Obvious issues are vocalized and worn proudly, “Yeah, I am working on it, just not there YET.”
“Sure let’s talk all about it…my mom was grassroots organizer who never had time for her five kids because she was too busy passing out flyers and signing people up to vote. So I had to take care of the entire family instead of being a teenager. Thus, I wild’d out when I graduated high school. I started drag racing, doing tattoos, drinking, smoking, whatever. My real dream was to become a food scientist.”
Question #1 What two qualities failed this imaginary person, keeping him from achieving said dream?
Possible answers: Confidence from Encouragement & Support. Direction and Tenacity. (This qualities are capitalized to respect them as individual personalities.)
I marvel at women bosses. Female business moguls, lady tycoons. In my head, somehow, the partriachal structure of both my five person nuclear family and America at large scrunch their nose up, like “What? Lol.” Lady tycoon? The accepted and traditional career paths are as follows: teacher, lawyer, nurse, home economics teacher, seamstress, banker, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, and teacher.
To pave a path, to pioneer, one must be fearless, and certain.
Sunday, December 18th, 2016 at 1:00 p.m., at Jackson Street Church of Christ, a exceptionally MOVING and BEAUTIFUL memorial service took place in honor of Gloria Charles née Gloria Carr, my husband’s cousin Sugar Dumpling.
Sugar Dumpling was one of those Lady Tycoons.
She was BEAUTIFUL.
She was elegant.
She was particular.
She was glowing in the large framed photograph in the center table surrounded by her loved onze who had gone on before she.
I had barely known her.
Yet I cried like a baby that ran outta milk on her grandma while her parents were thirty minutes away at the mall and nothing could be done to make it better! Her life said treat yourself special, treat others special. Be fearless. Laugh. Love what you love. Be particular. Demand the best. Live out loud.
Gloria Charles glowed.
Little Glow worm.
Her obituary proclaims that she left the south for Hollywood!
Google her.
She played Richard Pryor’s girlfriend in Brewster’s Millions.
She had Confidence, Direction, and Tenacity.
One of my most favorite quotes is from Oscar Wilde, “Beauty for Beauty’s sake.”
Her cousin Jeff and her brother Hugh spoke of her surrounding herself with the best, with beauty, with cleanliness ( she learned this from her mother, Aunt Pa). “Fine and dandy like candy.” was quoted as one of Gloria’s favorite sayings. She loved romantic Soul songs from the Commodore, Earth, Windows, and Fire, the Dramatics, and Deniece Williams.
Can’t you just love a person you never met but who lived full of love and tenderness!
Truly, it moved me.
That Saturday night I dreamed I was at a church event watching my students perform a play on ice. My dad was putting the babies in the car and I ran back in the church to pee really quick before we left. I was in the bathroom when I saw these black square glasses I recognized as my grandmother’s (in reality, she is deceased). I pulled the glasses out and they were attached to a beautiful pink Bible case that was embroidered with 1 Corinthians 12. I put it back down, washed my hands, and started a conversation with a teacher from a school in Murfreesboro. I shared with her my (actual) desire to create a Spoken Word Scripture team.
Well when I got up and read 1 Corinthians 12, Paul preaches about how we are all members of One body with different administrations or roles, but One Spirit. Romans 12 speak of the same: differing gifts and using your gifts Excellently!
“Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others. God has given each of us the ability to do certain things WELL. Sone if God has given you the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can–as often as your faith is strong enough to receive a message from God. If you gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are teacher, do a good job of teaching. If you are a preacher, see to it that your sermons be strong and helpful. If God has given you money, be generous in helping others with it. If God has given you administrative ability and put you in charge of the work of others, take the responsibility seriously. Those who offer comfort to the sorrow ingredients should do so with Christian cheer. Don’t just pretend that you love others: really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Be glad for all God is planning for you. Romans 12:6-12
More to come…
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