bryanjazz

First, I want to give thanks and praise to my ancestors (including my father), for paving the way and creating the space for me to exist in this place and time. I honor them and thank them for the many blessings I have received throughout this first 40 years.

I want to next thank and praise my mother, who not only gave birth to me 40 years ago, but also courageously did an excellent job as a single mom, successfully raising a black male child in America. Her choices, on my behalf, led to an abundance of opportunities and choices in my own life, including an excellent education grounded in an appreciation for my own African American cultural heritage, a respect for others based on a sense of self-respect, and an appreciation of joy and laughter. I love you, mom.

I also want to thank my cousins, Ursula and DJ Markey, who provided me (throughout my life and continuously) unconditional love and acceptance that has been invaluable as I've formed my own sense of self. Moreover, they also served as excellent mentors, shaping my sense of global citizenship, deepening my appreciation of jazz and world culture, and providing me with a first-hand account of the zeitgeist of the 1960's, the decade in which I entered this plane.

Indeed, I have always felt a positive connection to "the 60's", that turbulent decade which shook the world. And now, 40 years later, it appears that one of those of us born in that era is on the verge of ushering in a new generation of leadership to the position of President of the United States. To be 40, and witness someone born in the same decade and whose age is in the same range as mine is....well, more specifically...it's the fact that he represents a turn toward the highest aspirations of those of us in this age group and younger that is truly inspirational.

As my mom wrote to me and reminded me in a letter I read this morning:

...You were born the day before carnival and in a leap year. That was February 26, 1968.

That period was a time in this country when racism, segregation, and separation was a way of life in the South. Racism was not as subtle as it is now. Though the signs denoting Colored/White sections in restaurants, buses, theaters, etc. were no longer in evidence, the practice was still evident in many places.

In that year, on April 4, 1968 (my birthday) Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. That caused a lot of riots in the country but also seemed to lead to a more intense feeling of pride in our people. Slogans of "Black and Proud" were heard all over, people were wearing dashikis, men and women were wearing natural hair styles and more people started giving their children African names."

And indeed, 40 years later I have a natural hair style and have been to the motherland myself...and may witness the first African American president. Certainly socio-economic injustice (globally and nationally), gender and sexuality discrimination, and everyday racism still pervade our nation and our planet. However, my own fortune and the current political movement which Mr. Obama represents, reminds me of the famous quote from that man assassinated two months safer my birth:

When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

So it feels great to be 40. I am thankful for my good health and sound mind, and generally feel blessed at this "mid-life" point to have choices about the possibilities I want to create in my life. In my travels around the planet, I have learned first-hand about the privileges I enjoy with respect to majority of the population of the world, and what a joy it is to meet others near and far, and share what I can...especially the sharing of myself.

PEACE!