Adventures of Nefertiti

I hope I don’t get in trouble, but I had been putting off filling out my 2010 Census Form, and now that I have filled it out, I may not have given the response that the government wanted to see. I had been aware of the controversy regarding the word Negro, and I wasn’t too eager to deal with it. Still, I completely expected to have the opportunity to check a box that read Black, or a box that read African American or a box that read Negro. Instead, last night as I sat down to fill out my form, I discovered lumped together under one box to check, read the line.... Black, African American or Negro. Hmm... So have we fully embraced this new millennium or have we traveled back in time to the 1920’s? I remember last month talking with my Grandmother regarding the latest census and asking what she thought about the word Negro being added, and her response was; “Why did they bring that word back?” My point exactly! The reasoning behind that was because the Census Bureau felt that some older g...

This past weekend my brother spent Friday and Saturday evening in the hospital with his baby girl. My 3-year-old niece Dezi was running a high fever Friday afternoon, and after a call from the daycare, my brother Tommy, rushed her to the hospital. She’s fine now, but when I talked with my brother Sunday afternoon, they were still at the hospital and my brother hadn’t had any sleep. He says he was afraid to take his eyes off of her, even for one second. I wish I could have been there for him, because I hate that he had to endure that anguish alone. But I couldn’t, because he’s in Florida, and I’m in South Carolina. My mother is in Kentucky and my father is in Indiana, and they couldn’t have been with him either. My brother has lots of loved ones in Orlando, but no blood relative. While talking with my brother, I asked how Dezi was handling being in the hospital, and he said that she was demanding to go home and that every time the doctor came by to take blood, she would give him the evi...

A few weeks ago, I decided to visit the old Angel Oak Tree on John’s Island and I found her just south of Charleston, South Carolina. To get to her, I eventually had to travel down the roughest dirt road I’ve ever been on. The road is unpaved and is filled with potholes, I swear a mile deep each. The journey to visit with Angel Oak is well worth it though. She’s estimated to be over 1,400 years old, one of the oldest organisms around and is the type of creature to have withstood the test of time. She’s weathered lightening strikes, and hurricanes, and yes even nearby earthquakes. She’s 65 feet tall and 25 feet and a half round. Her branches extend outward to welcome visitors and are so heavy and thick that some of them rest easily on the ground. She’s strong and her roots run deep. She symbolizes the children whom she greets everyday with open arms during park visiting hours. She represents Mother Earth and her love that will forever endure the test of time. She is a sight to see and a...