In case you missed it, last Monday, October 3, 2022 was the 68th Birthday of the Rev. Dr.Al Sharpton.
He's a personal hero of mine, and I like to consider him a long term friend.
He's walked through fire for Black people, though at times often unappreciated or underestimated.
I look in awe at all that he's done and
continues to do. And am happy to see that there are many among us who
celebrate the day he appeared on this plane of action.
To put it simply - HAPPY BIRTHDAY - BROTHER/FRIEND REV. DR. AL SHARPTON
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
With Rev. Al Sharpton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA
TODAY, OCTOBER 8, IS THE BIRTHDAY OF REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, WHO CELEBRATES HIS 81st Year Turn Around the Sun!
As with Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jackson has been
a lifelong hero of mine - from the first time I met him in 1969, when
he was Keynote Speaker at Lincoln University's (PA) Commencement, and
throughout his lifetime as a major champion for Black people.
Even during this time of his health challenges,
Rev. Jesse Jackson has never backed down from taking a principled and
physical stand for Black people. As Rev. Al Sharpton has said on
countless occasions, Rev. Jackson has done more in his 81 years to help
Black people, than all the pop artists, sports figures, elected figures
combined.
It is important to make sure our children,
grandchildren and peers know and share their knowledge of all that he
has done and accomplished - and that we begin to teach his place in our
history and our lives.
When my children were quite young, during the
time that we lived in California, whenever Rev. Jackson would come to
LA, I would pull my children out of school so they could meet him in
person and hear, first hand, what he had to say. This was in the
mid-70s, prior to his running for the Presidency in 1984. My children
have grown up on Rev. Jackson, as have their children. it's imperative
that we honor and respect and stand for those who stand for us.
So a very happy 81st Birthday to the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson -
Thanks so much for your leadership, love, and all that you've done for us.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
These two FINE BLACK MEN men - both born under
the sign of Libra - Justice, Balance, Elegance, Eloquence - have made a
critical difference in our lives and the future of our people
Today, October 30, 2018 is my baby chile - Adiya Soignee Idane's - Birthday!!!
Adiya
This is a milestone Birthday for Adiya - a/k/a Ms. Thing.
She
is the youngest of my three - She was the TMK - "Tailor Made Kid" because her dad wanted a daughter - there were five boys in his family, and he had always wanted a sister, or better yet, a daughter. Not only did I deliver, but she has her dad's eyes, dimples (who knew he had dimples under that beard??), and she was literally a belated birthday gift - born 5 days after Lou's birthdate of October 25, on October 30 - making them both Scorpios!! Talk about delivering the goods!
She and Kira represent the "bookends" of the October family birthdays - Kira on October 7, and Adiya on October 30 - with 15 other family birthdays in between!
But truth be told, she did get a
fair amount of pampering - especially from her big sister, Kira, and a lot of protection from her big brother Rais. Despite all of this, she is totally her own person - and a force of nature.
Adiya
was awake, aware, and alert from the day she was born. Out of the
three, she was the most determined to know what was going on - her
curiosity knew no bounds. She was the kid you couldn't hide anything
from. If
there was something that caught her eye that we deemed might be harmful
to her as a baby, we'd put it in a high cabinet or shelf, out of her
reach -but she'd find a way to get to it anyway!! There was a point where we thought that she could literally climb walls.
But she is also the kid that, if she didn't want you to know what was going on, you'd never find out. Typical Scorpio, she could keep a secret to the inth degree. Your secrets as well as her own are totally safe with her.
That said, she always amazes me with her insight, and ability to read between the lines. Like her dad, she can see through - or empathize with. She has the most beautiful, tender heart. Again, much like her dad. Her sense of humor and love for the humorous and comical is legendary. She gets the punch line almost before the joke is completed. A trait I think she also got from Lou, the Clown Prince of the family.
She has grown up to be an elegant, graceful, beautiful woman - and I am so proud of her and all of her accomplishments. A true Lincoln Lionness like her Mom (yours truly) she took her natural love of education and people and has distinguished herself in working with children.
She loves working with children, and it appears they love her back.
She
has that ready smile that just brightens up a room and the atmosphere,
no matter where she is or what's going on. She's creative and talented - designs fashions (got that from me); cook unusual dishes - also
from me - and unusual hair styles - now that she learned to do on her
own.
Having
a family where three of the major family members all have their
birthdays in October is both interesting and challenging - Kira is
October 7; Lou would have been October 25; and Adiya's is today, October
30 - I had to do my homework on Librans and Scorpios - and believe me,
theres a lot to learn. I call Kira and Adiya the Book-Ends, with Lou
in the middle of the October Birthdays, and Kira and Adiya being the
beginning and the end. Of course, the two fire signs - myself and Aries, and her brother, the Leo, keep things in check as much as possible - LOL
Me with my "Book Ends" - Kira and Adiya
(By
the way - there is a total of 17 family members born in the month of
October when you combine my and Lou's family - that's almost a birthday
every other day - except for the fact that the only Scorpios were Lou
and Adiya).
Being
a fellow Scorpion made her the apple of her Dad's eye. They were so
alike in so many ways - they had their own mutual admiration society.
She inherited his dimples, which were hidden securely under his beard,
and his sense of humor -though she can't tell jokes the way he did, she
has a serious funny bone!! She loved helping her dad select his stage wardrobe for Mandrill concerts, and keeping track of his music. Adiya was a lot better at keeping secrets than Lou - they had their
secret codes - at the end of the day, he would have spilled the beans to me about whatever it was they were collaborating on. LOL
I've always teased her about being the custom made kid
- she has evolved into the Scorpio woman from the highest, most positive
aspects - Scorpio is the only sign that has 3 levels of evolution -
Scorpion, Snake and Eagle - Adiya
represents the Eagle = She soars above issues, problems, challenges -
she's ethical, insightful, principled, and fun loving. The total
package. As a
bragging parent, of course, I reserve the right to extol the virtues of
my kids - whether they like it or not - and I often do. Now that
they're adults, of course, and living their own lives, I'm even more
pleased with how they turned out. Ms. Thing, as we call her, has morphed into this absolutely poised, self assured, elegant and genteel beauty. She walks like she's walking on diamonds, with a glow that follows her into any room she enters. I am so proud to be her mom. So please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays - Happy Birthday Adiya Luv4U Muchly Momi Stay Blessed
My birthday was last Tuesday, March 21, 2017. I always brag as a Aries that I start the Zodiac and I start the sign - since Aries is the first sign in the Zodiac and March 21 is he First day of Aries. When I was a kid I used to also have the bragging rights to it being the First Day of Spring, which it was until someone decided to move the Vernal Equinox to the 20th of March - still not accepting that one though.
MY Family (L-R) Adiya, Me, Jaden, Rais, Kira, Hugh
Since it was a Tuesday, hadn't really planned anything major in the way of a celebration. The last two milestone birthday bashes ended in disaster, with downpours of rain so bad you would have thought a monsoon had hit New York City. So, when First daughter, Kira asked said she and handsome Jaden were coming up on Saturday for my birthday, I was totally happy to let her take charge. Then when my Baby Chile Adiya called to ask me what my favorite foods were - I thought, wow, don't tell me she's forgotten - surely it can't have been that long since we'd eaten out together - but I said to her, "King Crab Legs, or Thai Food - or both. " "I knew that,"she responded.
So I thought, great, we'll have a girl's day out. I rather assumed that Handsome Jaden, whose birthday was the day following mine, March 22, was now officially 15, was probably going to hang in Virginia, with some of his peers.
When Saturday, March 25, rolled around, Kira, her Hubby, Handsome Hugh, and to my delight, Handsome Jaden all drove up together - I knew it was going to be a great day.
By the way: If by now you haven't noticed, all the men in our families are "Handsome" - it's a practice I started when my son, Rais was born - based on a sociological study that said that meanstream media had more derogatory words and descriptions of Black men than any other group on the planet - but I digress.
Jaden has gotten so tall - his aspiration is to either be a football or a basketball jock, and he's excellent in both fields. I asked him how he liked being 15 - he said, "It's all right. " I have the feeling he's waiting for sixteen when there are some special privileges that 15 doesn't carry - like driver's licenses and things of that nature.
We went to a great Thai Restaurant on Walnut Ave., called XIANDU THAI (Shandoo thai) - which was absolutely lovely - with a bar, sidewalk and upper restaurant section. They had some wonderful elephant carvings and statues , and a great atmosphere (1119 Walnut Ave - check them out - they even have happy hour on Saturdays) - I call it casual elegance.
Our waiter/server, Brian, must be a stand up comedian on the side because he kept us in stitches laughing at his made up jokes the entire time we were there.
BRIAN OUR COMEDIC SERVER HAD US LAUGHING ALL THE WAY
BRIAN, OUR COMEDIC SERVER TELLING US ANOTHER JOKE
The food was excellent, and we were already having a great deal of fun - when my son, Handsome Wilson showed up with this huge gift bag and said under no circumstances was I to touch it. It was fairly heavy, so I of course immediately got excited - and of course it didn't help that he put it right on the seat next to me. When Adiya arrived the party was complete - and we spent the afternoon laughing, looking at her wonderful photos from China (she had just returned), and hearing about how shocked many people from china were to see Black people - some had even tried to rub her skin to see of the color would come off.
My handsome son-in-law told of how some had actually thought folks in his entourage - years ago had tried to lick one of his associates because they thought she was chocolate. LOL - we do have to travel more so the rest of the world can become accustomed to seeing us.
The food was fantastic - I had the Seafood Delight - with brown rice. Which I could not finish because they seriously give you ample servings there. But when they brought out the green tea ice cream and my mocha chocolate cake with the candle, the big moment for the unveiling of my gift had arrived.
Rais handed me this gigantic bag and pulled a rather large box out of - making sure to support it while I unwrapped it. I kept wondering what it was that made it so heavy. When the wrapping was finally off, a white box was revealed that said "album" on the front. So I assumed that it was a photo album to help me organize the zillions of photos I have taken over the years.
RAIS CAREFULLY TAKING GIFT OUT OF THE BAG - KIRA WITH CAMERA EXTREME RIGHT
So when I opened the box, I got the surprise/shock of my life!! All the photos that I had not seen in 30 years - from when we lived in California - kids baby pictures, first steps, early Mandrill Pictures, friends from California, that I hadn't seen in eons. I was totally blown away. In addition to the box of photos, they pulled out an old photo album from my days in Oklahoma - including pictures of me as an adolescent in OKC, and all my Science Fair awards - as well as clipping from early Mandrill performances.
I was so totally blown away, I started bawling - I thought I'd never see those pictures again in life. They were treasures from when my now very grown up kids were still in pampers; learning first steps; dance recitals; when I used to model (back when I was 99 lbs.) - wow! It was so hard to take it all in!! It was like they had handed me back the best days of my life! Believe me, no amount of money, or jewelry could have been more precious to me than those wonderful pictures and that album.
When I got back home, I just sat and went through each and every picture - there has to be about 500 or more of them - some of them are blurry because Black in the day you mainly used Instamatics or Polaroids. But some of them are real treasures. Actually, all of them are real treasures.
So I just wanted my wonderful kids to know how much I love them, and how beautiful this Birthday celebration was. For me it was the BEST BIRTHAY CELEBRATION EVER!!
My Baby Chile, Adiya, with my Handsome Son-in-Law, Hugh IV
(L-R) Hugh IV, Kira, Rais
(L-R) Jaden, Rais clowning around, Kira and Adiya
Adiya
(L-R) Hugh IV, Kira and Rais
Birthday Boy, Jaden, taking photo of Kira
(L-R) Jaden, Rais, Kira & Adiya
(L-R) Jaden cracking up at his uncle's antics, Rais, Kira, Adiya
Rais and Adiya
Adiya listening to Hugh tell about people in China thinking brown skin was chocolate
Hugh IV, Adiya and Kira
So I just want to thank my three beautiful kids my handsome son in law and my handsome grandson for the BEST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION - EVER!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH STAY BLESSED & ECLECTICALLY BLACK MOMI
