MY FEET IN THE SAND: Fork In The Road

By those who've been around me socially or know me fairly well, when described, quickly I've been dropped into the category of moderately "boogie".  Now, to my White friends, in the Black community, "boogie" is short for bourgesie.  And we all know what that's supposed to mean, the creme de la crème, the upper crust, the best part.  For some, this label is a compliment, celebrated even.  For others not so much; it's another way of saying 'you're a snob who really doesn't have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it of.

I don't believe I'm "boogie".  I like what I like.  I don't take offense to the term, nor do I celebrate it.  It just is what it is.  I give this lesson to demonstrate how I've learned the valuable lesson of taking sweet care, not to judge.  And it was a fork that continues to teach me this lesson.

 

MY FEET IN THE SAND: Walk A Mile With My Fingers And Toes...

A Facebook Friend recently posted a picture of a woman seated on the subway, her hands laid in front of her, atop packages, remarkably darker than her face.  The thread's author immediately assumed the woman had to have been bleaching her skin and admonished her in his pseudo-Pan Africanism-way.

I hadn't revealed my condition publicly so I didn't comment.  However I swiftly clicked the like button, once a brave soul intimated that perhaps, the woman hadn't bleached her skin.  Perhaps, the woman had undergone chemo which has the propensity to turn one's hands and/or nail beds much darker than one's original pigmentation.


My outgrowing dark nail bed

MY FEET IN THE SAND: My Visit With Mattie And The Gift Of ASSIGNMENT

For about ten days Mattie was to come to Los Angeles to take care of me during and after my second chemo treatment.  She did but what she left me with was a lesson far greater than the physical service she imparted.  Assignment.

Mattie and Me

I've talked to you about my friend Wincey.  Fellow Griot,

MY FEET IN THE SAND: Some Dark Days......

So now I've been diagnosed.  What does that mean?  The first thing my sister said was, stay off the internet!  I will be your medical and information advocate.  If you stumble upon the wrong information you may do more harm than good.  Thank God I not only had a personally close family member who had gone through the exact same diagnosis a year ago (nameless to protect privacy) but I have a host of Doctors and Surgeons in my personal circle.  I wasn't too dismayed by not accessing the internet.  Besides with everything happening so fast, I didn't have time to scour the internet for every piece of information I could find, then analyze it. Later I would learn I wouldn't have the strength.

I was Blessed.  Although diagnosed...