Man, the pickin's sure seem thin out there in the dialogue-o-sphere lately.
I've plumbed theroot.com, afronerd.com, essence.com, blackpressusa.com and way too many others seeking inspiration. (Watching the soaps and "Big Brother..." on The Africa Channel hasn't helped one bit. Grimmacing at snippets of The Bravo Channel's "Real Housewives of the ATL" only numbed the senses. Sadly, C-SPAN's coverage of shabbily-staged summit on older black activists' and officials' reviews of the election lulled me to sleep. Here's the best I could come up with....
(VIDEO: YOUTUBE)
NO! Not the scary prospect of Junior emulating Yo Gabba Gabba's DJ Lance (above). I mean this piece of work in nymag.com's Nov. 9 Intelligencer..."Revenge of the Black Nerd".
It says nothing never uttered before really, except to the reactive reference to Obama's recent election.
Still, it got me thinking slightly. It helped in that constant assessment of priorities. I'd entered the Thanksgiving Weekend (rather, five days away from Pre-K) with a faint sense of dread. How would I keep Junior occupied that long? How would I nurture his inner nerd (so the charter school takes him next year) as well as his inner jock (the great inducer of naps)?
Turns out we did a lot of counting: of Hot Wheeels cars, checkers pieces won (because I let him), basketball jerseys (7), times Ping clubs were spotted as I thumbed (on demand) through golf magazines while he pooped.
I totally lost count of how many times we viewed a DVD compilation of "Little Rascals" episodes that I borrowed, on a whim, from the local library. And I know not a waking hour passed all weekend when I didn't fret over Junior's "skills evaluation" tomorrow night for the Y's 4-to-5 year old basketball league.
How much does it really matter how the volunteer coaches rate him at Target Passing, Ten Meter Drilling and Spot Shooting at his age? In an age when Super Bowl stars like Plaxico Burress are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot, and NBA stars like Stephon Marbury are portrayed as dodging the competition they're paid insanely to engage in; the doping, the baby mama drama, the DUIs, etc.
At least we spent as much time gorging on the Noggin and Sprout channels as we did ballon-sword fighting and tossing the Nerf (rainy weekends suck). But if I'd had my priorities in order, I'd have carved out some serious reading time with him as well.
Showing posts with label video courtesy youtube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video courtesy youtube. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
What if he asks what 'gay' means?
It's bound to happen sooner or later.
VIDEO: YOUTUBE
We might be raking leaves, or poking around the hardware store, or driving to school.
Sooner or later, I'm guessing, the 5-year-old genius is going to pose the question the way an attorney would: "What does gay mean?". He'll have an answer in mind before even asking. And I'll be on the figurative witness stand, sworn to be honest and forthcoming.
But how?
Granted...
The Young'un has known and accepted for a year or two that the little neighbor girl with the chubby cheeks "has two mommies". His only barber (besides Mommy) is a gritty gal who has no qualms about flexing her masculine side. And, without doubt, at good few of his intown pre-school teachers lead me to believe that they lead "alternative" lifestyles.
So be it. He's progressing briliantly. So don't ask, don't tell. Right?
But now we have Wanda Sykes (who I always thought was fine) coming out as a proud lesbian. And untold thousands are protesting across the U.S. because California voted down gay marriages. The controversy's not going away. So there's bound to be spill-over he picks up on.
Back to the question of what to say. (Since I met Wanda up close and personal once and found her lovely skin and chiseled features and white-hot wit really attractive, I consider myself an oblivious moron on these matters.)
The g-word passed my lips inadvertently in front of the Young'un on Sunday when his godfather and I were watching an NFL game andit occurred to me how one player didn't strike me as playing manly enough. I regret the comment for countless reasons.
Chief among them: the Young'un might have asked what I meant. And rightfully so.
Coming soon...DO THE CUB SCOUTS STILL EXIST?
VIDEO: YOUTUBE
We might be raking leaves, or poking around the hardware store, or driving to school.
Sooner or later, I'm guessing, the 5-year-old genius is going to pose the question the way an attorney would: "What does gay mean?". He'll have an answer in mind before even asking. And I'll be on the figurative witness stand, sworn to be honest and forthcoming.
But how?
Granted...
The Young'un has known and accepted for a year or two that the little neighbor girl with the chubby cheeks "has two mommies". His only barber (besides Mommy) is a gritty gal who has no qualms about flexing her masculine side. And, without doubt, at good few of his intown pre-school teachers lead me to believe that they lead "alternative" lifestyles.
So be it. He's progressing briliantly. So don't ask, don't tell. Right?
But now we have Wanda Sykes (who I always thought was fine) coming out as a proud lesbian. And untold thousands are protesting across the U.S. because California voted down gay marriages. The controversy's not going away. So there's bound to be spill-over he picks up on.
Back to the question of what to say. (Since I met Wanda up close and personal once and found her lovely skin and chiseled features and white-hot wit really attractive, I consider myself an oblivious moron on these matters.)
The g-word passed my lips inadvertently in front of the Young'un on Sunday when his godfather and I were watching an NFL game andit occurred to me how one player didn't strike me as playing manly enough. I regret the comment for countless reasons.
Chief among them: the Young'un might have asked what I meant. And rightfully so.
Coming soon...DO THE CUB SCOUTS STILL EXIST?
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