Plato's Garden Celebrates First Anniversary

This post is dedicated to all the members of Plato's Garden Book Club. The club was initiated a year to the day and I must say I was very nervous about how it would turn out. A year later, I can say with all sincerity that this is one of the best things that I have done.

The group is composed of women who are very witty, dynamic, passionate and very much in tune with what is going on in the world. We have shared fabulous conversations about love, self-awareness, the environment, politics, and "life as a house". Our first read was Eckhart Tolle's, A New Earth. I was inspired to read the book after reading other books like The Law of Attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks. The book provided the venue for us to get to know each other better. We reminded each other about the importance of living in the now. The group meetings inspired me to write more and thus I now have a blog and contribute to other blogs. I often express to my students that reading and writing cannot be divorced from each other. As Julia Cameron states in The Writer's Life, "Writing will fill your heart if you let it." Some of the books I read gain a small space in my heart as well. They help me stay grounded and truly appreciate what life has to offer. As a result, I write to address issues that matter to me like education and literacy. I now keep a journal to leave my darling, soon to be two years old, grandson. I want to chronicle things for him and hopefully it will be a special gift to remember me.

Plato's Garden Reading Club is committed to promoting the love of reading. This group exemplifies the what reading can inspire people to do. I hope that we are able to continue to share our favorite reads for many years to come. Thank you all for a memorable year. Happy reading.

I cannot tell a lie

I remember the old story about President George Washington cutting down a cherry tree and admitting to his mistake later on. He must be turning in his grave if he is seeing the many lies that exist in politics and in every other arena for that matter.

I am not even sure that the George Washington's anecdote is true. I know that many of us like to believe our forefathers and fore mothers were honest beings. I do not know if the story about the cherry tree is told in schools anymore but the truth is that we must restore the concept of honesty and truth. We are now seeing how intelligent people were deceived by the culprits of the financial industry and the like. Every day we learn about another multimillion dollar scheme that not only affects those directly snuffed by fraudulent behavior but all of us are suffering from an image crisis. We need to restore trust amongst ourselves first. Then, we must restore trust in our country's institutions. Each of us can contribute to the task of cleaning up our global image.
The way I see it the logical place to begin is in the home. Parents are the most influential in a child's life. They must be the role models first. If we want our children to care about the planet, we must recycle the first plastic bottle. If we want them to learn within their means then we must say no to an extra electronic gadget they may ask you to get them. That money can be saved for college or some other worthy cause. The truth is that we as a nation need to restore our priorities and be true to what matters.

For example, we complain about education in general and our debilitated infrastructure but what are we willing to give up to restore it and rebuild it. We hate the inconvenience of the delays on the roads when workers are repairing our roads. Our schools are crumbling brick by brick in many states across the United States. We tolerate it. We complain about it but what are we doing about it? The truth is that communities can come up with creative alternatives to help refurbish the severely dilapidated buildings where our children and teachers spend up to seven hours a day. We call children and young minds our most valuable resources. Yet, we do little about prioritizing the rebuilding of our schools. We allow our health system to fail our citizens. We punish hard working people with foreclosures.

America needs to stare itself in the mirror of the future and say enough is enough. I cannot continue to tell lies. We all need to look at the budgets, bids, economic proposals, tax base, stimulus grants, and our legislators. President Obama said it best, "Yes, we can." We can stop lying to ourselves and realize that we chopped down a lot of things these past eight years. Someone has to fess up and make our forefathers and foremothers proud.

Nikki Giovanni

Bill Moyers interviewed Nikki Giovanni on his weekly show Bill Moyer's Journal on PBS last night. He illuminated Giovanni's contagious smile, distinctive oral tradition, and her spirit. She talked about her new book of poetry Bicycles: Love Poems. We have come to know her poems within a span of thirty plus years and she is still drawing from her experiences as Virginia Tech professor and as an African American woman.

Moyers asked her about her revolutionary poetry. She did awake in many of us whether we be Black, Hispanic or White an enormous sense of urgency to pay attention. She demanded in a big way a respect for culture, art and the beauty of a single voice. Someone coined her the "poet of the people". I have always admired her poems and often use her poems to bring a classroom back to life and to the present. She inspired me to reexamine my roots, oral traditions, and the memories of what really matters.

As we celebrate Black History Month, we want to read the poetry of Nikki Giovanni for many reasons. Her poems are a tribute to the Black experience and testament to our humanity.

See Transcript

Obama's Influence

1 was at the book store and a few kids were sitting on the floor looking at some books about the President Elect. I became curious because the reason I had visited the book store was to see how many books were displayed about Obama, the presidency in general and President Lincoln and JFK since Obama is often connected to these former presidents. The children ranged in age from about 6 years old to about 11. One book that called my attention was a book by artist Kadir Nelson using the words of Barack Obama during the campaign and political gatherings. The 10 or 11 year old was reading it aloud and showing the younger kids the beautiful drawings by Nelson. She paused at one point and traced Obama's face with her fingers. She whispered to the others,"Isn't he handsome?" You could see the admiration in her eyes. One of the older boys, maybe eight years old kept repeating, "Yes we can." The youngest boy exclaimed with excitement as he pointed to some of the magazines on the rack. "Look, he is all over the place."

I counted at least twenty different magazines and special issues of one thing or the other with Obama's smiling face or a picture of him with his wife and or family unit. His auto-biographies and other numerous books written about him were displayed on one table. I have noticed that mugs, tee shirts, hats, totes and other objects illustrate Obama's countenance. Some times his sports a brilliant smile and many times he seems to be reflective, pensive and almost spiritual.

We went to a local restaurant and all you heard people talk about besides the frigid weather was talk about the inauguration and Barack Obama. Some referred to him as Barack others as Obama. The one constant from my perspective is that everyone seemed excited, optimistic, and just plain happy.

At one point I heard this very frail voice coming from the seat behind me. I did not want to be rude and look back. It seemed that she is a regular at the restaurant. The waitress welcomed her as Miss Mae. She asked the waitress if she had anything special planned for the day. The waitress responded that she was working. "I guess we will all watch on the TV, Miss Mae. Have you planned something special?" Miss Mae said, "Oh yes my dear. We have planned a big dinner. It will be Christmas all over again for us. You know, I am 79 years old and I will not see this moment in history again. I have waited my whole life for something like this. As a matter of fact, now I can die in peace and happy." I had to look back at that point. I could not help it. I smiled and nodded my head.

The women smiled back and asked me, "How are you celebrating?" I did not want to just make up an answer because I really had not thought about it so much. I was ready only to watch it on TV and record it on my DVD player/recorder.

I finally responded and told her, "I think that I will write a poem and dedicate it to a friend of mine who died recently." My friend taught high school for many years and never stopped telling her students that they could be anything they wanted to be with hard work. I could imagine her looking down and feeling so proud that we finally have an African American elected to be president of the United States.

I had not thought about my friend in a while. Her sudden death had caused me such sadness. I smiled and sat back in my seat. I started writing my poem right there. My friend sang professionally. She loved a song titled, "If I could" and that's how I started my poem. I will share it at some other time.

It is amazing how one man is helping people to dig deep into their emotional banks to share. We are more hopeful, and ready to start effecting the change. The change has started. To my friend who always sang, "If I could". I am singing back to you: Dear friend, you helped to make it happen. Yes, you did. If you could you would be here shaking his hand. Yes, he did it. Now together we all could help to make a big change.