Bits and pieces from my FACEBOOK page…#1

Thought I would schiff through some of my Facebook postings to share a few of them with you…

So, here goes…

• When I was very young I kept having this re-occurring dream. It was always the exact same dream every night… and I always awoke at the exact spot in the dream.  The dream scared me. So, one night I prayed to God to take the dream away from me. And He did…that very night…and I have never ever dreamed that dream again.

            But I did not ever forget that dream.

In that dream I was always being chased…or so it seemed to me then…by these people with wings…like birds… who flew just above me… but somewhat slightly back just about over my head… 3 of them…

I always thought as a child…that they were chasing me. I never knew that God had dispatched them to watch over me.

And so I have…all my life…been watched over. Even though I prayed that prayer…and He stopped the dream…but He kept up the watch over me.

God’s favor….and I didn’t even know it until one of my brother’s told me… concerning something else in my life. And when he said, “Oooh, Bernadine, God favors you.”  I really nearly fainted… that thang scared me nearly to death.

God favored me????

Me???

That was such a frightening thought.

God???

Big…powerful God???

All these million upon millions of people???

I’m still scared by the thought of it…but I know it’s true.

Why?

I do not know…   But He does…He loves me…

• A while back last year I was at Newark Airport…and I was curious how many of the guys helping people with their luggage were there that day when they flew Whitney’s body in from LA?

            I wanted to know if a lot people had gathered that day here at the airport?

            That day Whitney flew into Newark Airport as she had never flown in before. She may have had a limousine… but she left that airport as she had never left it before.

We come all come into this world one way…and leave it in another. But as we existed before in another form… so shall be then exit here to be in yet another form. But whether we have victory or end up in defeat…life everlasting in peace and joy… depends entirely upon what we do while we are in this form…

• It has come to my attention just now that a lot of people come to me seeking my advice on a variety of subjects…and I counsel.

Sometimes the matters are personal…other times they are legal…or affairs of the heart…or family issues…but whatever  the subject or the matter I try to give good counsel…and sound counsel. And an ounce of wisdom…not really having a lot myself. But an ounce of good wisdom and rightly judgment is worth more than 2 barrels filled with foolishness…

• It is almost my son’s birthday. 32 years ago tomorrow I gave birth to a little bouncing baby boy…who had looked like he had been in a fight with Muhammad Ali. But he was mine… So, I loved him anyway. And when I first held him in my arms and looked down upon…I knew I couldn’t afford him.

So, by the time spring semester classes rolled around I started resuming my formal education.

One day while out walking with my son…he then was about 4 years old…he looked up and pointed at a man and said, ‘Ooh, look, mommie… there’s my daddy.’

I knew then at that very moment I had to take my son to Chicago to introduce him to his father. So, that everyday while being out he would not point at someone…and proclaim them to be his father.

Women do not demonize your children’s fathers. It does not matter whether ‘THEY’ do the right thing or not. It is absolutely wrong…and men you should not try to turn your children against their mother either. It’s wrong.

I never once spoke badly about my son’s father. Till this very day they have only met once physically…face to face. But they have occasionally spoken to one another via the phone.

After son graduated I sent him away to school. The school did not have dorms and the small southern town it was in had no cabs or buses. So, I had to get him an apartment…a car…open him up a bank account…buy him a cell (which is also the time I got one just so he could stay in connect with me and me with him)…and paid monthly installments on his schooling.

I also hopped the bus from New York headed south to check all his monthly receipts…to make sure he was paying all his bills as he should with the money I would deposit into his bank account. And while there I always went grocery shopping…buying him enough groceries for the month…though he always had money to buy whatever he wanted…and could call me if he needed more.

Some time thereafter after settling my son in he contacted his father, he told me…and asked him for some money. My son told me that his father turned him down…and told him he should leave school and go back home until he could afford it. Needless to say I was furious at hearing this story. THAT…that man had told MY son to throw away everything I had invested in my son to get him to school and set him up properly so that he could do it…and he who had done nothing told him ‘go back home.’

When my son called and told me this story I was livid…but I did not speak badly against my son’s father…but I do have a few choice words for him if ever I should see him.

But I told my son ‘no’ that he was not coming home and he was going to stay in that school until he graduated…and he was not going to waste the money ‘I invested’ in getting him a car…a cell phone…an apartment…and paying tuition to that school. And that settled that.

Some time recently my son told me that his father had contacted him requesting a loan. Over a period of some years my son has connected with some of his father’s other children…sending gifts and things to his young nephews and nieces. Also, over the years…really in a short period of time after his graduation…my son has become very very successful in his chosen field. And I guess his father had heard.

So, when my son told me about the request for a loan I asked what he told him. And he said ‘I told him no.’

And I asked nothing further…but made note in my mind that was yet another conversation I was going to have to take up with my son’s father.

Fathers…AND mothers be good to your children. And they will be good to you…if you treat them right…train them right…and always seek to do good for them and by them…and DO give them a firm foundation in the Lord…and the things of the Lord. And they shall be blessed…and you shall be blessed of them…and shall reap well the rewards of a good harvest

This big head boy is well on his way to probably becoming a millionaire before he hits 40. That is why I put him down there in that school to sit among millionaires…not their kids but ‘them.’. So, that he would know them…and so that they would know him…

And oh, yes…   I decided this year to let you really see me too.  So, occasionally I will pop up… you just keep on reading my blogs and see…  And this is me…  But from time to time I look different…depending on a lot of different factors…  You just keep looking out for me…  : )

Well, the weather has been great.  Spent the night in the hospital with 1 of my sisters the other night.  All is well…and God is soooo good.  Cannot thank Him ever enough.

Hope you enjoy the rest of this week.  And I hope that all is well with you and your family too.

God bless…hoped you enjoyed it.  I just thought I would share a little with you…

Add a comment January 11, 2013

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

Well, God bless…

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…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

4 comments August 23, 2011

Albertina Walker…. gospel legend in a big way…

When I went up over the internet tonight I wasn’t at all surprised when I saw something come up with Albertina Walker’s name in the title.  I felt that it was an announcement about her having passed… even though I hadn’t heard anything on it until that time.

But I had noticed in seeing Albertina in various video footage and on a television program that she seemed weaker… a bit more sickly.    The television show I saw her on was a reception honoring her.

It is nice to give people flowers while they are yet alive.  That is what these people at that event had come to do for Albertina.  And she seemed so humble as she sat in her wheel chair beaming  up at them all barely able to speak.

Sometimes, when you begin to age and fall off  the horizon people turn away from you.  They forget your name… who you are… or  who you were.  But Albertina Walker did more for gospel music than just sing  it… and sing it with a passion.   She knew also talent when she saw it… and could pick voices… people with unspeakable gifts by way of  their vocal cords.    It is through her that such notable gospel artists, such as Shirley Ann Caesar first caught our attention… when she began performing with Albertina’s group, the Caravans, at a very young age.

http://woldcnews.com/national/woldcnews/albertina-walker-passes-away-at-81/

Also  part of  Albertina’s group, the Caravans, was Dorothy Norwood… who is still on the gospel scene just like the Queen of  Gospel Music, Shirley Caesar.  But the Caravan also included some other great and mighty powerful gospel singers… such as Inez Andrews,  Rosetta Stone and others.

In fact, I was surprised to read in the announcement of  Albertina’s passing that I found in my email today…  that James Cleveland also got his start under Albertina Walker as well.

I also did not know that Albertina Walker had been a protegé of  the late and very great Miss Mahalia Jackson.  What a background… what musical history… and what  gospel music history.  My mother …and I guess everyone about her age and older…all loved Mahalia.  She was truly an icon.

While I was working at a radio station in Jersey some years ago… I got the opportunity to see Albertina perform.  The show was at a small church some place in Newark, New Jersey.   I got there early because I wanted a good seat… so I was there to see when Albertina first walked in.

Albertina came walking in …in this fabulous full length fur coat.  And ever since having seen that coat… I have had my sights on buying me a fabulous full length fur coat ever since.

That coat was talking.   It was absolutely beautiful.  And I could tell that it was also absolutely expensive.

And it looked fantastically marvelous on Albertina.

The show was  promoted by 1 of  the other radio announcers from the same radio station that I worked for.  His name was Herman Amish. .. I call it because I know a lot of  people know him, as he was popular on the gospel circuit.   Especially with the old-timer gospel acts…  because Herman did a lot of  gospel promoting in and around Newark area at that time.  And he knew almost   all of the gospel acts during and before that time… as he had more than likely probably booked them for a show 1 time or other.

But of all the shows that Herman had done… it  was Albertina Walker’s show that I went to.  I had long admired her voice and her musical skills and  genius when it came to relaying feeling in her songs.   But I never knew she was a song writer too.  Albertina wrote “Please Be Patient With Me”  …and personal favorite of mine… “Joy Will Come.”  

I will never forget that when my mother passed Shirley Caesar had released “Joy Will Come” on her then latest CD.  And it was a duo with Albertina… there is nothing like it.

I have hunted high and low to find that CD ever since.  Because it gave me so much comfort at a very low time in my life… to hear it.  And I would sit at that radio station playing it over and over…and over again  just crying and thinking about my mother.

There are few real song writers any more.  And even fewer real people with true talent.

Truly, Albertina may have been gone from the scene for some time but her imprint will linger forever in gospel music… and its history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caravans

This morning a true gospel legend passed…  and her name was Albertina Walker.  She passed due to respiratory failure.   She was 81… and has now gone on home.

I don’t know about where you live… but the weather here has been unpredictable.  For a few days it has been wet and cold… then suddenly it is unbearably cold.

At any rate the leaves are starting to change colors now.  So, I guess we are really into fall now.

Hope you have a great weekend.  I understand that it is supposed to be a 3 day weekend.  Guess I’ll run around tomorrow so I can rest all day on Monday.  Definitely, sounds like a plan.

Well, God bless…

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…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

2 comments October 9, 2010

It’s not all about me… or you… Good & Evil… Pastor Sheryl Brady’s new home… women in ministry…

Pop culture I guess has its place  but in glancing back at some of the title of  blogs I have written…it strikes me that most of them are sheer junk.

What do I care about Mary J’s hair styles?

Or whether or not Venus wants to show her behind off during the recent tennis tournament in Paris?

Can’t even think of  it’s name now…that’s how  much it really matters to me.

Or what about this…

Why should I care whether or not Gary Coleman was murdered or not?

Because…   Well, because I guess way down deep there is a part of me that does care.   Though recently I was called non-caring…  selfish…  self-centered…  and not kind.  Now, that really hurt.  

I’m not kind?

I’M NOT KIND???????

How dare anybody tell me that I am not kind.  All the money I have spent.  All the things I have done.   And they say-

“I’m not kind?”

This has been eating at me since I heard it.  Which was roughly about 3 weeks ago at my brother’s graduation.  But I have just been trying to play it off…like it didn’t bother me.  But somewhere back there in the far crevices of my mind it has lingered.  Periodically it would pop up and I would push it back out of my mind.  And I would just refuse to acknowledge it…or that it even really mattered to me to have heard that.

But it did.

My weapon against it came to mind from Biblical text… how the Bible says that they will call evil good …and good evil.

Well, why not?

It seemed to fit… and fit perfectly.  I after all I do not consider myself to be a bad …mean …or even an evil person.

Yes, I have had to do some things.  But never without cause or justification.  Some I didn’t want to do… but I did it thinking I was forced to. 

So, then too as many people as I have given to… poured out myself  to …gave to when I didn’t have it to give…   Then so… how is it that I should be considered ‘not the kind one?’

Well, if you give from the heart you do not walk around talking about your giving.  You just give.

You give because you see that somebody needs.  You give because you are compelled to… and you respond to the force which compels you to do so.  You give without expecting anything in return.  You give not seeking a slap on the back or a pat on the hand.  You just give… because-   Well, because there was something you saw… you sensed…   you witnessed… and your heart opened up …and you just gave.

It could have been a word… that is what they call ‘a kind word.’   Or it could have been financial.  Or it could have been of  your time  …or a token of your wisdom… if you have some.   But you gave it to meet a need in someone else.

And so, at the end of the day you do it without seeking fame or glory.

So, yes.   From time to time you are bound to be not called ‘the nice one’  or ‘the kind one.’   Because you gave while no one was looking …and you weren’t looking for them to be so… being you sought not recognition.  You just gave…and it made somebody’s day… and probably your’s too.

So, it’s not all about me …or you either.  It is about others.

And who cares whether others recognize your giving …or your caring …or your kindness …or the level of outpouring you share with and to others.

But God knows.   And in the end that is all that matters.

God bless… and do what you can… for others.  And forget about what is …or is not being said about you.

It really doesn’t matter.  It truly doesn’t.  And now that I have said all of that… I don’t know why it bothered me so much …not being called ‘the nice one.’   Or was it ‘the kind one?’

I really can’t even remember now.  But boy did it eat at me.   But now God has spoken into my spirit …and after writing this …releasing all those feelings of self-evaluation and trying to figure out why I was not being called ‘the nice one’ …or was it  ‘the…-‘

Oh, never mind.

I am just going to work to be better …and increase my caring and giving.  And give from my heart and not expect anything back, including somebody calling me ‘the nice one’  …or is it  ‘the…-‘

It is truly not important.  And I thank you for listening while I sorted this all out.  Because it really really isn’t about me.

Who knew that Wanda Sykes was this short?

And I do mean shorrrrrrt.

When she is not going on and on with all that foul language she can be pretty funny.   But she and Sade were quite adorable in that little skit don’t you think?

Now, on to this.

I fell to sleep messing around with my son’s laptop computer last night and woke up listening to Pastor Sheryl Brady preaching on the Word Network, a religious television channel.  I guess it was her excitement that woke me up.  She was bubbling over with glee about having  moved to Texas, and becoming part of  Bishop T.D. Jakes’ ministry as pastors under him, she and her husband, of a North campus addition of the Potter’s House.

As I listened to her it struck me as being odd.  Because I could not understand.  Was she saying that she had left her own church… as in deserting it… and them…those people who had joined her church, the River Church, down there in Durham, North Carolina?

And was she saying that she was now in Texas serving up under Jakes?

Yes, it struck me as odd, indeed.

Because for 1 I just could not… and do not understand what could have precipitated such a drastic decision or move?

http://blogs.bet.com/ontv/thegospelaccordingto/2010/04/following-up-sheryl-brady-eric-mcdaniel/

http://obnoxioustv.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/sheryl-brady-tells-bishop-eric-mcdaniel-to-hit-the-road-jack/

Having heard Paula White on several occasions call T.D. Jakes her spiritual father… who played a great role in bringing her onto the national scene via his used to be annual event called ‘Woman Thou Art Loose.’  No where as near well known or as popular on the higher national church preaching plain… one has to wonder if  the switch to come up under Bishop Jake was due to a desire on the part of  Pastor Sheryl Brady, to emerge on a higher level of  the national urban religious scene… if you care to call them that.  Or more simply state… preachers that appeal to the vast numbers of African American worshippers.

While in this exchange Bishop Jakes also adds to his cross-over appeal by appointing Brady and her husband, who are white,  as the head of  one of  his churches.  With Allen, TX as the place where they are now currently ministering… having a population of about 83,000, whose income is for the most part  upward to $188,000/per year and beyond.  Which might answer why he offered the Brady’s that location as opposed to opening up a Potter’s House extension in North Carolina, where they came from…or somewhere in ‘the hood,’ meaning where more black folks are.

Speaking of which… ‘Woman Thou Art Loose’ that is.   I was privy to being at the last one to be held in Houston, TX, 2003.  It was the one where Juanita Bynum came and got down on her knees apologizing to both Bishop Jakes and his wife regarding her falling out with them… which had ended up with her going into court against him claiming that ‘Woman Thou Art Loose’ was her brain child, and I guess some other things as well.

I do not know how the law thing worked out.  As at the time I was not saved or following such things, and I knew nothing about either of them really.  Nor was I following anything religious at that time… far from it.  Thank God…I can say differently today.

But I enjoyed that conference very much that September of 2003 in Houston.  I was quite impressed by the entire operation… and boy was it well organized.  I sat though it taking all kinds of mental notes… from the camera layouts…to how the  camera  jibs swinging high in the air above the crowd grabbed all the great shots.   It was crowded in that arena… packed in fact…and it was not a small place with its retracting roof.

It was loaded with women…upstairs…down stairs…all aound…from corner to corner… and all on the main floor… all hotels had been solidly booked  and sold out.  Women  had travelled from all over the world to be there…Africa… Germany… France… LA… Boston… and Brooklyn… etc…etc…  And many of  them were annual re-turners… women who organized their schedules year in and out just to be in the midst of ‘Woman Thou Art Loose.’

And it was worth doing so.

I was amazed… even down to the short-circuit tv cameras beaming the services out to women in prison…  and giving us an occasional view of  them cuddled around tv screens watching us and listening to the mighty women who  walked  and talked upon that stage.

It really was something.  And if  they had not moved the event to Atlanta and mixing it with the men …and children …I would have certainly considered returning again and again to Houston myself.

But what I really recall is how I listened and watched Juanita Bynum preach about how big-headed she had become… and how she blamed it all upon listening to others.  While I watched it I knew I had become a part of something special.

How many people go back and get before a packed out arena to cry and declare ‘I was wrong and out of order.’ 

When she got through there was not a dry eye in the house.  And I was crying right along with all the rest of them.  T.D. Jakes was crying… his wife was crying… Paula White was crying… her husband was crying…  Everybody in the place… and all on that platform was crying.  And yet I wondered if  what I was watching was real?

And no sooner had T.D. Jakes poured that oil and anointed her, Juanita got up and quickly proclaimed to every woman who had a checkbook to write a check for $100.

So, I wondered how could she go from crying and begging forgiveness to so quickly switching gears and start demeaning money?

And did those women do exactly what she told them to do.  They got on the elevators… ran down several flights of staircases and swarmed the arena floor rushing  the stage with their checks in hand.

And what a mad rush it was.  With checks waving all in the air.  Checkbooks open… running…weeping women… charging forward… women running towards that stage and trying to fill out their checks all at the same time, while trying to not get knocked down by the droves of  other women doing exactly the same thing.

So, I have no doubt that the fame …and glory of it had a lot to do with it.  With the Brady’s quick departure from North Carolina to the green lawns and fresh humid Texas air in Allen.

Now, that I think about it… it might have been a $1000 that Juanita told them to bring and lay it upon the altar.  I can still hear her saying-

“Come now!  I don’t care where you are come now!”

And they came.  While I on the other hand was going in the opposite direction.

Well, I better get off this computer.  I’ve got a studio shoot tomorrow… and I do not know about you…   But for some reason there just never seems to be enough time in my schedule any more.  Time is truly flying by us.  We go from one week into another without any real lapse of time it seems.  Before I know it…it is Friday again… then Monday and the week is done.  Just like that.

I may well be at the Book Festival with my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE,  this year as I just got my invitation from them.  And also from the LA Book Festival… it seems that I just might get around to doing some book touring this year after all.

It is not like I haven’t been planning for it.  But it is like I said time is flying.  And all my other obligations are definitely keeping me busy.  Maybe by this weekend at least an ‘in construction page’ may be up on my website page.  And hopefully the links will work.

I am working on it.  Because I have noticed that some of you have started looking for it.  So, let me assure you that it is sooooon coming, praise the Lord.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK the photo to my book for the LINK to purchase my book.    Thank you. 

Add a comment June 17, 2010

Celebrating women… Mrs. Dorothy Height’s passing… and women we cannot applaud …what some women won’t do…

I don’t know where you live…but here where I live it’s cold.  And I do mean cold.

This morning before leaving out I made me a bowl of  Cream of  Wheat.  Then I made sure I put on a coat.

Yes, a coat.  Because…    Well, because it is cold.

Though in speaking with one of my mother’s cousin’s I found out that they are having 90 degree weather in Florida.  Wow…90 degree weather already.  It is going to be smoldering there in Florida this coming summer if those kind of temperatures hold up.

But here it has been cold.  And though I had been denying it.

I am now ready to face the hard and very cold facts…it’s cold.  And I am not imagining it.

So, getting off the bus with my mind set on getting in the house and having myself a big hot bowl of  steaming soup, but I decided to head in the opposite direction upon stepping off the bus instead.

Yes, my conscience was bothering me… because I haven’t blogged in a short while.  So, I decided that even if  I just started it tonight then I could finish it tomorrow.  And that would be so much better than not getting started with this at all.

So, that is just what I am doing.   Because I have so much I want to talk about… I just know that there is no way that I am going to be through before this lab closes at 11 PM tonight…and it is just about 7:30 PM now.

First, let me start by mentioning the passing of  Mrs. Dorothy Height.  Though I had never met her, I certainly did know of her.

Mrs. Height along with her many years of work as a Civil Rights activist, and as head  of the National Council of  Negro Women… she was also known for her signature hats which she always sport without fail through the years.

Women upon whose shoulders we their daughters and grand-daughters now stand.  And what I see in these women is a vast amount of humility and a humbleness you do not see in the spirit of  people of  today.  When you view the video clips BELOW of  Mrs. Height you will exactly what I mean.

http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/beth-mar.htm

http://hubpages.com/hub/Freedoms-Sisters–Twenty-Great-Arfrican-American-Women

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-201_162-10003285-4.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/04/20/GA2010042001303.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1wclP0PXt3NaBWLcwbFUjRs9bawD9F73F081

It is odd that I am writing this blogg on this topic today.  I never plan these things and never have any idea where I am going when I first start.  And believe me that some people have written me pointing that out to me.  But I welcome your comments…good or bad…or indifferent feel free to comment or drop me a note or 2.

Since this past Sunday was Mother’s Day…you really would have thought I had planned this.  But I did not.

I love celebrating women…and it has nothing to do with me being a past lesbian.

Maybe it is that my mother was a woman…my grand-mother was one…my great grand-mother was one… and all my aunts and nieces and most of my friends are one.  And I think of them as being phenomenal people…and women.  Clearly, Mrs. Height and all the women that I mentioned above were phenomenal women…but the women I am going to mention now are not.  Some how they both fell well below the mark.

Many times while surfing over the internet looking for things…mostly to buy…I sometimes come across things or an article that sparks my saying something.  And these 2 stories did just that…though one of  them I saw on the Oprah Show.

But this story I came across over the internet.  In reading it …it made me wonder-

“What women won’t do for a man.”

What this women did was insane…and she is not the first.  Though if  I were a  Judge…she would have never been able to walk into my court with such an excuse…though I do not know exactly what her lawyer or lawyers plead for during her court trial.  But if I had been the Judge it would not have been that…because what this woman did and the reason behind it was so sorted and sick …and just  plain selfishness.

This woman was a grandmother…and had been a school teacher…who at the time she committed this heinous crime against a young mother…she was 42 years old.

She was not some uneducated woman out in the streets.  But I guess we may all very well agree that her mind wasn’t half as good or as decent as many of  those women who we so often look down upon, when we come across them.

I will not call this woman’s name…not because I fear being sued or anything.  But I do not want to add to her ever becoming famous or known.  I feel she should go down into the depths without fanfare or pity.  She was indeed evil.  Her mind was without a doubt twisted…and she did it for a man.

This is what she did…she sought out some woman who was pregnant along with a group of  thugs…beat and killed…and tortured.  Then she stole the woman’s infant child to pretend that the child was her’s in an attempt to fool some man…with the hopes of  being able to keep him.

You can read the story if you like…the LINKS are BELOW.  But what kind of  woman would have done such a thing?

And I think what bothered me more about this story is that there are those rallying to keep her from being executed for the insane criminal act which she committed.

I am sorry…and yes I am very much a Christian.  But I have no tolerance for people who allow the devil to use them in such a vile and evil way.  And by judging my her most recent picture she seems to be highly content.

We have all…I imagine…been the recipient of  some vile and most evil thoughts.  The kind of  thoughts that came to us that were so foreign to us.  It was some insane maybe even immoral act…or something that we would never imagine doing.  Something that we  totally rejected even the thought of  it…or thoughts of it.

And yes…I too have experienced it.

I have a cousin who told me of such an incident which occurred with her.  She told me that she used to be an alcoholic, and once while sitting at a table the thought came to her to get up from the table where she was sitting.  She said she was told to take up a fork and begin stabbing a baby…a little infant that was nearby…and to stab it to death.

My cousin told me that at that moment  is when she realized she had to stop drinking.  She recognized the thought at being crazy and that it had frightened her…because the impulse to do it was so strong.  And she said that she never drink again since that night.

In looking up info for this blog I came across information on Malcolm X’s grandson.  The grandson who set his grand-mother on fire while she laid sleeping.  Betty Shabazz suffered for nearly 2 months or more before finally succumbing to those injuries.

I have often wondered about her grandson whom she loved so much…a problem child…and perhaps is still troubled today.  A child that she loved so much that she rather to have him come live with her than to see him placed some place and  locked away, because no one could control him.  And at the age of  12 he killed his own grand-mother.

What I have thought about on the times I have since reflected on him…was what went through his head that he would have done such a thing to someone who loved him so dearly?

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/26/nyregion/malcolm-shabazz-moved-to-center-to-serve-term.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/08/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-new-york-boy-who-killed-shabazz-has-made-two-escapes.html

It cannot be argued that some of  toughest demons to resist are those which live inside of us.  It is sad.  But when crazy thoughts come into our minds we must with all our might resist them.  A very large part of  it is learning how to pray…and how to call upon the name of  the Lord.   It is what my cousin did.   And it works…I know it for myself.

Now, on to the story I watched on Oprah last Thursday or Friday.

I had been in New York when the story broke…but like most people over time I had forgotten it.  But if  I thought the woman I wrote about above was evil that goes doubly for Vanessa Jackson…whom one of my brothers informed me was a member of the Church of God in Christ.

Note in the picture above…you will notice that 4 of the children look like something is wrong with them.  They are different from the other children…not quite as well dressed…and if you look real closely you see that they were not as well…

Well, healthy looking…meaning not well nourished.  Because they were not.  That woman and her husband straved those little boys…while she, her husband and their biological  children all eat well and seemed to be quite happy.

I do remember this story when it first broke…

Some neighbors called 911 because late one night they heard a noise outside their window.  And when they looked out they thought they saw what looked to them like a very young child rampaging through their garbage looking for food.

That young child was the boy in the picture to the right of the woman.  The little tiny boy who looks so light and fragile.  He was actually 19 years old and weighed under 60 pounds.  And look at her own children…some of them quite plumb… as well as, she and her husband.

I was dumbfounded when I listened to Oprah interview the brothers of that boy.

How could anyone be so heartless and so cruel?

These people called themselves ‘saved.’  They took those boys to church with them and their other children every Sunday.   These people adopted those boys.

On the show the boys told how the woman would dress them in 3 or 4 sweaters under their clothes to make them appear fatter.  How we gave them pancake mix to eat…and would tell them that they only had ‘x’ amount of time to eat it.

What kind of  depraved people exist in this world?

Is money that important?

Vanessa Jackson and her husband, who has since died while in prison, went to church where they…I hope…were taught ‘love’…and that it is better to give than to receive.  But somehow they felt that taking and cheating…and being evil and cruel was a better way.

They straved those little boys…and aided in seriously debilitating their growth, physically and mentally.

I could never love money that much.  The world is filled with sick and degenerate people.  I am so thankful to God that He gave me a mind to not to be 1 of them.  And I hope that you aren’t either.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050930/050930_malnourish_vmed_6p.widec.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9547444&usg=__NNUvgADbge3k933xbmjP_w2iniU=&h=373&w=298&sz=23&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EwgKXTa3Gv80HM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draymond%2Band%2Bvanessa%2Bjackson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2HPND_enUS361%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/nyregion/11starve.html

My Mother’s Day started with my cousin Jean…who loves reading her name in my blogs…waking me up early.  It was then followed by my son telling me to get up and get dress because he was taking me to breakfast.

He greeted with a large bouquet of flowers in a tea cup.  They are so beautiful…and I love my tea cup.

I hope your Mother’s Day was great too…or that you did something especially special for your mom or wife.

And what do you know it is not 11 o’clock yet.   I must be getting better at this…because I am just about finish with this blog.

Well, God bless…and hope that you have a beautiful day tomorrow.

And if it is cold where you are…  Don’t forget about a bowl of  Cream of Wheat before going out…or a nice hot bowl of  oat meal.

And don’t you dare leave out without your coat.

And God bless….

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…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…

Add a comment May 12, 2010

Between Lisa Raye and Michelle… 41 Bullets/Police Violence… Student Beaten… and Tyler Perry…

Well, between Lisa Raye and Michelle Obama…I don’t know who people having been hitting this blog site to read more of lately.

Like everyone else I too am curious about Michelle Obama’s reception in Mexico and Haiti. But was there any doubt that just like the Queen of England…everyone everywhere was also going fall in love  with her too.

There is just something about her. Michelle Obama is just able to click with everyone. I am sure that Joe Biden’s wife is happy to be partnered up with such a fab woman.

In past years most First Ladies and the Vice President’s wives never really got along well at all. Which really isn’t hard to understand at all since most Presidents chose the guy who could have won them…may have even hated him but he looked good on the ticket.

So, before the pairing up while everyone was going for the gold…making their own run to win the White House…there usually was a lot of mud slinging.  Now, what wife would love somebody’s wife behind all of that…and particularly if  his wife was a sob…which in many causes may have been the truth.

But I don’t think Jill Biden would have ever called Michelle Obama that. There is nothing sobby about Michelle. In fact…I think you could say she goes out of her way to ensure that no one feels that way about her. But then one can see that Michelle is not all about putting on ‘airs’…or shoving her nose high into the air. She is real.  And because she is so real…everyone everywhere just adores her.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/14/michelle-obama-mexico-haiti-trips-defining-her-image/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl1|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F04%2F14%2Fmichelle-obama-mexico-haiti-trips-defining-her-image%2F

Truly, she is Obama’s secret weapon. That is what they called her while he was making his run for the White House. But all in all Michelle…fashion and all has stood up to the test.

I recalled while up late one night and listening to a black woman hosting a radio talk show talking about Michelle’s way of dressing. She was critical about where she claimed Michelle needed some help in her choices. I am sure that woman has since eaten all of those words…since Michelle Obama’s manner and style of dress has become the ‘in’  way of putting it  all together.

The best part of  it all…like Barack…Michelle Obama is her own person…her own woman.  She doesn’t let alot of  people dictate to her what she should or shouldn’t be doing…or dressing like.   And what a mom she is.  There is so much love there.

She is a tremendous role model for women and girls everywhere.

Now, on to Lisa Raye.  I have to admit that whenever I happened to catch the TV show that she used be on…I always thought she was attractive.  And I really liked her voice.

But I have to admit…she is a bit rough around the edges.  Sorry, Lisa Raye…but all that cussing and all that stuff…you know the low clothing…and exposing everything.  Well…come on.

Now, I know that Lisa is originally from Chi-Town…better known as Chicago for those of  you who don’t know.  And sure Chicago has some rough-necks…but then they have the softer side too…and plenty of them.  There is plenty of  style and class that comes out of  Chicago.  It was after all the city that was home to Johnson Beauty Products, Ebony…and Jet Magazine, and a lot more…not excluding the home and birth place of  Lady ‘O’…Michelle Obama.

I know her reality show ‘The Real McCoy’  is due to begin…if  it hasn’t already started.  And based upon the number of  people who have hit this site looking for info on Lisa…they are anxious over the show…and want to know more, and as much as they can about Lisa Raye.

Now, Lisa and Da Brat are half sisters as many of you know…who people have been hitting this site to read about also.  Both are attractive but just as rough around the edges.  But I have not heard anything about the Da Brat lately…but I have been looking to see if  she is out of  prison.  But I haven’t seen or heard anything on that yet…though I think her 3 years should be just about up soon.

Finally, I have finally seen something by Tyler Perry.   I know…I know…I must be the only person on the planet who hadn’t.

Clearly, Tyler has a built in crowd of  followers…and I am just not one.  Though as I sat in the theater I could tell that men equally , as well as, women love  Tyler.   He definitely has them hooked.

But I thought the film was filled with a lot of  poor acting.  And the actors who could act totally out shined their counter-parts.

But what I felt was lacking mainly was a plot, a good script… and a good story… besides some the poor casting choices in some places.    The movie was just one vingnette after another… which is a just a series of  little stories.  Which to me never really got told properly.   I guess because of  a lack of  time…as it seemed to me that the film had been a bit rushed.  It would have been nice though if  there had been one real story somewhere in the midst of  it.

But, however, I will say this…the people who love Tyler Perry truly love him…and all of  his work.  And I am not hating him for being successful at what he does.

And speaking of the movie…I was all set to watch Jill Scott throw down on the big screen .  I was hoping she was going to blow it away.  Well…I  had thought that her acting skills might  have matched her singing skills.

But…naw….  They it didn’t.  And I was disappointed.  Because I had heard that Jill  is starring in some show on TV too.  So, I was thinking-

“Wow, she must be good.”

But it was definitely not the case…and as much as I love Jill.   I truly hate to say that.

But I still think that she is beautiful.  I could see her taking Oprah’s place…in a few years.

Can’t you?

With some coaching from the ‘Master’ of  all ‘Masters’…namely Oprah…Jill could do it.  I bet cha’.

Now, I saw the video of  the white student who was beat by several police officers.  And yes…I do agree.

“Agree on what you say?”

I agree that if  that student had been a black student…we probably would not have heard as much about it…nor would those police officers been put on suspension.  I have seen and heard many situations of  black folk  finding themselves at the mercy of abusive and angry white police officers.   Just view some of  the below video clips.

Police acting out in ways that have been highly questionable has never been anything that many black people can’t tell you much about…such as Rodney King and many many others.

I’ll never forget the issue of 41 bullets and Amadou Diallo…a young African immigrant who met with a fatal end when he was entering his own apartment building, as he was approach by a group of police officers who opened up and began shooting at him at close range…upon supposedly him reaching to pull out his ID in an attempt to identify himself.   Then there was that group of  4 young black men on the New Jersey Turnpike who were stopped on the highway and shot without provocation.

And the list goes on and on…and on without much ever happening to the officers in question.  Who for the most part never missed a beat…or suffered any repercussions  or consequences for any of  their actions…nor any loss of pay…or any real trials…etc…

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54724949.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36456147#36468010

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36456147#36440040

I have been reading a little about women behind bars who are currently being allowed to have and care for their babies in prison.  I do have some very real and quite bias feelings on the matter.  But it does not come without some knowledge on the matter.

Not that I have personal knowledge or experience with it…but that I have a very dear and good friend whose mother gave birth to her while she was locked behind bars for murder.  The stigma it left upon my friend was often evident to me whenever my friend would share that part of  her life experience to me.  It bothered her…like it was a mark against her from birth.  In speaking about it she often sighed…and lowered her voice in a clear indication of shame.

And I can understand why.

And you should too.

What child or person wants to walk  around with that on their birth certificate..or any knowledge of  something like that?

What a sad way to start your life on this planet…locked behind prison bars with your mother.

Since, most of  those mothers and practically everybody in those news segments on the story was black,  when I saw pictures on the story or saw news items on it over the net…it is just one more strike against some kids who already are going to have marks against them.  Because (1)…their mother was sentenced to prison for some type of crime.  (2)…Because they had the mis-fortune of being born into a situation that I would be hard pressed to believe that any child would want to be born in.  (3)…Because they are already poor…disadvantaged…and powerless without the bars or the confinement.

Then what about health and safety issues surrounding life behind bars?

That’s a rough life.  I wouldn’t  want an infant or a child…little or otherwise to have to endure any part of it.  It would have to be depressing.  I mean there is little to no freedom in prison…it is like an animal being born in a zoo.

Sorry, to state it that way…but you think about it.  And it is not the cleanest place to have babies in…much less for children to play in.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36456147#36430344

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/111275_2purdy06.shtml

http://www.correctionsreporter.com/2009/11/15/moms-and-babies-locked-up-together/

I doubt that we will really read any real reports on this story about babies born behind bars and being allowed to stay with their mothers there, and the effects of it…since it will be about 20 or so  years before we will really find out whether or not it is or was a good idea.   But I do not need that long to give you my answer…and I do not care what the reports say.  I know people who have lived over 50 years with that following them.  Just having been borned in there.

My last note is on this story which bothered me from the very moment I laid my eyes on it.  I hate these type of stories.  I know…I say it every time.

It is about a man…a black man in Alabama who went around as an evangelist or some type of  preacher while being a seriously sick man.  While swirling in the pulpit between words of  praise…he was sodomizing and raping his own children…including fathering children with them…and had killed their mother after she caught him having sex with one of  their very young daughters (age 11)… while the child was pregnant with his child.   Doing all of this after having dumped his dead wife into a deep freezer for the last 4 years…in the trailer where he lived with them…their children while he continued to use them sexually.

While watching a youtube clip on the story…it eluded that the Bible up-holds such things…I’m talking about ‘incest.’  The scripture pointed to in support of  that supposed idea came from the book of  Genesis…Genesis 19:30-39.  Which is an absolute lie.  The Bible does not support any such thing…or anything like it…or any other type of sin.  And it certainly would never support any negative behavior towards children…or anyone.

In fact, that scripture points to the type of  sins which not only Lot witnessed but evidently his daughters did also.   It was one of many reasons which was why God eventually destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.   Which is what Lot along with his wife, and his 2 daughter were fleeing from in the first place.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/preacher.freezer/index.html

Well, if you had any doubts about it…I am sure that we all can agree now. 

Spring has sprung!

And it feels marvelous.

I am loving all the sun though I understand that it is due to rain later today…as it is already into tomorrow now being nearly 5 AM in the morning.

Oh, well…it takes time to produce one of these blogs.  And would you believe I started before 11 PM?

Well, I did.  But I am not complaining…it takes time to produce something worth something.  And I hope that is what you think of this blog…that it is worth something…like your time to read it.  And if  you do…thank you much.

Enjoy your day.

Thank you so much for reading…and may God bless you richly.

God bless…

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…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

Add a comment April 16, 2010

Venus & Serena US Open…and women’s health and heart attack issues

Busy in New York City, Venus and Serena Williams are at it again.    Busily working their way through the Women’s Single and Doubles tennis matches…truly they are a force to be reckoned with. 

Though injured…Venus  limping and  with a heavily bandaged knee…yet a true fighter all the way, she is  refusing  to give up…or in.   Determined to not let a little thing like severe pain or a weak knee stop her from attempting to take yet another grand slam tournament  title.   While all the while…her little sister is hoping  for the exact  same  thing.

Currently ranked Number 2 & 3 in the World of  Female Tennis players…clearly Venus and Serena can be ranked right up there with all of the top all time tennis greats such as…Althea…Martina and Christie…and Billie…as being not only highly talented athletes…but gifted as well.  

They really should be making lots more money for  what they have managed to accomplished… not to mention for the beauty and excellence that they both have brought to the game of women’s tennis.    Venus and Serena are truly endowed with that something.   And I think that Billie Jean Kings says it best in the article linked below…if you care to read it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/08/29/2009-08-29_10_years_after_us_open.html

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-us-open3-2009sep03,0,2200533.story

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32658936/ns/sports-tennis/

UPDATE (September 7, 2009):  Venus is out in the 4th rounds of the US Open…and Serena is still in after having won her match.

There is no doubt that going in…Venus knew that her shot at another championship was going to be an up-hill battle…due to the problem with her knee.  But she didn’t let it deter her. 

She went for it…and took the pain fighting her way through every round…every point…and every game.   She didn’t cry about it.  She went out there on the court knowing what it was that she had to if  she wanted to make it into the finals…and she almost made it.

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/09/06/aged-venus-williams-will-compete-again/

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/players/wta/serena-williams/168339

Packaged as the ‘all American girl’,  Melanie Oudin an attractive young blonde from the deep south…is being touted at as ‘the Great White Hope.’    A tennis power house who may be able to do for those too shallow to feel that they can cheer whole heartedly for 2 young sisters born and raised in a ghetto in the worst side of Los Angeles, CA…known as Compton.

Yeah, they come from Compton…though they currently live in Florida.  Compton with police helicopters patrolling the neighbors night and day…one of the toughest and most dangerous areas in L.A.  The home of  hard core rappers like Snoop Doggy Dog, Ice Cube, NWA…etc…etc.   But yeah…it was the place of  their humble tennis beginnings.  And some how they beat those mean  streets of southern California.

It is sad that since the days of  Jack Johnson the heavy weight boxer of  the 1930’s. ..many white people in this country still feel that it goes against their grain to totally except and celebrate anything or anyone but someone who looks like them.    The same is even quite evident in how many in this country feel about Barack Obama.  Many have yet to truly embrace him as President of  this country.  And are strongly oposed to him…and intended to do everything they can to make it as hard on him and his administration as possible…with a sincere desire to undermind his ever move and effort.   This kind of thinking is truly sad…and quite sick.

Oh, sure they love to win the games and do take to the athletes who possess the skills to make it happen for their favorite teams.  But it is the white players  on the team that they make the coaches…move to the front of the team…and put in front of the TV and newspaper cameras…etc.

It is sad that as much as Venus and Serena Williams have managed to do…and from very humble beginnings…without the benefit of  suburan country clubs and well kept tennis courts.  They are a true American success story…and well worth celebrating and holding up before the world as the stars and champions that they truly and really are…and gracious and humble young women regardless of  their vast success both on and off the tennis courts.

You can read the below story on Oudin by CLICKING the LINK below…to clearly understand my statements regarding this issue of  ‘the Great White Tennis Hope.’

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/09/08/oudin-serena-final-would-be-love-american-style/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Ftennis.fanhouse.com%2F2009%2F09%2F08%2Foudin-serena-final-would-be-love-american-style%2F

UPDATE: (September 8, 2009)  Serena is on to the Semi-Finals…and the predictors are saying that she is on her way to taking her 3rd Grand Slam win this year…having take both the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=tennis+serena&aq=f&oq=&aqi=http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/usopen09/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4458868

Turning 28 on the 28th of this month, Serena has won 11 Tennis Grand Slams, 2 Olympic gold medals and over $25 million…having become the first woman athlete to win over $22 million a few months ago.  To date Serena has won the US Open in 1999, 2002 and 2008.

She and Venus are on their way to taking the Women’s Doubles at US Open, Wimbledon  and the Australian Open…etc…etc…  Venus who is 29 years old…and yet they continue to keep reeling in the wins.  And as a team they are unbeatable.  CLICK the LINK BELOW to the full stop and to see video footage of the Open.

Didn’t know though that Venus and Serena are part owners of the Miami Dolphins.  Wow…they are really smart.  Not to mention being authors having written some books…Serena working on a screenplay…and Venus working doing interior designing and fashion.  And I almost forget…Serena designing and selling jewelry (as you caught in the video above).  But check out their videos below and Serena will tell you all about it herself.

I am really happy for them.  I like to see successful people…and they also give back to their community via their tennis camp for inter-city youth.  Bravo!

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/usopen09/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4458868

UPDATE: (Women’s Semi-Finals…September 13, 2009)   Evidently Serena  had some type of melt down today during her semi-final match  against Kim Clijsters.  Maybe it was bound to happen at some point or other.  I mean how long can you just sit around…or go out one game after another…come out the winner and never get the claim or fame …or the real big bucks for having done so?

How many times can you get called the “N word” during a tournament…heckled…boo-ed…or look into the eyes of  your opponents knowing what and how they really feel about you.   On  top of   that…to be ignored by the tennis world in general…who run after the young blond haired girls with  their batting blue eyes…with their microphones and cameras…and can’t  seem to get  enough of  them.  And they didn’t have to do half  the work  or  win a  game…but reap all the fame.

How long can you tolerate that…and not experience some type of  emotional melt down?

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/09/13/serena-knocked-out-in-bizarre-finish/

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/09/13/serena-williams-calls-it-quits-with-disgraceful-eruption/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Ftennis.fanhouse.com%2F2009%2F09%2F13%2Fserena-williams-calls-it-quits-with-disgraceful-eruption%2F

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/09/13/serena-williams-fined-10-500-for-tirade/

http://www.nj.com/sports/njsports/index.ssf/2009/09/serena_williams_outburst_will.html

It is unfortunate, because it is what they had been waiting.  Something to tarnish your squeaky clean image…taint your name…some character fawl to justify why they haven’t cover you the way they cover your white opponents…plastered your face over all the popular magazines…or offered you some of  those major big dollars advertising contracts.  

Oh, they were waiting alright.  And finally the right button was pushed…the straw that broke the camel’s back…and the flood gates burst open.  And all those nasty little words started flowing out…and when the flood gates opened up…all you had been trying to hide and hold back for months just came rushing out.

It is not like melt downs haven’t happened during tennis tournaments before.  

Who could tell you more about that  than John McEnroe?

Who by the way said what amounted to that Serena’s behavior was shameful.   This from a man who never walked out on the court without wild outbursts and one swear after another.

I am certainly not condoning Serena’s behavior…but I have seen a lot of black folk who after awhile just got plain fed up.  And once they did… Well…you can figure out the rest.

Baby, it is just hard to contain them…until they get it all…and I do mean all…off  their chest.

Serena’s apology…

I don’t know…I guess as we all get older we start to think more and more about our health.   Maybe it has something to do with seeing others go through some many different kind of  health issues…that we suddenly begin to think about our own mortality more and more. 

Whatever the cause that brings us into a mind that we need to start taking better care of  ourselves…it is all for our good.  And hopefully for a better and healthier future…or for our continued good health.

As women our schedules, families, jobs…and various other choices all sometime supercede us taking care of us.  But the truth of the matter is this…if  we’re not in good health…nothing else can operate well either.   And everything comes to a halt.

So, before that happens…now is a good time to start caring for you. 

I now find myself  listening to my body.  Mostly, because my body now has began to make me listen to it.  Whereas I used did not…I now have to.  Otherwise, my body will put me out of commission for days…and  I  do mean days.    And in a way it is like listening to your car.

Who doesn’t listen to their car?

Only a fool wouldn’t. 

And that is how we should fell about listening to our bodies when it starts sending warning signals out to us. 

In the link below…listed are some warning signs that women  should pay close attention to in regards to on-coming heart attacks.    One of  the  first  keys  to  prevention is being informed.  Information is important…then paying heed to it can be essential. 

http://www.aolhealth.com/health/senior-health/heart-attack-signs?icid=main|main|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolhealth.com%2Fhealth%2Fsenior-health%2Fheart-attack-signs

I set my glasses down the other day…then carelessly knocked them over onto the ground.  While searching for them…I stepped on them.   Now, I am working with a pair of  broken eye-glasses.   What a cross to bare…when I have so much work to do.   And can barely read a thing with these lopesided glasses.

Spent my whole day…well, most of  it  outside today on my parent’s front porch reading.   Well, as best I could…considering my delemma with my glasses. 

But the weather was great…and I am trying to soak up as much of  it as I can…as I believe that we will be in for a very cold winter this year.   Sorry,  I know your probably did not want to hear that. 

So, I am already laying my plans for it.  I only wished the fireplace worked.  And it does…but I am afraid to lite a fire in it because I don’t want to burn down my parent’s house. 

I have read and heard too many stories about faulty fireplaces to want to risk it.

Still looking very much forward to the day that  my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, rolls off the press.  

So, I am going to go back to working on my website now that  I have completed my book trailer for youtube.  And I will also finish the radio commercial that I intend to air in  various markets to promote my book.    Since I have to wait…I might as well use this time well.  Because when my book is finally pubished…I will have to hit the ground running.  And I won’t have a moment to spare.

Well, God bless… and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2009

  THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

Add a comment September 6, 2009

Something out of sync…Juanita Bynum

I have been thinking about the below video since I first saw it.  I found it a bit troubling… perhaps many of you won’t understand this blog at all…but those who are under the blood of  Jesus Christ will… I believe might.

So, if you do not…it is okay.   It’s alright.

But what has me wondering about the below video?

Well… at first it was why in the world was Juanita Bynum wasting her time to produce a video about  Valentine’s Day????

For a self-proclaimed prophet…(now turned actor etc…etc..)…and woman of  letters (a doctor of  ministry???)… why would she be celebrating something which has nothing at all to do with anything Biblical?

And then want to make a video about her celebrating it????

Then the other thing that troubled me about the below video was this…

Now, I am not a drug person…and I know very little about drugs.  But one day someone was talking to me about a possible job…and another person who was already working for my family was present with me while the other person talked to me regarding the possibility of  being hired.     Well, following after that person had left, the other person who was with me…who already worked for our family… turned to me and said-

“Did you see how she was acting?”

I had no idea what she  was talking about…as I had noticed nothing.  But the other woman went on to say-

“You didn’t see how she kept on moving and didn’t stop?”

I said, “No.”

But once she had said it…I did note in the back of mind how much the woman while she was talking to me had kept moving her arms restlessly about…but it had not meant anything to me at the time.  But it had meant a lot to the other woman who had been standing there near me looking on as the other woman talked with me.  She then commenced to begin to tell me that  the woman had to be on drugs.  She said-

“Only drug addicts act like that.”

And while I watched the below video of  Juanita Bynum that is exactly what struck me…how she continuously keeps on moving.  Her movements seem erratic.   The working of her arms…hands… head… facial expressions… and body.

And I also noticed how seductive and cute-sie her movements appeared to be.  Almost like a clamorous woman in a bar.  Now, I have seen 1 or 2  of  those  in my life time.  Never been one…but have seen them.  But on Dr.  Bynum’s part in the below video they seemed to be quite intentional and purposeful…as if  she wanted to entice someone.

However, I found it odd behavior all the way around.   And as I watched the video again…I noticed how she passed her hand across her nose (her new nose) …as I had once or twice seen people do who sniff cocaine (seen that move in movies a lot).  And she sniffles at least a few times in the below video.   Signs which had been pointed out to me by people who were familiar with such things…consistent signs of  someone  who sniffs cocaine.

I may not know that much about drugs …but clearly the odd behavior of Bynum only heightened  by Juanita’s high level of  gaiety  in the below  video is questionable at best…not to mention the total subject matter about Valentine’s Day…and how she was going to celebrate it…etc…etc…

It was everything but  godly?

Which prompted me to wonder why would a woman of  God want to produce such a video?

And particularly about a holiday which clearly is not…for the most part godly.  But  created for lovers…and/or  want to be lovers.

Clearly, the below video was not intended for anyone but her ex-husband.   Why else would anyone make such a fool of  themself  concerning  Valentine’s Day and their plans on celebrating it?

But he it seems has moved on.  The same advice I would give to  Juanita Bynum.

He recently purchased a warehouse in Atlanta and turned it into his new church and video/internet production house.

And what did Juanita do?

She went back down to Atlanta and  is renting or purchased  her own warehouse…where she currently holds services.   And dubbed it  ‘The Warehouse’…and officially launched her leadership as a pastor over her own church.   But it is a far cry from the ex’s.  Obiviously his family indulges him…highly…as he is a third generation preacher…and his wife-to-be comes from a line of preachers too.    That  mixed with a little elbow-grease from his membership…lots of  elbow-grease by them based upon the video…they have really put together something.   CLICK BELOW until the video comes up…and ignore the text…if you want to see his new house of  worship.

Weeks’ new wife-to-be  looks very young though…but can’t find anything on her age.  And they seem to be seeking their fame and fortune over the internet.  When they marry it will be his 3rd marriage and her second.  And Juanita Bynum’s marriage to him was her 2nd.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/07/17/article/would_be_reality_star_finds_love_in_greensboro

To view the BELOW video just CLICK  the  SCREEN a FEW TIMES and  just  ignore the text.

I also have to admit to question much about  Juanita Bynum lately…as I am not familiar with her past history as a woman of God.  But I found it quite odd when she decided to put her wedding gown back on…and wheel that  very large diamond encrusted sword…proclaiming herself  to be ‘Juanita Bynum for the second time’…Juanita Bynum II.   It seemed more to me like she was marrying herself.  It was an odd ceremony.

The Bible says…then went in the man with 7  more spirits, and the latter state of that man was worst than his 1st.   And Peter said  it like this-

“It is better for a man to have not known him than to have known him and then return back to sin…like a dog to his own vomit.”

There is something out of sync here.

I am actually sadden by it…and hope that I am incorrect.   As  I really do hate to see people warring within themselves…and loosing the battle to things of  this world.

http://photos.essence.com/galleries/juanita_bynums_50th_birthday#95522

Update (September 1, 2009):  The date has been set…November 17th will be the wedding day for Bishop Week’s 3rd marriage…of  which he managed somehow to find his new bride over the internet…(what a joke…and crime against God).

When he failed to get a TV deal for his bride-finding reality show (little wonder why following his wife abuse charges).   Then decided to air his hunt over the internet…hence, his new bride.

I think his plan is to try to make her bigger than Juanita Bynum…since Bishop Week’s claims that he made Juanita Bynum.  And he is indeed trying hard.

Is Juanita big??????

If you dare CLICK on this LINK:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKfNwQ5H28E

http://www.christinaglenn.com/

Little wonder their marriage didn’t last…it was highly flawed…and so were they.  And the real tragedy was that they taught their mess to people who believed what they were preaching.  False teaching.

Today I messed up my book trailer and I am so upset.  Now, I will have to go back into the lab and re-work it.  It had been coming along so well… until I decided to rush things…and there in went the cause of  my problem.   Now everything looks like I’m rushing through it from frame to frame.   Which is exactly what I did do…because before I had thought that all the clips were a bit  too slow.   And now they are the reverse.

Oh, well…I will learn.  That is the thing about me I sometimes find myself re-learning old lessons…and it always costs me time.

So yes…I’m still working on my book trailer  and plugging to officially start plugging  my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.     But it is just about ready for youtube.    Then I will be back to completing my radio spot…and finally finish up with the pages for my web site.  Soon and very soon…   It  is coming.

Well, enjoy your day tomorrow.   And my  hot flashes are still going strong.   Oh, well… 

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

God bless…

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 ©2009

21 comments July 31, 2009

The attitude of champions…

Serena Williams, the top female athlete in the world, was outested in the quarter-finals recently during the Frence Opens.  She showed up over-weight and lacking the attitude which has gotten her to where she is today…the top grossing female ever.

http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2009/06/03/serena-double-faulting-on-legacy/

It is the attitude that Michael Jordan often displayed every time he hit the basketball court while playing with his beloved team, the Chicago Bulls, having won 6 NBA championships…the MVP of the NBA 5 times…not to mention the numerous endorsements etc…because he was such a greater player.   Michael, of course, became the bench-mark that all basketball players following him have been and are now  judged…perhaps the greatest basketball players for all times. 

There had never been a time when anyone questioned Michael’s desire to win.  Because it never had to be questioned…or challenged based upon Michael’s ability to kick it up to another level whenever it looked like his team might not win.  He had the unique ability…that even when he didn’t feel good…had an upset stomach…a cold…suffering from dIarrhea…whatever…and still be able to put in 40 points plus…whatever it took…if he had to…in order to aid his team in getting the win.

But at the top of  her game…Serena seems to be suffering from a lack of desire to continuously be up on her game…and her form.  Consistancy…is what they call it.  She finds it hard to maintain.   Martina never had that problem…she too could kick it up a notch or 2 whenever the time called for.    Boy, what a player she was…

Wednesday in her quarter-finals game against Svetlana Kuznetsova, losing 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 7-5…there had been a point where Serena even got boo-ed.

I can imagine just how hard it is to maintain yourself  at a certain level all the time…and be young and want to have some fun too.  Not to mention eat what you want to…and how you want to.  But it does take a toll upon your ability to perform…if you desire to try and maintain your status as a champion.

French Open at Roland Garros. 

Because when you loose…you hate yourself.  Because you know down deep…your fullest capabilities to win.   It is the mark of a winner…and time after time they push to continue to reach that mark.

Capabilities are good.  Many people have them…and never end up living up to them…their fullest capabilities.   Because it takes work…hard work…and plenty of dedication.   And many of us are just not willing to make the sacrifice…or sacrifices required to make it happen.

Just imagine how many of us have the capabilities to become champions.  But just lack the attitude of  champions…not to mention that burning desire to make it happen…which of course also encompasses…dedication and a displine to develop the craft to its highest level. 

But Michael had it…and probably still processes it as a businessman.  Tiger has it…Densel has it…Muhammad Ali…many have it.   They can iBut it takes that something more…that many of  us are just not willing to do…or add into our being.  But imagine the possibilities if we did.

Certainly, losses are to be expected…it goes with the territory.  You will some…and loose some…Tiger, Michael and Muhammad have all experienced it.   Even Denzel has experience a flop in the theaters…when a movie did not met its expectation in box office sales.  It is life.  But it makes winners work all the harder for the next time.

http://www.fanhouse.com/news/main/serena-williams-upset/505834

I am twiddling my tumbs waiting on the publishers to finish.  I am counting down the time when my book will soon be made available for sale.  God is good…I am so happy to finally  have gotten it done and out…and into the final stage of the process…besides getting out to aid in selling it.

 Well, enjoy the rest of your day and evening. 

God bless…

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 ©2009

 THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

1 comment June 16, 2009

EXTREMISM…Chastity Bono

I had thought not to touch this story and just keep my private thoughts on it to myself…and share  them among friends only…and only if they asked me.  But after thinking about it I realized that I could not.

One of the things about coming out of something…is that you sometimes can become highly convicted in your stance against  whatever it is or was that you may have come out of.  Or in other words…things you no longer wallow in…or transgress in…indulge in…or no longer partake in…and was the way you used to be…etc…  So, you emerge from it  being  very strongly opposed to it.

You become very anti- it…about  whatever it was  or is that you used to do…or who you used to be…but now are not…or of  that which you no longer do…or indulge in.    You in fact…move all the way over to the far left side of the bar…and become an extremist regarding that issue…or thing that once had you bounded.  Usually, the farthest  you can get from it…emotionally and opinion-wise as well.

So, having already told you that I was once ‘in the life’  in several other blogs…meaning  I was a lesbian…gay…lived  in the homosexual lifestyle…then I feel I can freely talk on this subject.  But do not ask me anything about drugs or alcohol…or most of anything else…because I know little to nothing on such subjects…outside of the fact of what I have seen regarding the affects of them…or the after-affects of them.  That being said…

Chastity Bono, the daughter of Rock icons Sonny & Cher of the 70’s, decision to alter her sex…and the way that it is being presented in the media…really kind of disturbs me.  Not her decision to change her sex…because that is her choice…but it is the media (the type of coverage) on it that concerns me.

Having had been in the life for many years…some I don’t know…more than 30+ years…I have known many women.  But the people I knew…or should say know…as I still know them…and still converse with some of  them…though I do not hang out with them…but all of them were women who were happy to be women.  In fact…they celebrated their woman-ness… sought out places that were exclusively women… restaurants… bookstores… vacation spots… curise-liners… clubs… etc…

So, Chastity’s decision is not the norm… far from it, in fact.   Many lesbian women have no dealings with men.  And hate them for various historical reasons in regard to their lives and past histories.

Though today, I do see many more young girls trying to really do this thing…that is called ‘butch’ themselves up.  With the hanging pants…and all the other things they do.  But still it is not the norm.  And thank goodness for that.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/11/chastity-bono-becoming-a-man-2/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl3|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tmz.com%2F2009%2F06%2F11%2Fchastity-bono-becoming-a-man-2%2F

Imagine this world…if  everybody decided that they wanted to change who God created them to be?

How whacked out this place would be?

Some people would be walking around calling themselves some kind of animal…maybe this is a bit  extreme.  But not that far fetch… considering some of the things that some people involve themselves in.

I can’t image wanting to change my sex to become a man.  I am so happy that I never had that conflict.  I mean I have always wondered…how it is that men go to the bathroom when they do the number 2?  

Do men sit on the toilet and have to hold that piece downward in their hands?   I don’t really know men like that as I was a lesbian.   So, I have no way of knowing.  But I do have a serious thing about germs.  I know I really wouldn’t want to do that.   I would be so afraid that I might touch some filthy toilet seat…if  I were out in public having to do that.   Though  rarely do I go to the bathroom while out.

And yes…I am a bit naive.  I do admit it.  There are many things that I do not know.

And since we are on the subject…   When they…men…stand over the urinals…all of that spattering…all over your pants legs.  Who wants to go through all of that?

Yes, I am happy to be a woman.  Though the men’s bathrooms tend to be a bit cleaner.   I have heard that.

But if…I were a man.  Why would I want to be a woman?

What would be the benefit of that?

I am just so glad that God does the selecting and choosing…as to what we will be.  Could you imagine a more confusing situation than that?   Trying to choose whether your child would male or female.   Though some scientist have tried to come up with a way of doing just that.  And many countries  put a premimium on one sex over  the other…the male species.  Though without women this world would come to a very sudden and complete end.

But  going back to my original train of thought…I just could not see myself as being a man…or having ever wanting to be one.  And thank goodness none of my gay women friends have had to battle with that either…nor any of my male friends.

I can imagine the pain that one must go through having that conflict.  Because that has to be one very big and hard inward battle going on to decide to do such a thing.

The truth of the matter, however, is this…the mind plays tricks…and if you are not careful you will fall into the trap.  Of  believing something that is not so.

If  you look into the mirror every day thinking that you hate what looks back and that-

“I would look good as a man.”

Or perhaps…as a woman.  Sooner or later you will begin to believe that you should have been born a man or a woman.   You will also start to believe that you see certain characteristics or qualities about yourself…which in reality  have been sub-consciously taken on…and/or implanted in your sub-conscious…which may not  truly be there…and do not really exist.   But because it is what you want to see and  placed in your mind…it is what you will see.  So, if you desire to see certain things…over time you may come to believe that you see them.

Then in turn you will believe that those characteristics verify the fact that you should be…and are really something else other than what you are.  And so you come to the final conclusion that through some trick or error of  nature you were born a woman rather than a man…or visa versa.

All that kind of thinking is a head-trip…a real mind game.  You will see what you want to see…you will feel what you believe you want to feel.

The mind is wicked…and highly deceptive.

For most of my life I have thought of myself as being unattractive…ugly in fact.  I never wanted mirrors arround…hated to take pictures…etc.   Because I hated seeing me.  It was not until I had to start taking pictures for my book cover…that I came to  realize that I am really not ugly.  In fact, I have to laugh…because of all the years I let get pass me believing myself to be ugly when I was not.

Then too, in my book I made a statement…which made me really have to think.  I state in my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, how I had been stalked at least 3 separate times in my life.  After writing that…I began to think about what it was those people saw in me that would have lead them to want to do that.  When I know many good-looking people…very good-looking…exceedingly good-looking…and they had never been stalked.

So, why me?

This is when I thought…again.

Here it was all those years I never realized that I was not ugly.   Because of my profession and always being the public eye…people gravitated to me.  And people who listen to you over the radio…

Well, they just fantasize  about everything…and they all believe they love you.  But I could not have looked that terribly bad…to have problems with 3 separate people at various times in my history.

But I never really knew until I looked into those pictures for my book…that I wasn’t as bad looking as I had thought  I had been for all of my years.  It is amazing.  But it was a mind game…which for me came about when I started thinking that I was not as good-looking as any of my sisters or brothers…as a young child.  And that shaped my thinking of myself for all of these years.

My mind had me tricked…I saw that which my mind allowed me to see.  And so I lived under that shell all of my life until about 6 months ago.

Let me take a quick station break:  my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE… is coming…. Yes, my book is  coming…I will definitely let you know when it is available for purchase.

Now…back to the subject.

I was deceived by my mind a 2nd time…when I fell into lesbianism.  But thank God…I didn’t sink so far down that I ever thought about mutilating myself…with a sex change.

http://www.usmagazine.com/healthylifestyle/news/chaz-bono-im-enjoying-life-as-a-man-20092910

And yes…I had met some hardcore women…who wore men’s clothes and under garments.  Some even who  thought it manly to beat up their lovers and/or girlfriends.  But I never heard any one of them talk about changing their sex…or wanting to do so…no matter how much outwardly they tried to emulate men.

Yes, though we were living in confusion…we were far from being that confused.  And I thank God…from removing me totally from it.  I no longer dwell in a ball of confusion…and under the cloud of lesbianism.

But the article that I read of  Chastity Bono’s decision to under-go a sex change was so accepting of it…as though it were a natual transition in life…something acceptable. I would hate to think that any poor child or teenage or another adult currently battling with issues over their sexuality…should read that  article and think that such a thing is either natural…or really acceptable.  Not acceptable to you or me…but for themselves.  As it goes against nature.

And there have been many articles and books written on the subject…some opposing and some pro.  But there have been many regrets regarding that whole process.  And I have seen much sadness and anguish among those fighting that battle.

As I mentioned in at least 2 other blogs…I did know a guy…who when I met him was in the process of under-going his sex change.  I met him as the women he presented himself  to me to be…as he had started coming to Salsa Soul Sisters meetingsa lesbian organization in New York City…and we all at the time  believed that he was a woman.  But from the time I met him…and I cannot call him ‘her’…I would be lying if I said that.  But from the time I met him…in the back of my mind I always felt that something about him was out of whack.

I have met many gay guys…but had never met one trying to become a lesbian before.  And neither had anyone else in Salsa Soul Sisters either…until we all met him…who presented himself as a woman to us all.   But when they found out…nothing could hold them back…those black lesbian women.

One night those women stormed into Salsa and turned that meeting out…because they were not having a biological man…turned lesbian…or turning lesbian…within their organization and on their board.  And they meant every word of it…and voted that night ‘that no one born biologically a man could ever sit on the board of Salsa Soul Sister, Inc. or become a member of  Salsa.’     That was their sentiment…and they were right.  I did agree…and still agree even though I am no longer a member.

The fact is…regardless of the pills and surgery…you will always be what God created…biologically.  You can change your name…your hair style…your walk…talk…even your game…or anything  and everything else you want to change.  But underneath it all…your real DNA…can’t be changed.  It can be confused…I guess with all that medication.   But  who you are…is who you are.  It is who you really are…and that can’t be changed no matter what.     No matter how much you dislike it…or dislike yourself.

I don’t know when I saw it…but it was on television.  I think it was a Barbara Walters’ special.  It was one of the saddest and most horrifying shows I had watched in my many years of watching TV.  It was a show on parents allowing their children to cross-dress.  By this I mean…there are parents who are allowing their very young pre-teen children…sons or daughters to decide that they were not whatever sex they had been borned…and dressing like whatever they wanted to be.

It was horrifying.  Truly, horrifying.

It made me sick to see a  4 or 5 year old being allowed to demean himself  or herself  in that fashion.   And they looked hideous.

At such young ages children being bred in a continuous state of high confusion…and their own parents abetting them in doing so.  It was terrifying…absolutely terrifying.

In one of those stories, Barbara visits with a family who allows their little boy to dress as a little girl…long hair…the whole 9 yards.   The little boy has a baby sister.  Her cup and everything about her is pink…while everything for him was blue…do note the word ‘was.’

The boy wanted the pink cup…the pink this and the pink that.  Well, it really doesn’t  take a rocket scientist to figure that thing out.  The little boy had become jealous of his little sister.  I don’t know…maybe the parents stopped doting on him and became pre-occupied with his little sister.  So, he of course wanting his parents attention once again…he might desire to become his little sister…or some how take her place in order to regain their…his parent’s attention and love again.

So, what does his little confused mind decide to do?

He starts wanting what she has… her things… clothing…etc.  He develops a desire to replace her… by becoming her.   Thus, a desire to be a little girl… as in his confused little mind he views it as being the root cause and remedy to his little situation.

It is not at all that he really wants to be a girl.  But he desires his parents’ attention again.   Which if his parents had taken any time with him…it would obvious to them.   That the love he felt that they have taken from him and given to the little girl…his sister…he wanted it back.

Then there is this other side of the coin.  If the little boy doesn’t like boy stuff…toys, sports etc..

So, what if  he doesn’t grow up playing baseball…or basketball…or watching sports.  It doesn’t mean you have to put your stamp all over him…and say-

“I know what…we’ll call him girl.”

And  dress him up like one.

Yes…I do know that some gay guys…and even some women… claim that they knew they were gay from the craddle.  But closer examination on the matter…might bring them to some other opinion if they really sat down and looked back at things in their history that they may have forgotten.

It is a mind game.  Some kids grow up thinking that they are the biggest and the baddest.  Some that they are stupid and don’t know anything.  Some believing that they are beautiful…some that they are smart.  It can vary depending upon who they are…what their social-economic backgrounds… neighborhoods… family… schools… churches…etc.. and what is going on within their home.   But over time it almost always changes…our preception of ourselves…and the world around us…and how we view ourselves in it.

Imagine a little child…4 or 5 years old trying to fight that battle everyday.   Of  having to go to school everyday…and trying to interact with other children…dressed as a little girl when he is a little boy.  It is a ticket to suicide…or drug abuse…and self hate.

Most gay guys can’t even deal with issues from their history…family rejection…etc. when they reach older ages.   They battle those issues most of their lives.    Which is why many of them suffer from alcholism, drug addictions…and indulge so heavily in all types of dangerous sexual practices.

Yes, sadly…I have seen and heard many gay people…mostly men…crying over their broken relationships with their families…endless cycle of  broken love relationships…etc.   Crying over their  lives wreked in pain and sorrow.   Dealing with dying lovers…ex’s …rejections…regrets… etc…etc…  It is hard no matter whether straight or gay to deal with such things.  It’s hard.  But then to have the added burden of  being rejected by your classmates… churches…and society too…makes it all the more worst…and painful…and as a kid?

All across the gay community there are vast levels of self-hate…fear…and self-destruction.  It is sad…very sad.  So, how could any loving or caring parent indulge their child  in any such way as to let them suffer with such thoughts…and conflicts that they…themselves have probably placed upon their child in the first place?   Of which the child may end up battling and trying to fight…and deal with for the rest of their lives.   When all they…the parent or parents of that little boy… had to do was get rid of all that ‘pink and blue’ stuff…and stop setting up stereotypes…and road blocks for their son.   And tried to give him…their  son some quality time.   Rather than to assist him into the further creation of confusion in his little life…by buying him girls clothes etc…and engage him in trying to emulate something which the child is not.  He is not a girl…nor a joke.  Or a plaything…he is a real person…who is on his way to  being badly damaged.

Being a woman encompasses a variety of things.  We do and think differently from the male species.  Our tendencies towards giving, sharing, helping, family, responsibilities, listening, conversing with others, aiding, depth of compassion, commitment, emotions, emotional strenght etc…and so much more are all quite different from men.   It is  far more than one group having a different set of sex organs from the other.  And all the pills and operations…and therapy in the world is not going to change this.

I personally  think that that particular Barbara Walter’s special should have never been aired.  There are some things better not put out there for public consumption.  People start to get simular ideas…and start following suit…copying eveything they see and ear.   We sadly live in a world of people who have  stopped thinking for themselves…and merely seek to duplicate…follow…and do likewise.  And for some people  it is just simplier to assist certain behavior rather than try to work to stem it.

Isn’t that a horrible why to be?

Even worst…to have that kind of parent…or parents.

We would all have been in trouble with those kind of parents…that were that Barbara Walter’s special.  Many parents from time to time feel helpless…but they do not give in to their helplessness.  No, another force kicks in…and they step it up…to the next level.  Parents have to…because all parents are faced with challenges when it comes to their children…at some point or other.  And you just can’t throw up your hands saying-

“I just can’t do anything.”

At that point…some people know that there is one other thing.  They start to pray.  There is power in it.

Finally, no matter what  Chastity’s decision concerning trying to alter her sex…she will always be known as woman…who had a sex change…if she proceeds with the operation and all those pills (which she probably already has done seeing how they have released the story).    But she will never be known as ‘a man’…no matter what she does to herself.  People may pretend…but in the back of their mind will be the fact that she was and will forever be…woman.

Well, in between, Chastity’s decision to change her sex…and that supposed man having another baby (another subject that I said I was not going to touch…as I have already given him rather her too much of my time already)…it has been a very busy week.

In the end Chastity will always be a woman who had the operation.  That is how people will see her…never as a bonafided man.   That only comes by birth.  It is the way people think.  And it is true really… and we should keep it that way.

Besides, if you are truly unhappy with yourself…do you really believe that changing your sex is going to do it?

I say no.

True happiness is something that you have to find within you first.  Putting up pretenses…or  making superficial changes…only brings about more unhappiness… and sadness.

How can you feel happy…when you put up a bunch of pretenses?

I have sat on the trains (the subway) in New York and watched the drag queens.   Unless they were out partying and hanging with friends did I see any gaiety.  Most of  time when I saw them…I saw a lot of saddess…emptiness…and loneliness.

I also talked to some and knew some.  It is how I knew of the inner conflicts.  Which a lot of gay women have too.  I didn’t I did…but I guess I must have.  Because I am so happy that I am out of the life…and have no intentions of ever going back into it.

It is a hard life…and if  the  truth be told.  Life is not  easy for most of us.   And all of  us have found something which we don’t like about ourselves.

But we deal with those things without trying to destory ourselves in the process…or tear ourselves apart.    And that is how I feel about sex change operation.   It is very much like  trying to go against the grain.

One other observation…  Chastity’s girlfriend really looks a bit like her mother.

Well, enjoy your weekend.   And I am still trying to catch up on my sleep.

UPDATE: ON CHAZ (Monday, September 5, 2011)….recently read that she will be on ‘DANCING WITH THE STARS’ this season.  Needless to say there has been an outcry against it.  And I am not really going to say much on it…except this.

Look for her to be voted off the show early.  Controversy brings about higher ratings.  And I have no doubt that some people are going to tune in just to see Chaz’ transformation for themselves.

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=667737&gt1=28103

Chaz was smart in that she only elected to make some outward changes…and not have other parts of her body touched.  Which makes me think of a conversation that I had recently with a cousin.

That conversation was about gay men who had the operation.  My cousin was trying to tell me that when the so-called ‘bottom’ partner… and not all gay men think as my cousin was trying to tell me.

What she was trying to tell me… as if she really knew anything about which she was talking about… that there was a thing known to gay males as the ‘bottom’ partner and the ‘top’ partner.  That is while they are engaging sexually 1 male is always the 1 on the bottom, while the other sexual partner is the 1 taking him sexually from his position on the top.

While not all of them… gay males operate like that.  And how do I know… because not all gay women operate that way either.  Some do… but not most.

I know this because my cousin Vincent… a gay male… would tell me about some of his partners who would try to force him into taking them sexually… which he never did.  But Vincent was not the norm… and had lost partners because of that.  Anyway… my female cousin who was talking about this was talking like this was the norm for the masses… which is not true.

So, I told her that the real thrill in homosexuality did not come from anything more than knowing that it was ‘a man’ …or ‘a women’ depending upon the preference of the people dealing with each other sexually.   And I told her this in an attempt to explain that once someone went through the operation of having their sexual organs changed… that also changed the whole dynamics of their relationship.

Real homosexuals only want someon of their own sex …be it a man or women.  So, therefore if their lover underwent a sex change… they would cause many to get out of that relationship… because the person who underwent the sex change no longer had that part of them that attracted the other person to them in the first place.

Therefore, if the person’s mind becomes warted enough to want to take their body through some type of outter transformation… most elect to not touch their sexual organs.  Which is what Chaz had also elected not to do.

And even if  Chaz had chosen to do the entire thing …and get the whole thing done in terms of having had the final step done… the re-structuring of her sex organs… she still would be a woman.  No matter what she does.  It is utterly imposible to totally erase God’s stamp upon you …in terms of whom He has declared we shall be… male or female.

It is amazing to me how so many people like to talk about homosexuality as if they are in the know… and do not have any real understanding of it at all.

How in the world could my cousin…my female cousin… who had never really been in ‘the life’ as I had been… tell me anything about a life I was definitely a part of for many years… in regards to what our selections and sexual behaviors are that lifestyle?

I would know… because I lived the life.  And in it we… lesbian women were always tied in things… events and discussions etc. with the gay male population.  We shared spaces together, concerns, emotions, conflicts etc. all being homosexuals.  Which I was at that time… I was in the gay lifestyle.  And that is what Chaz is in… the gay lifestyle.

Having an operation can’t take you out of it… it can’t take you out of  being gay.  But it does indeed intrence you deeper in it.  Because you are making some extreme choices that later you might  just want to be able to step away from… if  or when your mind  …or prespective on this lifestyle changes.

This thing is deep…

God bless…

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 ©2009

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8 comments June 12, 2009

Off the road… Wilmington… Aging… Swine Flu… Obama’s first 100 days…

Well, we  are just getting back in from our weekend little road trip.  The weather was beautiful all the way down and back…90’s, baby…and felt like it.

One of my nephews preached his first sermon in his very own church this past Sunday…and we all went down to be with him for his opening ceremony…a monumental Christian event…in a place where I could see he was much needed.  In Wilmington, DE…which is a much bigger place than I ever expected and has a very sizable amount of  black folk.

While there I could not help but marvel at most of the homes…which were mostly made of stone and brick.  They looked very historic…and I remembered that Delaware was an old State that has a very long and rich history due to George Washington having travelled and stayed there.  And I could see that many of those homes dated back to that period in history…and had been well kept up and cared for through their long history…and still are.

But Wilmington reminded me of  Detroit except for one distinct difference…there were no boarded up houses or boarded up businesses there…as far as I could see.   Very much to the contrary was it to the situation in Detroit…in which as I stated in an earlier blogs on Detroit…that  every other building and house was boarded up in Detroit  due to foreclosures, down-sizing and massive  job losses.   Detroit was consumed by boarded up and vacated buildings and homes due to the shutting down of  many of the factory jobs of  its chief industry and job producers…the Big 3…the motor industry.  And it looked every bit of  it.

But contrary to Detroit…it seemed to me that Wilmington’s future was bright…the city that sits back off of  I-95…but not too far off…just far enough off the main North Eastern throughway so you can’t see it.

But who knew that was really back there…down that short stretch of road where the signs lead you over to.

Little has been and is ever said about Wilmington, DE.   But then I remembered as I glanced across and looked at the old beautiful mansions that our Vice President, Joe Biden and his family,  also lives here…in that quiet little place which isn’t really all that little…and certainly not little at all compared to where I come from.  Just 20 minutes South of Philly and not far from Baltimore.  Wilmington really struck me as a great place to invest in…if you could find property to   buy.

It has all the pluses… Wilmington does… including sitting on the banks of the Delaware River...you do remember that great picture they had in your history book of  Washington standing on that boat looking very regal and General-like as he crossed the Delaware.  It is funny the things you will remember years later from when you were a little grade school child sitting in various classes at school…of which none of  it meant anything to you at the time.  You just had to rememorize it because of the test tomorrow…and that was the only reason you placed it somewhere in your memory bank.   Who knew 20-30-40-50-60 years later you would still be able to pull up and access that information stored somewhere in your brain?

This is why education is so important.  Nothing in school ever seemed important to me.  Teachers failed to be able to show the true value of why you should learn something.  For some reason they cannot link anything that you do in school with real living.  And then later in life you find out that it was all relevant to your everyday living.  Like learning how to get up and go to school.   Relevance: Getting up and going to work.   If you never learned how to get up and get out to school on time you will certainly have problems at getting up and getting out to work on time.   Therefore, it is relevant to real everyday living.

(2) Math…this is a big one (well, learning to get up and go to school was big too…)   Relevance: Being able to keep track of your money…count your change…add up your groceries before you get into line…monitor your daily spending and align it with your budget and your pay check etc…   I told you it was big.   But for some reason teachers cannot appropriately inform students of the real value of learning math.  There is not one kid…or child…or teen in school who doesn’t like money…and if  they realized that math had something to do with money there would not be one student failing math.

Well, I guess you can tell that I am really tired from our trip to Delaware the place where George…oh, never mind…I’ve already said it…how he crossed that river and made history right there in that little…well…not so little town.   Yeah…I am real tired.

When we were through in Delaware…my son and I hit Philly.   I could not get so close and not drop by and visit with the true matriarch of our family…my mother’s Aunt Kate.

Having talked often with Aunt Kate…it was not hard for me to tell when I first realized her mind was not as sharp as usual.  You used to could say a name and she filled in all the blanks.  I loved talking with her…and each time I learned more and more about our family.  Her mother…was my grand-mother’s mother.  She was a woman who had somehow ended up owning a very large portion of  land…and I do mean very large.  It ran along the shores and back a ways off from Lake Okeechobee, the 2nd largest lake in the United States…2nd only to Lake Michigan.

I found this out once during one of our last annual summer trips to Florida…when suddenly my mother began crying saying-

“You see this land it all belonged to my grand-mother.”

I was surprised…as my mother rarely became so emotional over such things…and certainly not out of the blue as she had that day.  As many times as we had passed through that little town and across that bridge heading over to where I was born and where my grand-mother at the time stilled lived…my mother had never before said anything regarding the size or proportion of any of  that land.

That day she told us that as far as we could see and as far back as we had just come…how it had all belonged to our  great grand-mother.  I had not realized until that moment that seeing where this town now absorbed all of what had been our family’s property…nor had I  realized that seeing it as we drove pass it sadden my mother so until that day…as she sobbed loudly over her grand-mother’s property.  She had spoken of  it before but never had I any idea of  the vast amount of property that was involved.

It is from that moment that I started paying more attention to those programs that I saw on PBS about black families going back through city records and trying to regain property which had been stolen away from their families during the mid-40’s through the 50’s…which included very large farm lands…by various people in those towns who simply just re-wrote the deeds to those black people’s property…giving themselves ownership over it without even bothering to purchase the property from any of the black families.

Very little has ever been said about my great grand-mother except for how extremely religious of a woman she was.  But Aunt Kate had began sharing with me more about her.  She told me of her giving nature…and how she had owned a restaurant.   She told me that there had been people during the course of my great grand-mother’s restaurant business who could not afford to pay for the food…but she fed them anyway.  She had even opened up the doors to her home and raised a child or 2 which was not her own…because they had been homeless.

“One little boy,” Aunt Kate said was a friend of one her brothers…whom they had found out that when they thought he would leave to go home…that he was actually sleeping down under their house.

Aunt Kate said, “Well, mother, wasn’t going to let him stay down there.”

She raised him along with her own children.  He became another brother to our Aunt Kate and my grand-mother along with their other siblings.

Back in those days the houses in those areas of Florida were built raised up off the ground and sat upon concrete blocks.   This was how they built all the houses back then down in Florida…raised up off the ground because of flooding.   If the waters came up over the banks of Lake Okeechobee…it was hoped that they would not rise above the height of the concrete blocks.

Because Zora Neale Huston stayed in my great grand-mother’s area once upon a time…in fact, her book “Their Eyes Were Watching God”…takes place in a little town sitting on Lake Okeechobee.  Imagine my great grand-mother being the great land Baroness that she was…and owner of  the black folk’s only restaurant in that town…and just based on how folks lived down there…and still do…I imagine that they…my great grand-mother and Zora Neale Hurston may have known each another.  Nobody lives in any of those little towns without knowing everybody…so much so…that they all become very much like family…caring and knowing everything about everyone and everything about them.

But Aunt Kate now being the last of all her sibling…out of 10 of them…was my source for much family history…which seemed to just pour out of her.  I never had to ask any questions of her or try to coax her into sharing it with me…very unlike my own grand mother…who always seemed suspicious if  you asked anything about  our family history.  Why I do not know…but it was something that I accepted thinking that perhaps there was something which I should not know.

But upon seeing Aunt Kate for the first time in years…I was somewhat surprised.  She was much smaller now…though she had never been a big woman as she always kept herself up, as they say…meaning she always kept herself  looking good and in good condition.  But she wasn’t looking so good yesterday…most of her hair had thinned out…and she had this large black…what looked like smut smudge straight across her forehead.  She had on no shoes or slippers on…of which I had never seen her walk  around barefooted before…as Aunt Kate was quite prime and proper.    And her feet were terribly ashy…meaning…well…you can look that one up…as I do not want nor wish to continue talking about my aunt in such a way.

But it was her mind…the thing most recently I had noticed in the last few phone calls we had had…her mind was slipping.   She was not getting lost…but she had started forgetting things…and who such and such was…when she had always been so sharp about such things.

Aunt Kate was now in her 90’s…and though throughout all of these years age had somehow managed to not show up on her…yesterday was different.  She seemed older than her 90 in fact…and she was now walking with a cane.  That strong little woman was now…an aged shadow of  what she had been…and though I smiled and was happy to see and talk with her and my cousins…it was hard for me not to notice the vast difference in our Aunt Kate yesterday…from the Aunt Kate I had last seen just about 3 years ago and throughout all the prior years.

I often think of  the little church mothers in our church…woman who proudly proclaim their ages with such glee…because none of them looks anything near the age that they truly are.  They are strong and fit…able to get onto and off  buses…walk around their blocks…run errands on their own.   There is a distinct difference between them and women who are not in the church.  And it is very recognizable.

Though her mother had been an extremely religious woman…Aunt Kate may have been…and may still be quasi-religious.   Until a few years ago…Atlantic City had become her friend.  She had gotten bitten by that bug…called gambling.   And if someone had not stolen some money from her…she still might be going…as it had become a weekly habit for her.

I really do believe that there is something about being in the church…and living a life separate from the ways of the world that will make a difference in your life…as witnessed by the many mothers who are in various churches around the world.  There is just something about trusting and living your life as God intends you to live it…that will make a difference.

Yes, I am tired…but I am so thankful that God gave me the opportunity yesterday to finally go and visit with my very kind and loving Aunt Kate…through all the years this has never changed about her.  I suspect that it comes from her mother.

There is little wonder that Obama’s approval rating for his first 100 days has been and is high…as he is actively pursuing to achieve exactly what he went into the White House knowing what he had and needed…and said he would do.  Handle the business of the American people…and try to undo and dark mark the Bush Administration had put upon this country.  And thus far…as my father would say…he has been doing  just fine.  But what I really like is the fact that the dynamic duo which we put into the White House are both getting high marks.

I always knew that Michelle was going to show herself to be simply wonderful as both First-Mom, First Lady…friend and confident to the man that sits in the top seat and wears the heavy crown…or in this country…heavy hat…President Barack Obama.

I really like reading all this good press about them.  He was media darling prior to entering the race…media darling after entering the race…and still media darling after having won the race.

I like people who are consistent…don’t you?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obamas-first-100-days-the_b_191831.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-to-michelle-ob_n_191677.html

As you know…I do not watch much television.  But often while sitting around in a hotel room…I find little  else to do.  So, this is how I happened to hear about the ‘Swine Flu.” As far as I can tell…it is very much like most of the other flu’s…causing diarrhea, vomiting, fevers, headaches…etc.   But thus far it has killed 81 people in New Mexico…and a series of people…up to 40 cases have been diagnosed here in other parts of the United States.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8021384.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8022437.stm

To protect yourself they say that you should continuously wash your hands…and when out in public keep your hands out of your mouth and eyes.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/27/swine.flu/index.html

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090427/BREAKINGNEWS/90427003&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090428/swine-flu-and-travel-what-should-you-do

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/med_swine_flu

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161469997

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=13188442&ch=4226723&src=news

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Swine-Flu/ss/events/hl/042409swineflu#photoViewer=/090428/ids_photos_wl/r3827649806.jpg

Could not resist this story…CLICK the LINK BELOW to read it and see the video.

It is about a southern preacher who believes that having ‘good sex’…or as this pastor puts it “great sex’…is something which the body of Christ should be preaching about.

I know you do not want to hear my opinion on that…because you probably already know it…if you have read any of these blogs at all with any degree or level of understanding.

But it just goes to prove…just how overboard this whole sexual revolution has become.   And I am not shocked…as it seems to me that there are some in the church…or seemingly of the church…who have great interest in the subject and are doing everything they can to spread that interest.

Though, I have to admit that my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE… certainly touches upon the subject.   It is…I guess important…but not something which should be preached or for that matter…needed to be taught in church…any more than sex education in school.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090427/NEWS01/904250314/1086

Speaking about my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE…between it and counting down the days to when it is ready for sell…launching my website…blogging…and hitting the road to promote my book…and menopause…it is wonder that I am anything but tired.

Now, I think I am going to get some much more needed sleep, thank you.   Being on the road somehow drains me these days.  I love it…but it tires me.   I think it throws my whole internal clock off…as I usually am the one driving through the night…and most of the day.  But I love the road, baby.   Ain\’t nothing like it.

So, if you will excuse me…I am going to rest now.   Good-night.

God bless…

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 ©2009

Add a comment April 28, 2009

Royalty meets Royalty…lasting impressions… and friends…

It is clear that our First Lady and her dashing husband, our President, Barack…and Michelle Obama  have been making a huge success in Europe since arriving there last week.   They are without a doubt the king and queen of the ball at ever affair and event that they gone to thus far.

What beautiful and fine representation America now has in the President of American and his wife.  So much so that even the Queen of England was so taken by our First Lady that she dashed protocol to the wind. 

In the following 2 paragraphs you get a hint of what was being said about the First Family during their time in merry old England.  You can CLICK on the first LINK BELOW to read the full story.

Mrs. Obama clearly made an impression with the 82-year-old monarch — so much that the smiling queen strayed slightly from protocol and briefly wrapped her arm around the first lady in a rare public show of affection.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman who asked not to be identified because of palace policy said he could not remember the last time the queen had displayed such public affection with a first lady or dignitary.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30017148/?gt1=43001

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30008409#30008409

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30019399#30019399

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/30038333#30038333

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1889051_1865161,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1888971_1864557,00.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/04/01/obama-wades-into-murky-waters-of-diplomatic-protocol/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/01/obama-presents-queen-england-personalized-ipod/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#30028003

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30008409#30019115

The crowds always anxious to meet them, the President and his wife were well greeted and welcomed from state to state during their travels in Europe last week.  

It is good to see that America is finally on the road to restoring… rebuilding… and rekindling  relationships with her allies that had been so badly freyed during the Bush Administration. 

http://www.comcast.net/slideshow/news-obamaeurotrip/1/

Well, as we prepare for the Easter holiday…I was awaken early this morning by one of sisters who decided to go into New York to do some Easter shopping.  It made me think of all the Easters that my mother used to shuttle us around from one shop after another making purchases that even the Queen would have to nod her head in approval of. 

My mother dressed us as children…in beautiful spring colors of light green, pinks, and light airy yellows many times laced with white trim…or white trimmed in pink or light yellow.  We looked like spring all fluffed up in our new Easter clothes and shoes…and freshly done hair-do’s.   And we would be all new…from head to toe…everything brand new for Easter.

You rarely see this today…as people have gotten away from spending so much money buying new clothes for Easter…but back then Easter was the big day…and everybody… saints and sinners got dressed for it.

Folks who rarely went to church…or who only went to church one day per year…found themselves there.  There in church…on Easter Sunday.

And the men all had suits.  Some in bright colors…but there would be an array of various ‘fresh from the package’ starchy shirts with new neckties.  Some had hats while their ladies…wives and children sported Easter bonnets.

And my brothers too…all fresh in their brand new Easter suites and shoes.  With their hair freshly cut and bow ties neatly sitting just below their chins. 

Those were the years.  They were great years…and they were years when folks reverenced the Lord.

 Well, it is just about Easter…tomorrow is Palm Sunday.  Hope you have a beautiful day.  I am on my way to the hairdresser.   It is time for me to start readying myself  for my Easter.    

God bless…

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…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

Add a comment April 4, 2009