that the very sight of him made them sick.

What a shame.   They obviously did not know …or could not see the type of person they had really birthed into this world.  Because he was worth celebrating… and not rejecting.

While in the life I had encountered many gay guys with similar stories of rejection.  Many covered up their alternate lifestyles… or attempted to …or so they thought.  Because they did not want the rejection… someth

Many fell away from the church because the church laughed at them… made jokes about them and ‘limp wrist.’   The church turned its back on them and attempted to make them hate themselves.  In response to that many became drug abuser…

started drinking heavily… and many even attempted and did commit suicide.  And then there were those who broke down mentally and began having mental problems because of the rejection, and the feeling that they had let down their families.

I have seen many sad and lost gay men and women who suffered the pains of family rejection… church rejection and community rejection.  In those days there were not gay people all over the TV like today… or all these Hollywood stars walking around proclaiming their gayness as we see today.   Or all these anti-gay laws as we see today… or legislation of gay rights and gay marriages etc..

But back in the day there were just a lot of lost souls seeking to find themselves, who seemed to only find 1 place where they felt they really fitted… and that was in the gay lifestyle.  Being gay… and I was 1 of them.

Oh, yes…     I was 1 of them.   I’m free today …and of that yoked of bondage that had once had me bound… but many still are lost.  And because of all these new acceptances such as the changing of one’s sex… this whole thing has gotten more and more crazier.  And it has fooled a lot of them into believing by doing all these crazy things they will find happiness.

The devil is a liar… and the great deceiver.

I came out of the life when S&M started to become the big rage.   More and more gay people were slipping into the bondage thing… and I could just not wrap my head around that.  It was not for me.  I could not see me allowing anybody to tie me up or handcuff me… or otherwise rendering me helpless while they beat me and did whatever else they wanted to do to me.   I could not see the intrigue in that sexually or any other kind of way.

During my time in the life there had always been cross-dressers, drag queens,  transvestites etc.   But this thing of wanting to become and man if you are a woman ….or a women if you are a man may not be new.   But it certainly was not popular.  And that is what it is today… popular.   And it is very popular … as popular as people tattooing their bodies or piercing themselves all over the place.

But I did not begin this blog to really talk about any of what I just wrote.   I really wanted to write about Sade’s daughter.

When I was in the life… it was Sade I longed for.   She was so sexy to me.  I loved everything about her… including all her music.   I bought everything she put out.   But then lets face it… her music was good.   She was different and had a style all of her own… and I guess that attracted me more than anything else.

I will never forget that for 1 of my birthday’s a friend gave me a large framed picture of Sade, which I hung in my living room.  And I would often just stare at it.

Yeah,  I was crazy… in love.    Sade was fine… but so was my then girlfriend, Angela.   Where I would have chosen Sade… many would have chosen Angela hands down.   And yes, Angela was quite beautiful.  She was exotic in many ways.   She had a British accent, and was part Jamaican and Chinese.  And she was brilliant… and she was the person who withstood me for the longest… 10 years.  She liked telling that story.

When I spoke with her last she informed me that she too had found Christ Jesus, and was reading the Bible daily.  I was very happy to hear that as Angela had grown up Catholic and had very conflicting thoughts about God and religion.   But there was 1 thing she had said about me… she knew even then… that 1 day I would become woman of God.   I guess there was something about me… and it had to do with my training.  It was the fact that I grew up in the church… and that training kept me from crossing certain lines… such as drinking or doing drugs… or smoking etc.  Where many had been rejected I was not because I did not look a certain way.   I could pass… and no one except keen women who were also in the life could spot me.

But I did not cuss or live a riotous life… and I knew nothing about living badly, as my parents were real church people… loving and caring… and giving unto others church people.   So, they were my role models… and there was 1 thing about them.   They never ever spoke to me about being gay… and I never ever flaunted anything like that in front of them… though they never restricted me in being me.

So, Sade’s daughter is gay.   And by looking over the pictures of her and her daughter I can tell that Sade, who took time off from her career as a recording artist for a few years to give birth and begin raising her daughter… that Sade never once thought to reject her daughter.

Seeing pictures of Michael Jordan and his daughter, Jasmine…he too seems to be an accepting father of his child.   She is quite attractive… they both are Michael’s daughter and Sade’s daughter.  And Magic’s son, Erwin… after having lost over a hundred pounds is quite handsome himself.

Many people can’t deal with sexuality issues and their children.   Everybody at some point has had to battle through something.  Many adults … parents often forget the headaches they caused their parents… and the many sleepless night they took their parents through when it comes time to deal with their own children.

In life people are always in a state of transformation.   Their taste in food changes… clothes changes… thoughts on various subjects change… and they change… they mature… they gain wisdom… and if all goes right they discover who they really are.   This is why I am so anti-sex changes… because I understand clearly the changes that people go through from their early stages to their latter stages… and no one is ever the same or thinks the same way.

I sometimes go back and look up old gay friends on Facebook and I can truly say… I am so thankful that I am no longer in the life.   They seem so old to me… so sad… and seem to not have grown.   We look different… them and me.   But then the hand of God is upon my life and has always been.

As Sade’s daughter travels through this life it will be interesting to see the changes and turns her life will too take… as well as Michael Jordan’s daughter and Magic’s son.   There is this old song that Donny Hathaway used to sing called ‘Everything Must Change.’    And it goes on to say ...’nothing remains the same.’    That is BUT ‘God.’

And the great thing about God… He loves us all… no matter what pit we happen to fall in.   And He is able to reach down and bring us all out.

I no longer fantasy over Sade.    Nor do I listen to her music.   I’m on a different path… and as my parents prayed for me… I too pray for my son that God does the same for him as He did for me.  And I pray for my friends and the many many many others who are lost.  It doesn’t matter what they may or may not be in… but if they are not walking in the steps which God has ordered then prayer is the most powerful tool we can use to help… with the hope that God too will favor them and call them out from among them.

God bless… I’ve got to get out of here now.   Somebody is probably going to write me saying I thought this blog was supposed to be about Sade’s daughter.   And to a degree it was…

Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

Add a comment April 20, 2016