REFLECTION & REASON

I was happy to have quiet time to read  Michelle Richards-Graham 's book "It Could Never Happen To Me" today. The Canadian young adult novelist, who currently resides in Oshawa, Ontario, has written a very important piece of work and I'm grateful for the time and space I had to read it. It was long overdue. I'm the type of reader that doesn't always like to see the back-cover copy before getting into a piece of fiction. I tend to do this with movies too, because I like to be surprised by the plot. As long as I know the general genre and what demographics the characters fall into, I'm good to go without the synopsis. So when I discovered that the "it" in this story was sexual abuse by a family member, I really had to applaud Ms. Richards-Graham before the book was even completed. I believe Michelle initially composed this novel when she was a young teen, so to see her approach this sensitive subject matter so well, my heart went out to the

These are some interesting times. In fact, this is probably the most ambiguous moment most of us have ever experienced. When we look back at history, this will be a significant marker. Whatever this is. I don't even want to type the name. The ailment. The entity responsible for all of this, whatever "this" is. Whether it be a complete paradigm shift, or a major economic and manufacturing transition of society (insert theory here)...we will most likely be very different on the other side of this ordeal than we were coming in. When the time comes, and we enter back into some form of normalcy and consistent routine...we are going to have an abundance of lessons learned, judgements made, and will move forward in a new way. When the time comes. The universal time out is an interesting one, to say the least. It has provided a lot of time for reflection--both inward, and outward--and a lot of time to analyze our surroundings, our leaders, and the way in which our social ec

Cleveland author Jameel Davis is not normal. I mean this in the most respectful, and endearing, and celebratory of ways. After reading his book " In Between These Sheets " (that I drove all the way to Cleveland, Ohio to pick up hot off the presses in the summer of 2019), it only reinforced my positive opinion of this brother. He is not normal...he's definitely outstanding. The thoughts, the wisdom, the insight, the honesty, the maturity, the social awareness...none of this is standard. The sheer volume that he is able to produce as a writer: also not normal. In the pages of this book, Jameel Davis touched on topics, themes, personal anecdotes, and a range of subjects that make him not only a significant contributor to the ongoing cultural dialogue surrounding these topics, but also a damn good writer. I know Jameel personally, so it's hard to not be impressed by this 30-year-old African-American young man. He's educated. He's kind. He's insightfu