Monday, January 8, 2018 – It’s My New Year and I’ll Start When I Want To

Paraphrasing the Doo Wop Queen, Leslie Gore –

It’s my New Year and I’ll start when I want to; start when I want to; You can start too, when it happens to you.

I apologize for only one post last week. It was 22 degrees at two o’clock in the afternoon in Texas. Note: We Native Born Texans think 40 degrees warrants a coat, gloves, hats and boots. I was comfortable in a Lazy-Boy, under a heated blanket, with a good book and a fur baby curled up asleep in my lap. You would not have moved either. In fact, most of you that I was texting were not moving.

So what is happening that we might have missed? Tonight is the biggest night in college football. When the clock reads 00.00 at the end, I will already be counting the days until Saturday, September 1 when the Texas Aggies kickoff against Northwestern State. I will make Natchitoches meat pies to tailgate. Not looking ahead by any means, but Clemson is coming to Kyle Field the next weekend.

Meanwhile, ROLL TIDE.

I do wish the POTUS was not attending the game. Regardless of one’s thoughts regarding the President, one must admit he is a lightning rod. I wish the game would not become a political football. I just want to watch people have a good time and watch young people trying to make the world a better place.

Speaking of the future and the 2020 POTUS let us all just calm down about Oprah’s 2020 presidency. Let us first focus on 2018. As we hopefully have learned, “One great speech does not a president make.”

Nevertheless, here’s what I’m thinking regarding Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. It was uplifting to hear words of hope and promise and delivered with thought and conviction. It was refreshing to hear an articulate, well-spoken individual give a sincere and dignified speech without bombastic naming calling of institutions and individuals.

It is a brand new year. I am ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille because Time’s Up!

Let me just end with one of my favorite sayings from one of my favorite people, Ms. Odessia Ross.

Years after Odessia and I graduated from Magnolia High School in 1967 we were talking one day. We shared five college degrees between us and countless certificates. I remember making a statement that I in 1967 really wanted to be a medical doctor, but there were no women out there beating down the doors.”

Odessia replied, “D, Black girls did not even know there were doors out there.”

New Year. New Day.