August 28th Revisited

 This Saturday is August 28, 2021! Summer is almost over, and I am getting ready to go back to work on Monday (which happens to be my 80^th birthday!).

I can always tell when summer ends and my birthday is approaching because we get so much rain here from the hurricanes moving up the coast from Florida. And, although I worked most of this summer, I did as usual get to read a lot of books. 

My favorite was Tayari Jones' novel Leaving Atlanta, a story about how the 1979 - 1981 child murders affected the lives of other children and teenagers living in Atlanta at that time. 

In addition to Ms. Jones' book, I reread an old favorite of mine, Behind the Dream, although this time, instead of reading it, I listened to it on audible read by the author Clarence B. Jones (who like me, was born in Philadelphia.) It's a book I encourage everyone to read for a look behind the scenes of the 1963 March on Washington.

In this book, Jones tells some little-known stories about events that occurred on this date fifty-three years ago. For instance, Jones reveals the amazing story of how he happened to find himself inside a bank vault in New York City on a Saturday in 1963 - when the bank was closed; how Martin Luther King Jr. managed to convince Jones, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer, to join the civil rights movement; why John Lewis changed the speech he wrote for this occasion; and who wrote the headline for the New York Times which read: Today Washington was invaded by a Gentle Army.  

And finally even though - or rather - despite the fact that I am turning 80 in a couple of days, I am determined to continue reading, writing, and learning all I can during the rest of my time here on Planet Earth.

Be safe Everyone!

Today is August 28!

Today is August 28! Summer is almost over and I am getting ready to go back to work next Wednesday. And although I didn’t travel much further than Atlantic City this summer, I did, as anticipated, read a lot of books.

One of my favorites was Jesmyn Ward’s Sing Unburied Sing, a story about a young African American woman who is traveling with her two children across rural Mississippi to pick up their white father who has just been released from prison. Ward’s story is beautiful and haunting and as current as today’s headlines.

Another book I read was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Less by Andrew Sean Greer, which is a story about a gay author, Arthur Less, who decides to go on a trip around the world in an attempt to escape both the wedding of his ex-lover and his next birthday – his 50th!

Speaking of birthdays today is August 28 and the fifty-fifth anniversary of the March on Washington. I know that because of another book I read, Behind the Dream, which is a look at the events leading up to that March as experienced by Clarence B. Jones, friend, lawyer, and confidante to Dr. King who, if many of us have a way of turning into a god, Jones has a way of making human. Jones is also the man who smuggled MLK's "Letter" from the Birmingham jail in April of 1963.

Anyway, today is August 28 and the reason I keep mentioning the date is that in two days I will be celebrating a milestone birthday of my own, which reminds me of a conversation I had earlier this year.

“Mom-mom,” my oldest grandson asked, “how old are you?”

“Seventy-four.”

Michael was silent for a second or two, and then, “Mom-mom, I just did the math. You’re 76.”

“I am?” I said. And then, “Oh, my God you’re right! How did that happen?”

Which leads me to wonder how Greer could write an entire book about turning 50 when the double digits looming ahead of me seem like two knighted sentinels daring me to approach.

But after thinking about it, I have decided that I will approach 77, and I will conquer it, and then – OMG after 77 comes 78! 

My second book, Dear Elvis, a memoir about grief and loss, can be found at amzn.to/2uPSFtE