ok ok ok,
so i'm getting some flack for having so much time lapse between my blog entries. i'm SORRY!!! i didn't know people actually read this thing, so i'll be better, i promise. want some updates? well here goes...
i'm sitting in Bongo Java coffee house, living on the wi-fi until tomorrow when, God-willing, i'll be able to have a little faster access at the homefront. at that time, i must say, i'll be afraid that i will indeed become even more of a hermit. i will try not to become misanthropic, however. but it's getting harder. i mean...
can we talk?
i've had some really tough experiences lately. eye-opening experiences. i had an old professional colleague basically leave me out in the cold on a pretty substantial visionary issue by reversing fields in a business conversation and it threw me for a bit of a loop. the only saving grace is that i looked at it as The Creator showing me who was "real" and who was not--if you feel me. but it also taught me the important lesson of not saying one thing and doing another. it's one of the reasons i prefer ministry to preaching. it allows one to reach out to individuals without trying to tell them how to live--especially in areas that we all struggle with. but i will get over it, and i will survive.
A RYMAN MOMENT
ok, so i sang an hour "mini-concert" at the historic Ryman auditorium in downtown Nashville last Sunday. i performed for a Conference that was in town. we did the "jeff obafemi carr and Friends" thing again. and you know something? it was a straight out BLAST! i had young Maestro Lightford on the Keys, Rob Cureton on the Bass, and David "Smitty" Smith on the Drums. singing backup (the real stars) were Jenise Smith, Shonka Dukureh, Stefanie Adkerson, Alex Stadaker, Todd Suttles, and Brandon Singleton. also singing was Delali Potakey, who came down from Chicago and slayed the folks with an interpretative dance to "My Soul Has Been Anchored in The Lord" that i sang with Todd and Brandon harmonizing. man...it was so sick, i almost couldn't sing. standing O.
but THE moment came from a cut that is on my How Blak poetry cd called "Four Little Girls" that i wrote long before the Spike movie, about the little girls killed in the Birmingham Church. if you get the cd, my mom, Queen Mother Catherine Hayes Carr is singing under the words. she sings the spiritual "Soon I'll be done with the Trouble of the World." well, mom was in town, mom was in the house at the Ryman, and mom walked up the center stage steps, where the legendary DeFord Bailey (who was just--finally--inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame) became the first star of the Grand Old Opry (yes, a black man), and proceeded to totally silence the crowd with a 77-year old Tenor (danged near baritone) version of the spiritual. in critics terms:
Mama threw down. a ferocious standing ovation for the queen.
There was a rush at the cd table--it probably was because of Mom. LOL. that was a moment...yeah...a real moment. performing on stage with my mother, and preserving some of her voice on a cd. if you don't have it, get it and hear some true old school soul that'll make u shudder.
where was i?
oh yeah...so i've been learning lessons about humanity. i just got back in town from my daughter's fifth-grade graduation. i'd put a pic in, but i think you're not supposed to do all that cuz u never know who's looking at your stuff, you know. but trust me, i was proud, though stabbed. what does one do when one discovers one's child's name has been "altered" on the program. go figure, but to brothers out there trying to be good fathers: man, i'm with you. i am SO with you. one day, i'll write a book to explore our utter suffering. 'nuff said.
so i look at the work plans, and i review the vision, and i say, "Hmmm...could we add 8 more hours to the day?" then i thank God we can't, cuz i'd be pushing up soybeans by 40, guaranteed.
let's talk...for anyone who wants to. help me with a few things:
How do you balance your love for people with the hurt that comes when they turn on you?
How do you keep from just locking yourself in a room and not coming out except to buy food and cut the grass?
i did see DaVinci Code, though. i'll have to blog about that separately, tho.
God Bless... and please...hollah
obafemi
p.s. thanks T, for giving me the typos that slip through when my fingers are flying. i don't edit when writing 'cuz i'm scared i'll edit out my honesty. ;-)
