Several months ago One Mind told me that it was time to bring my current journey to an end and begin anew. So, I began the process of reiring from the profession that I loved. After thirty four years in the classroom I removed the yoke and gazed into the abyss. It was not possible for me to know what road I would take next. I only knew that I could not continue to travel down my current path. Of course I was aware that my retirement benefits would only be a fraction of my current lifestyle. Living a very frugal lifestyle has long been my choice. So, I had few adjustments to make in that area. However, my grown children who are still struggling to get grounded in the rigors of just making it in life and still seek a helping hand from me. Their mother passed away in July of 2008. So, they do not have her lo look to for financial help.

Retirement will afford me to strike up new relationships with my adult children, possibly helping them in business ventures. Also, it will give me time to take trip aboard a cruise ship with my son and to tak him to Miami's Overtown neighborhood to see a mural I painted which is permanently on display in the African American Cultural Center. Of course, I will continue to teach on a part time basis in a community college a few minutes drive from the neighborhood where I live. A change of venue, new faces, new challenges, and new responsibilities. I am prepared for and eager to make the change.

I was teaching a Seminar class for Sophomore Art Students at the university yesterday when it dawned on me how little the students knew about their chosen profession. My subject in the last few weeks has been 'futuristic thinking". I asked them a series of questions which drew surprisingly confused answers. The first one was 'what are you doing right now related to your chosen profession". Since most of them said in an eariler class session that they were interested in teaching in public schools, I expected them to say something even remotely related to that subject. Their answer was "nothing". I then asked them who was thier role model or mentor. They did not seem to know what the word meant and one student's answer was "God" and the other's was Jesus Christ. I clarified the question with an example which was "a high school art teacher who has received a lot of recognition for his success in teaching" Again, there answer was negative or unrelated to the question. This exchange opened my eyes to how much the students think and their need for guidance in the area of planning for their future. A wise man once said that if you do not plan for the future you could end up anywhere.

I have not shared my thoughts concerning the ongoing political activities lately. I have felt somewhat bewildered by things I have seen. We are enduring a necessary shit storm now in order to enjoy the freshness of a hot bath later. I have always had faith in the certainty that "time is on the side of the oppressed and it is against the oppressor" as Malcolm once said. We, as a nation, are in the midst of a period of profound and necessary change. It is a time when the older generation must necessarily pass the torch forward to the next one. Passing the torch backwards to a previous generation , as the Republicans would have it is illogical and counter productive. My generation has had a profound impact of every aspect of American life. it is the generation of Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as that of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. So the current generation of accelerated change is aptly referred to by many as the Age of Obama. Something revolutionary has indeed happened in the consciousness of the current generation, the generation which was brought forth by my generation. Their way of seeing and knowing, while it is rooted in the way we older folk see and know, is fundamentally different. The process information differently. They categorize things differently. They relate to our experiences as an aspect of past history. So their notions about reality and their expectations are different from ours. Indeed there are some young people who still hang on to the old ways but I refer to the progressive minded young people - black white, yellow, red, brown, multiracial, and those who defy racial categories who are liberal in their thinking about humanity and human potential.

I know there are those among us who think that the word liberal is a dirty word and that all liberals are going to hell with the capital H. I am aware of the fact that so-called conservatives AKA Republicans believe that they and they alone know the WAY things should be and they have a fantasy of conquering the world and becoming it's ruler.

I am an Obama supporter and I will definitely vote for him in Election Day, not because he is a so-called Black man but because he represents our best hope for profound change at home and abroad. He is a so-called black man because he is just as white as he is Black. He is a Black man by default because for whatever curious reason, white people decided a long time ago that one drop of Black blood made a person Black. Character and human potential as Dr. King once said are more valid grounds for categorizing and judging people. We are truly one people in this country with many sources, whether we want to be or not, just like the bowl of vegetable soup I love so well..

Rubystine, the mother of my children joined the Ancestors on July1, 2008 after a long illness. She will remain with us as long as we retain cherished memories of the good times we had together. So, in remembering her, we strengthen her. In strengthening her we ask her to strengthen us.