A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun has got to be one of my all time favorite books. I read it in the eleventh grade and immediately loved it. Then I saw the Sidney Poiter movie and fell in love with the story. How can you not love Sidney Poiter? He is a genius to put it plainly. He brings dignity to every role.

Tonight, ABC showed the 2008 remake staring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad. I wanted to see them perform this on broadway a couple of years ago. Now I know why the play received so many Tony nominations. This remake was as good and as moving as the Sidney Poiter version. Who would've thought that Sean Combs could've done such a good job. He was able to take Walter Lee to a place I don't remember Sidney Poiter going. It was a powerful performance.

I hope you saw it.

Home Grown Xenophobia

There's a growing movement towards xenophobia in this country and it's a little disturbing. All of a sudden, immigration is all that anyone wants to talk about. We keep hearing about illegal immigrants getting licenses or being banned from speaking any other language besides English in government buildings. There's even legislation in Taneytown, Carroll County that is aggressively trying to eliminate non-English speaking immigrants from their town.

Now, here's my issue. Whenever we hear about illegals, we always here about those immigrants to our south (i.e. from Mexico, Central and South America). Here's the problem. English speaking Canadians walk over our borders everyday and no one says a thing about that. People turn a blind eye to that. It all seems like blatant racism to me. Of course, I'm not saying this because of any negative feelings about Canadians. My point is that because they look American in many cases and if they are English speaking, they just blend right in. On the other hand, Spanish speaking immigrants stand out and because of that they are targeted by politicians trying to get elected.

Let's not forget that all of us come from somewhere else.

Five Years Ago This Week

Seeing Anna (Patty Duke)in "Oklahoma!" on Broadway 2003


I made my way to NYC this weekend to see Anna in Oklahoma and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed Anna's performance. Keep in mind, I had never seen Oklahoma before and so when the curtain went up and then she didn't utter sound for like five minutes, I was a might concerned. But when she did start, in my mind, I was like, “I can't believe that I'm actually here watching Anna perform." I really enjoying the show, despite fact that I had only had about 2 hours sleep since Thursday night... (It’s a long, long story).

Now, would be a good time to mention that I left Maryland for NYC on Friday night and arrived at hotel at 7:30 am on Saturday because of a series of stops. My friends and I knew of the upcoming snow in Maryland, but hoped for the best. By 7:30 am Saturday, my mom called me and said that they had 2 inches of snow on the ground in Maryland and that more was predicted to come. Carrie also told me that they were predicting snow for NY, so we decided not to stay too in NY too long.

Back to my story...

We stayed in a hotel in Long Island, Hicksville, specifically. The hotel guy told us that I could take the train into the city to see the play. So like a brave girl, I took the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station. I met to nice older women who told me about the train system and they filled me in on the fact that Penn Station had a fire on Friday, but not to worry because everything should be ok. I took the train in and it took about 45 minutes to get into the city. Well, because I'm not always the most intelligent person, when I forgot the address to the Gershwin theatre and to make matters worse, the play was scheduled to start in 45 minutes. I was on 34th street and had to get to 51st street. Common sense would tell a thinking person to catch cab at this point. But not this gal...I gotta do things the hard way. Not only was I going to walk in 20 degree wind, but I was also on the look out for a camera and a gift for Anna. Foolish, I know...

Well, I didn't get Anna a present, (Billy don't be ashamed of me, but I could see myself walking 17 blocks in that wind with flowers). I got to the theater with about 10 minutes to spare and by this time I was starving to absolute death. To prove the point, I actually purchased a $3 bag of M&Ms and was perfectly ok with the exorbitant pricing structure of the theatre. I found my seat, which was in the rear mezzanine, which is really high up. I was on the aisle, but it was ok. To make my day even more interesting, I discovered that a trip to the ladies room might have been a good idea before the play started, but being the fool that I am, I just sat there thinking dry thoughts until the intermission.

Now nothing terrible interesting happened to me personally during the second act except that I got to watch Anna some more. Once the play was over, I went to the stage door to wait for Anna. Everyone and their sister came out of the door and for about 10 - 15 minutes I waited out in the cold for Anna. With the wind chill, it felt like it was 0 degrees out; my fingers, toes and face hurt from the cold. But I waited. Now there was a girl who was not from this country out there with me. She wanted everyone's autograph and she wanted me to take her picture with everyone. Now because I was raised to be nice to people in general, I didn't mind at first. However, when it became obvious that I might miss Anna, then I got irratated. Eventually Anna came out and these burling men swarmed over to her and asked for autographs on what seemed like thousands of photos. They also inundated her with facts about her life and with seemingly inane questions; at least, they seemed that way because they were questions that I could've answered myself. The only thing that was useful out of their conversation was Anna's announcement that she will be appearing on the series finale of Touched by an Angel this spring. She's really excited about this and who wouldn't be really.

Then the ultimate thing happened. The two guys departed and then the foreign girl turned to me and said, pointing to Anna, "what is her name again?” I could've slapped her right then and there, but I didn't want Anna to think I was a nut, especially since I was going to tell her that I was friends with Carrie. The girl got Anna to sign her playbill.

Anna said, "well I've got to go now and get dinner so we can be back in time.”
Julie: "Ok, I'll be the last one. My name is Julie and I'm friends with Carrie and Bill. They told me to come say hi to you"
Anna: "Oh really? Isn't that nice. Did you want me to sign the program too?"
Julie: "No, the playbill is enough?"
I said no because the program has Andrea Martin in it and if I'd known that, I wouldn't have bought it.
Anna: "Well, it was nice meeting you, we really have to go."
Julie: "Ok, thanks."

Here comes the foreign girl...

FG: "Can you take my picture please?"
Julie: "Well actually, I wanted a picture but ok.”
Then Anna left... I got no picture, but she did sign my playbill.

I called Carrie, my new NYC travel agent, got directions back to Penn Station and went back to the hotel. Now, had it not been extremely cold, I would've just waited for Anna to come back to talk to her, but again, it felt like 0 degrees. I made it back to Long Island safely and nestled in for a cold winter's night.

My mother called at 7:30 this morning and said, "Come home now. There's a foot of snow on the ground they just said that it's not going to stop snowing until tomorrow night. We may get up to 2 feet of snow." Well, we started out at 7:30 am and what is normally a four hour trip took us 10 1/2 hours in the snow. I took lots of pictures of cars stuck in the snow, including one of a tow truck. As soon as the Governor lifts the ban on driving, I'll get the pictures developed. Right now, you can get fined $1000 for being on the road.

So that's my story. Even though it was only for a minute, I'm really glad that I got to meet Anna. Hopefully, in a warmer season, I'll get to meet her again.

Genesis 2:18-23

. . .And Jehovah God went on to say: "It is not good for the man to continue by himself. I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him." 19 Now Jehovah God was forming from the ground every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens, and he began bringing them to the man to see what he would call each one; and whatever the man would call it, each living soul, that was its name. 20 So the man was calling the names of all the domestic animals and of the flying creatures of the heavens and of every wild beast of the field, but for man there was found no helper as a complement of him. 21 Hence Jehovah God had a deep sleep fall upon the man and, while he was sleeping, he took one of his ribs and then closed up the flesh over its place. 22 And Jehovah God proceeded to build the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and to bring her to the man. 23 Then the man said: "This is at last bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh. This one will be called Woman, Because from man this one was taken."

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

Detox

When starting a diet, many people decide to use the first few weeks as a period of detox. They eliminate meat, sugar, and other foods that are ultimately harmful from their diet. I did it when I started dieting last May. For the first nine days, I didn't eat any meat, no caffiene, no starches, and no sugar. It was something that I thought I wouldn't be able to do, but I survived and felt much healthier for having done it.

I think that the same thing happens when we decide to make changes in our lives in other areas. We need to detox from destructive habits that only serve to hurt us. I have found in my case that whenever I make strides towards improving my spiritual routine, the devil is right there to bring out a hidden toxin to pull me back.

The latest involves a rather odd and depressing dream that drew from a mixture of unfortunate incidents in my life. The dream had me depressed for days and in some ways unable to function at a normal emotional level. Although I am happy to report that the moment has past, it's not a great feeling to know that I still get to those depths of despair. But I guess that even the most faithful servants of God have moments of despair. Faithful servants like Job had moments of crisis. But Job never lost his integrity to Jehovah.

So I guess I'm not worried. The detox period can be trialsome. But it can also lead to better life in the long run.