Happy Monday, All!
Weekend’s behind us … and ahead lies another week to “make a difference”. I mean, what else would one want to do with such a present as the gift of life?! I am often reminded of all the wonderful people in my own life, once I decided to stop dealing with the “not so wonderful” ones, whenever I visit my good friend Peter Zachary’s home in Plantation, FL. Yep, every now and then the name of the city makes me wonder who thought up that one, but … since living here in SoFlo, I only got TWO tickets from police in Plantation and haven’t really been bothered by them since. Nonetheless, that is where Peter and his household is located!
So, I guess you can imagine, but that is where I went for the Super Bowl Game yesterday! The weekend itself was pretty cool, got a lot done and even started to blue-print a work schedule to continue on a larger project that I launched a few years back, a manuscript called “Cookin’ With Life”, the name suggested by another good writer friend of mine, Vetalle Fusilier. Early on in the day for Super Bowl Sunday, I got clothes washed and dried, streamed the service from Calvary Chapel while I cooked breakfast and ate it. Then, I hunkered down at the flat to watch the HEAT basketball team try to keep its one game lead over the New York Knicks at this stage of the season. The HEAT squeaked out a “road” victory against the Toronto Raptors, located there in another very lovely city I have had the pleasure of visiting for an extended stay of over two months. So the start to Sunday was very much like my start on Saturday – very productive!
The pre-game show was long as anticipated though I am sure we didn’t really see “the true half of it”, as New Orleans is a tremendous city with lots of history and recently, lots of problems. Its history is rich in cultural diversity with the jazz rooted type of music popular there as well as the French influence of the architecture not only in the French Quarter but in other parts of the city, too. I was fortunate enough to visit the “delicious” city at a conference sponsored by ACORN (Association of Community Reform Now) just after the first election that Obama won. ACORN’s headquarters was located there in New Orleans though I had traveled between Miami, Nashville and finally Orlando for training and organizing a chapter of ACORN there in Orlando before coming to Fort Lauderdale where I worked in foreclosure prevention until the organization’s being shut down. Yet, we had a grand time in New Orleans for our weekend conference at the downtown Hilton there. Just walking the streets, one can feel the influence of the historical roots of the city clearly steeped in the “Dixie Land” type jazz, not to mention the smells of the various gumbos and seafood that is prepared in the traditional Louisiana “bayou” style. It was a great place to visit, a nice place for the Super Bowl, and a lovely place to kick off Black History Month in conjunction with the world known “Super Bowl”. There was a segment on with Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter extraordinaire and jazz musician, as part of the pre-game show that visited the streets of New Orleans, one of the meccas of African American history in this country!
Have a great week, and, please continue to explore and embrace the contributions of African Americans to the world!
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 