Little Obama

As he came to center stage, the audience chuckled at the sharp little boy with the demeanor of a young gentleman. He represents the nation on a critical issue – sickle cell anemia. I’ve bragged on him a bit before on this blog, but this past weekend he made us all proud as he addressed a crowd of thousands. Gabriel George was a speaker at the North American Division Youth & Young Adult Leadership Summit this past weekend at the Adams Mark in downtown Dallas, TX. He spoke with ease not a tremor in his tone, and the message he brought was one of hope. Gabriel has used his disease in powerful ways and addressed men and women of great respect and authority. “And I hope someday to meet future President Barack Obama…” he ignited congregation in hysterical laughter. After the uproar, came the pitch – Praise God from whom all blessings flow. As Gabriel advocates for sickle cell research, he’s multitasking as a vessel God is using to bring real solid hope we can believe in – the powerful healing hand of God.

**PHOTO TAKEN BY JAVITS**

In the Mirror of Friendship

You Can’t Know Me

It was probably one of the last few times she actually tried to dress up, and she was already running behind for no good reason. With one final glance in the mirror she raced down the stairs and into her junky ’97 Nissan Sentra to head clear across town, which by the way isn’t just any town we’re talking htown. Before she can make it out of The Creole complex she has a tiny mishap which leaves a faint mark on the car that was directly behind her. “Try checking out the rear view mirror, like you just did upstairs,” she thinks while quickly exiting the vehicle and calming things down with the vehicle owner who happened to be temporarily parked outside the laundry room. After exchanging information, she’s back on the road and finally headed to an old high school buddy’s college graduation reception party.

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“No! We aren’t doing this again! Not tonight, I’m too tired and I just can’t bear to rehearse this repeat episode even one more time,” shouting at the top of her lungs like she’s making up for a missed terrible two tantrum. “What did I do this time?” he’s asked this question a thousand times and tonight he miserably musters it again. They are back at it again. The cliché car drama regurgitates all over southbound 610 as she pushes the gas pedal just a tad bit harder. It’s quite amazing how the defining moments of their friendship all have mostly occurred in the car over the course of road trips. Picking up and dropping off…these segments form a fundamental basis of what they share.

A Time NOT to Laugh

So it was one of those long days where at the end of it everyone just ends up loopy. The weather was off, my teacher kept confusing me and someone else – so not my identical twin, and then there was this documentary. Ok, so after 5 law students finally figured out how to operate the volume we started watching The Supreme Injustices. Something totally not funny in the film triggered my laughing. I could not stop. Seriously.

My sister and I have this problem, she worse than I. We’ll be in church and someone does or says or looks something funny and you’ll see her shoulders start to shake up and down, and then before you know it the entire pew appears to be bouncing up and down. It’s vehemently contagious.

So I decided to Google “how to stop laughing” and sure enough, there are rules for these things. Some of them I tried, and failed…others just made me laugh more.