It's 12:01

I am the Perfect Example... of the American Dream? Sixty-two years old today, Friday, April 21, 2023. A black father of four grown children (who seem to ignore whatever I say). A man with a wife of over 30-years, officially. But, in reality, it’s been more like forty since we first met at KU... that sometimes feels like “fiddy!” (that’s fifty GOOD years, of course). A wife who tells me I have an anger problem, after she keeps pushing the same magic button combination over, and over, and over, and over again, until you guessed it... POP GOES THE WEASEL! Oh yeah, and did I mention I was over 330 pounds four months ago (which is considered “morbidly obese” according to my medical records)? I am taking multiple daily medications for the “Big 3”, Diabetes (type-2), Hypertension (high blood pressure), and Reflux (acid reflux). Well, I can tell you now that weight has always been the dominant issue in my life going back to elementary school. Always “the fat kid” I had my first gastric-bypass surgery in 1979. Lost over a hundred pounds my senior year of high school and went as far away from Rochester to college as possible, Kansas University, KU. Now, for the record, after losing all that weight, in the spiritual words I heard from Brother Kenny Williams, at my very first “Men’s Retreat”, “I may not look it now, but back in the day I was quite the lady’s man!” Plus, I had a lot of catching up to do from my “fat kid” teen years, if you know what I’m sayin’. Anyways, like I said before, “I am the Perfect Example.” I chose the 5-year plan to complete college, after a disastrous freshman year. And thank God I still carried those “fat kid” thick bones and was still 30-pounds overweight. Otherwise, I would have enlisted in the Airforce and gone to New Mexico, or Utah or something... (I’ll explain later) I finally graduated from KU in 1984, got married, and gained all the weight back, plus some, over the years. While I had a daughter, miscarried my first son, had two more daughters, and finally my last child (IT’S A BOY!) in 2003. See what I am saying? The typical life of any average guy, right? I started my “adult life” working as a dishwasher with a college degree from the fabulous Kansas University. Broke into the media business by volunteering for the low power UHF television station, TV30 in Lawrence, Kansas... after interning, post-graduation in 1984, for the ABC affiliate in Rochester, NY. An internship that immediately became a full-time job when the company production staff went on strike. Then suddenly, that hot summer, all of us wide-eyed interns had to cross the angry, sign carrying, screaming Teamster picket line every day. I declined a full-time job offer once the strike ended. Returned to KU pursuing a master's degree in film, but, ending up mastering the dishes at Western Sizzler Steak House; alongside a bunch of local high school students (and most likely some of them were dropouts). And there was one really cool Indian dude (or to be politically correct, let’s say “Native American” dude). All while having a Radio/TV/Film degree from the University of Kansas. Now I know that this “INTRODUCTION” is getting really long, but the point is that “I AM THE PERFECT EXAMPLE!” Why? Because God “ordered my steps” and despite all my drama, attitude and tardiness, the owner/boss of the steakhouse, Mr. Roar saw something in me, and gave me a dishwashing job; eventually promoted me to fry cook; and then to the coveted “BIG GRILL,” cooking the number nine specials, T-bones steaks, rib-eyes and filet mignon. God “ordered my steps” to TV30, who saw something in me and let me volunteer as a production assistant. Then, as part-time employee, and eventually to full-time production crew member. Where I produced my first TV show for the KU Women’s Basketball Coach called “The Mariam Washington Show.” I even became an on-air VJ at TV30, hosting my own late, late-night music video show I called “The After Party.” Which lead me to Eugene, Oregon. Seattle, Washington. Then to live with my brothers in Arlington, Virginia. Which, I never knew was basically a suburb of Washington, DC. You know, “Chocolate City”, home of (at that time in 1989) the Mecca for black media professionals (which in my mind I was) the Black Entertainment Television network, BET. God “ordered my steps!” Yes, he did. And the rest is history.... NOT! To make a too long “introduction” already, not much longer... BET never responded to my request for gainful employment. I worked as a busboy, taxi-driver, and production assistant for a peculiar, one-man production company, and as a video editor. Then in 1996… the first miracle I can now recognize, happened. My oldest sister died of a sudden brain aneurysm at the unbelievable age of thirty-nine. That’s right… God was still “ordering my steps”, with what I only now can see was a “miracle.” Ok, Ok, Okay! Don’t put this book down already and demand a refund. Let me explain. Once again, as Psalm 37:23 says “The steps of good man are ordered by the Lord…” Right? But please never forget Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT): 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. You see, after my sister died, I inherited her contemporary gospel CD collection. And, in God’s “order”, I became a born-again Christian… a miracle. I started my own video production company in the early 2000’s. My work has contributed to multiple awards in the TV/Media industry. And, by God’s grace and contributions by associates, my independent short film/video “My CoronaVirus Prayer” collected three more awards… miracles on top of miracles.