The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

 When I was in my M.B.A. program, I had to take a finance class and an economics class. Now, if you know me, the creative me, I am not the crunching-the-numbers person, although I do pretty well with managing budgets and schedules, I am not fascinated by running pivot tables or differential calculus. Watching the trades on the stock market never excited me. That said, there were a couple things that I do remember from the classes that are on my mind this morning. The time value of money and the law of diminishing returns. The former essentially means that if you invest and let it sit, the money will eventually grow exponentially so it is best do start young, that is, if you have anything to start with in the first place. Even a little bit, kept over time, will grown to a lot. Mustard seeds, if you will, a small level of faith in starting something will eventually become quite large if you have the patience and resist the fierce-urgency-of-wanting-it-now. The second principle was th...

I am siting in my dining room, sipping a latte I made with butter pecan ice cream because we don't have milk, wondering about the next days of my life. It is a different kind of reality to be in my late fifties and seeing a world that essentially says we don't matter anymore. Now, of course, that isn't true. In some fields, one doesn't come to their fullness until they are in the late fifties-late sixties because of the time it takes to develop voice, opinion, a body of work. Perhaps it is this time of year, it is Mardi Gras Day, and with tomorrow being Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, I am in the middle of a season of contemplation.  It was in the contemplation that I started to examine my life and what has been well lived or well accomplished. My children are all adults, all of them are alive and well, thriving or emerging. I accomplished that assignment. They are thoughtful, insightful, and engaging in the world with a sure foundation. Career, on the other ha...

 I must admit, when February came around, I was feeling a few things about 2023 Black History Month. The first was a bit of exhaustion, it has only been a few days since the Memphis Police released the video of their lynching-by-black-fists of Tyre Nichols. It was a highly publicized, marketed release, much like in American history when they used to send out post-cards of previous lynchings to advertising upcoming ones.  There was something about the visual and the effect the visual made that was part of their intention. I chose not to watch it.  Then, on the very first day, February 1, The College Board chose to release its very redacted, watered down AP course on African American history and culture as a result of the racist, fascist taunts of Governor DeSantos.  The continued attempts to erase everything that has been contributed by African Americans is unending That and then some police departments decided to do their version of "pimp my ride" and unveil their ne...