Vixen Chronicles

This will piss some people off.  In America, I am Black first. As a result, we tend to codify many things by race. It is a travesty, though, to contrast the media coverage of the Paris terror attacks and the Kenya University shootings as a function of race. I realize that doing so, for some people,  is an avoidance of a collective social hurt.  There has been a war on Christianity since the crusades. It is not new  is certainly independent of color. In all likelihood, the shooter in Kenya was black. This does not make it un-terrible. What happened in France was also independent of race. The news reported two Americans died. I saw one  man who was as at the Stade show his almost-wound. His phone saved him. He was black. He was also African. And French. What happened in France is better compared to 9/11, when we, Americans of all ilk felt suddenly naked as the terrorist attacks stripped the proverbial wool off of our western sense of security and safety we enjoyed...

For Labor Day, and other holidays, my house ends up being the house where you can go to eat and hang out. Ever since I became an adult, it has been this way. I don't know if it's because I moved away from home after college, or because I'm just social, but having friends over has always been one of the things I enjoyed about holidays, any holiday. On the menu today: Ribs, and Jerk Chicken, Cornbread (which I can't eat), BBQ Beans and fresh grilled corn. Living away from the proverbial "Home", that place where you grew up, where your parents live, forces you to rethink family. Your blood relatives will always be your family, but 2500 miles between you and your kin forces you to create a new kind of family, one filled with people you collect in your travels, people you feel some kind of kinship with. Distance forces you to curate your collection of friends as others might an art collection. Desert: Some spades, adult beverages, Cards Against Humanity ...