The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

 I would be untrue if I didn't say that I am disgusted. So thoroughly disgusted. And a bit angry. Not just about what the Anglophile people did, they acted as how they have acted throughout history and have always been a bit selfish, otherwise, they would have reached out for the common good for all people. Now, many of them are in the FAAFO stage, post election, because they thought the one-who-wants-to-be-king was only going to harm "those people." They are finding out that they are also "those people."  Since the country was the country, stolen from Indigenous Native Peoples and built on the backs of stolen people, it has always been the oligarchy controlling it. They controlled the people-who-think-they-are-white in all the European iterations of how they showed up on these shores. They even did it to the ones who are as sun kissed as me but who were told they they were Anglophile and certainly not like those Black people. They were all pining for the "...

 It is a bit after midnight on Monday, January 20, 2025. The day the nation will remember the work, the call, the life, and the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most importantly, we will honor what this young man taught us in his short impactful life. He taught us to use our life for good. He taught us to use our voice to speak up for others. He taught us to be uncomfortable with the status quo. He taught us to be courageous. He taught us what faith in action looks like. The inclement weather in the northeast has canceled what was to be a day when over thirty community groups were coming together to provide groceries to 450 families (1800 people). Instead, what we will be doing is keeping our television tuned in to the local PBS Station that will air celebrations and honoring of this great man. Instead, what we will be doing is a read-in. Instead, what we will be doing is strategizing how to care for each other in the coming oligarchy. We are doing anything instead of wat...

 I have been in a daze, somewhat, in sheer and utter disbelief since November 5. So much so, that I have not really been able to write. Was it grief? Anger? Shock? All of that, all of the emotions one feels when the seemingly impossible becomes possible - again. What made it worse for me in 2024 than in 2016, is that people knew, absolutely knew what kind of person this air-breather is. What kind of people he surrounded himself with - and they voted for him anyway. Tell me you are racist without saying it. Tell me you are willfully ignorant without saying it. Tell me you are sexist without saying it. Tell me you are a deplorable human being without saying it. Then as if matters couldn't be worse - the continuous gaslighting by this person and the people he has surrounded himself with - has been enough to send even the most stable person running for places of mental safety. It has been absolutely nuts the way the media and other "powers that be" have capitulated to this ni...

 When I was a little girl - I used to try to disappear, to be invisible, unseen, unnoticed,  unheard, un - un. My naive little self thought that if they didn't see me, the monsters who lived and breathed fire, they wouldn't hurt me. Most of my growing up, a full decade, I was afraid.  Petrified, even. Survival meant being nice, kind, quiet, compliant, nondescript, absent from any "prettiness" that they said was my late mother whose face I carried. How could I be the incredible shrinking girl and stay in a corner until it was safe to use my voice, my words, to protect others so they would never feel that heart-thumping-heat-filling-terror.of.existing. As we enter this season of Lent, the discussion very often among those who practice this season of contemplation, confession, and contrition is about what one is giving up - a pleasure or activity; we often don't discuss what we are taking on for righteousness and justice. Let me consider this as I mentioned as the st...

 Something changes in you, in your generation, when you realize that the last of your familial elders has made her transition from this Earth. That was the feeling I had when I received the news a week ago that she passed away. When are we ever ready to suddenly be the grown-ups in the room? My first cousins and I all looked at each other like, wait, wait, we don't have any Aunts or Uncles anymore. The vacuum was felt, even as we believe our ancestors are a part of us and their memory remains, to suddenly be in the universe without the seven of the fourteen who were the backdrop of our lives, was shocking in ways we are still absorbing. Everyone is spread out now, no longer centrally located in the town our parents migrated up north to, we are literally around the world. Some were able to make it in, others were able to tune in via the power of technology. There is a silence that is so loud when you are sitting there.   We do as African Americans do and talk about how she look...

 I have been on a life journey for a while, but then, all of us who are in the between space of first breath to last breath are on that same travel. For me, it has been trying to become who I believe the God of the Universe created me to be. Why someone like me, fifth born, last daughter, grew up motherless, would be called into ministry and spend years figuring it out. When I was still-and-yet seeking my way, a little, tiny afro-wearing, walnut colored African American woman came into my hospital room in the week hours of the morning. She was a hospital chaplain and was assigned to visit those who were in pre-op. For me, it was an emergency surgery for a swollen gland on my neck that threatened to cut off life and voice.  So she politely asked to enter my room and sat on the window sill to just be with me while I waited. My husband was traveling for work, my daughters were early elementary school, my youngest son was away at college, so I was in the quiet spaces of being alon...

 It is scary how much I enjoy my time at home. Like really love it. I am an Introvert. A true one, that INFJ on the Myers-Briggs, the very rare three-percent.  Now, I'm in good company, they tell us that those other Advocates include President Jimmy Carter and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Idealists and faith-filled people who observe the world from a wholistic position to think of how it can be better. And homebodies. Even if their bodies are not at home, they are more comfortable in solitude. In my theological imagination, I've often said that the man, Jesus, was INFJ. So were some of his disciples. I believe my late father also had this personality type and when he wasn't advocating for social justice in my second hometown, he was ensconced in his home library reading. He was the one who introduced me to the love of story and the comfort of a good library. From him, I gained my awe of the local town library or bookstores. The other thing he taught me was that there is...