Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all…” Imagine being hungry and having no hope of eating. Can you imagine that from the point of view of a child or an elderly living alone in a ramshackle bin? Imagine the throbbing, aching painfulness a mother feels watching her child fighting hunger pains? And, she knows she could never find anything edible, in the immediate vicinity, for the child to eat… to quench that piercing hunger pangs, gnawing inside her child’s...

Life is a gift. We must therefore, unwrap it with a smile on our face, and hope in our heart. Each day I see the sun, I see hope. No matter how gloomy the clouds are, I do not worry so much, for I know the sun is still behind the clouds. To live, we must do more than breathe. I remember the first time I touched a dead body. It was cold and stiff. My face wandered around his body that was lying still on the bed. He looked so peaceful. He still looked like my father. At that...

God puts dreams in our hearts. So, we must dream. We lose our sorrows and heartaches in dreams. And we live our fantasies in dreams. Some dreams are aborted while some come true. Most mornings, I’d sit by the Lake in my neighborhood just to witness the awesomeness of God; to be marveled at what Mother Nature is about to unfold… to shower us with her magnificence. The squirrels too gather by the edge of the Lake. The birds float effortlessly, circling the Lake in a beautiful ballet. The gators stand in awe. Yes, the gators! The leaves on the...

No! This piece is not about Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall “Coming to America.” (Laughs) Your country of birth is not the same as your nationality. Where you were born does not necessarily determine who you are. It does not define your root. The distinction is your bloodline! So ask yourself: Who am I? First generation African-American families brought to the New World did not drop from spaceships. They came in slave ships. Somehow, somewhere in time past, many Africans, young and old, were abducted from different parts of Africa and sold into slavery. They were shipped to the New...

It takes two to tango! Tango is an intimate, social, and elegant dance… for two. Unlike salsa… an equally sexy, elegant dance set inside a social arena, tango is fierce, bold, and heavy in body contact. Both are just as intimate. But, there is a major difference between salsa and tango. In salsa, you’re expected to dance with different partners in a rotational pattern designed to keep the movement in perfect synchronicity. There’s no room for error. On the other hand, tango requires no more than two partners… mano e mano… you know, as in face-to-face. However, not all tango...