Happy Birthday to me or as I like to say Happy New Year. In my mind years do not count until you have a begin of life. Sixty-two years ago my life awareness begin in the small town of Quincy Illinois. A river town on the Mississippi river. A small beginning full of possibilities. At least when I look back now that is what I think. Possibilities for a black baby born back then was not thought of in those terms. My mother left Quincy when I was six months old, not searching for possibilities but to leave a life of a young black girl with a baby and no husband. A life of dim views filled with shame. A life she did not want her son to live. She didn't know what she would have to face leaving the small town and family she knew, but she knew what she wanted to leave.
I am a state brat. Born in Quincy Illinois, raised in Peoria, Illinois by my grandmother until I was in the sixth grade then my mother came and took me to Chicago. Growing up my life was one of newness, in many different places with different thinking people. It gave texture to my life, many different colors and a belief in possibilities. It gave my mind the openness to accept differences as a normal state of life.
So on my 62nd birthday I look back and thank my mother for her strenght to be different, to be bold, leave what she knew and venture out into the world to give her son possibilities.
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