“It’s 2010… do you know where your soul’s purpose is?”  A colleague of mine, Pascal Folly, said this quote: “An individual’s or organization’s life develops in the direction of the questions that are asked.”  It’s time to ask the tough questions so we can get to the real answers. When we have real answers, then we can make genuine progress.  There are no promises that this process will be painless; but the promise of freedom looms on the horizon for everyone who truly seeks to be true with themselves, God and others.  We all need to go through this process - whether we live in the ‘hood’, on the farm or in the suburbs. So let’s examine our lives - from the mundane to the extraordinary - from movies to music to culture, and beyond - so we can truly live ALIVE!

I know it’s 2010, but I don’t have much to say at this point.  It’s said that if you want a productive blog, you have to write new content weekly. But quite honestly, I haven’t had anything that I’ve been burning to write about.

This doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about what to write:

BACK TO THE FUTURE
It’s 10:45pm at the time of this writing. Sunday evening. December 13, 2009.  And as I was washing the dishes, the reality hit me - that 2009 will be over in a matter of days.  This is by far, the fastest year ever.  I can remember ringing in 2009 like it was yesterday.  And as I began to think about my life over this past year… my mind arrived at a movie I used to love to watch often: Back To The Future.

ARE YOU MARTY MCFLY?

I had the opportunity to be interviewed (on 11/18/09) on the “Open” talk show, hosted by Daren Jaimes.  It’s a local show on Bronxnet Community Television.  We discussed my new book, Speedsuit Powers, and how it can help bring hope to urban youth. Here’s the update from my Speedsuit Powers book website.

Speedsuit Powers releases Tuesday December 1, 2009. You can purchase your copy at Amazon.com

Alright, here’s the first official Speedsuit Powers book trailer. The story follows a boy who has to deal with some major “bully drama”.  If you have middle school/high school aged kids, or you work with youth, you’re going to want to get them a copy of this novel. You may even want a copy for yourself! (One adult read the book in 5 hours. She said she couldn’t put it down.)

The novel releases December 1, 2009 on Amazon.com, so save the date: Tuesday December 1st.  Feel free to let me know what you think and also pass this video onto others!

What are 7 simple steps to transition from a writer to an author? Most people dream about writing a book, but do nothing more than dream. I should know… My life has been spent dreaming about new realities, but never moving beyond the idea stage. However, as I turned 30 (and now 35) I realized that I’m not getting any younger. I don’t want to look back with regrett at dreams that never became realities. Being a dreamer is important, but carrying out the dream and enabling others to do the same is crucial.

ROADBLOCKS TO UNREALIZED DREAMS

What’s happening to our youth? In California, a 15 year old girl was gang raped for 2.5 hours.  What’s worse is that other youth watched, participated and did nothing to help her.  What’s happening to our society, where we don’t get involved to help someone else?  At the very least, we should realize that there may come a time when we will be the victim and need someone to step in to help us. 

Here’s the article from CNN.Com.  And here’s a video from CNN.com:

 What are your thoughts about what happened and what we can do to make a difference?

I am holding in my hands for the first time, the very first copy of my new book, Speedsuit Powers . It’s a teen fiction novel where the main character, Curtis, is the new kid at a new school dealing with bully issues.  It releases this December.  My prayer, hope and desire is that this book will help to positively impact urban youth culture.  That it will inspire, motivate and educate youth to see their lives differently and make new choices (or stand by decisions they’ve already made) which lead to true and lasting success.

The Death of Derrion Albert

When I heard about the beating death of Derrion Albert - an honor roll student with his eyes on college, who stayed out of trouble - I was saddened that we as African Americans would do this to ourselves and have such blatant disregard for the life of others. Let me stop here and say, that after having traveled to Africa, China and Europe and having done some studying of various genocides around the globe, the underlying root issue of violence is not skin color - but the faulty condition of the human heart and mind which frames and contextualizes our daily circumstances to promote ourselves at the expense - and even detriment of another. I need to make this distinction, because there are those who believe that black people are simply savages. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the issue is that under certain conditions, people have a tendency to act savagely.