Out With The Old.

It’s always when we get to the end of the year we tend to reflect on it. We wonder what went right, what went wrong, and what went “huh?”. It seems that for me and a lot of friends and family, 2005 was particularly harsher that we expected.

For the first time, I’m finding myself thanking God the year is over in. For once, Saturday just won’t be the end week, or month, it’ll be the end of the year. I get to start fresh on Sunday with God.

It also a time I think about what I need and want to take on, and what I need or want to let go of. I’ve discovered that time speeds up as one ages, so the same things essentially take longer to do (or more accurately, you don’t do them so fast as you used to). So time is the bandit in the night, and priorities must be adjusted accordingly.

For me, it’s going to be a lot less writing, but a lot more wifing (that's the noun wife, which I made a verb). I’m also going to give up a “me” project in favor for an “us” project, as I feel that I would like to do more collaborative work.

Some of this is sad, but the good news is that if I do it right. I will be giving up something that’s primarily for me and replacing it with something a lot of people can share.

Boasting About Tomorrow.

Each year, to usher in the New Year, I make it a point to do something different from the year before, and something I have never done before. One year, it was Costa Rica. Another year, it was watchnight service at church. Then there was the year I just decided to walk three miles to a friend’s house for a New Year’s Day luncheon.

Last year, while still in Florida, I planned that I would spend New Year’s by myself with a bottle of champagne on Miami Beach watching the stars. I had it all planned out weeks before. I had the champagne in the fridge, the champagne glass at the ready, and the beach towel already in the car. I had told all my friends not to expect me at the typical New Year’s Eve club events because I HAD PLANS.

On December 30, I caught a flu the likes of which I had never experienced. On December 31, one of my managers insisted I leave work early because I sounded like Doc Holiday with my coughing and sneezing.

By the time I got home, after making a pitstop at the store for some medicine, I had a fever and was absolutely exhausted. I passed out in bed and remained there for hours.

My saving grace was that a friend of a friend who I had extended an invitation to stay for the holidays. She checked in on me and made sure I had something to eat. She also checked my mail and took calls. I was that incoherent.

As I lay in bed that night, I though of the humor of it all. I watched as the clock came, said “hi” to midnight, and kept going into 2005. The car stayed parked and the champagne stayed chilled in the fridge. I couldn’t have gotten out of my house under my own power if it had been burning. My fantasies of Miami Beach drinking Asti remained just that.

As I walked to work this morning, I thought what a tough year 2005 had been for me and just about everyone I know, and about 2006 and all it held in store. I remembered where I was almost a year ago, dreaming of South Beach. I have my plans and aspirations for 2006 to be sure, but I’ll check with God first.

Cup of the World.

Last week the final team group for the FIFA 2006 World Cup, taking place in Germany,
were announced last week. Amongst the teams from every corner of the globe that were
blessed to be amonsgt the 32 teams, five were African.

There is no other sports event on the planet that give me hope of global peace and unity that the FIFA World Cup. It is always such a wonderful feeling when the one-in-four-years event rolls around again. It is the only sporting event final that the legitimately has the word World in it.

It’s the only event I can think of that is truly democratic. The country with the most resources doesn’t always win or come second place.

More than that it they time I really see nations coming together. Their differences put aside (albeit temporarily) and all scores are settled on the field and everyone plays by the same rules.

One of my lifelong dreams was to go to a World Cup match. I was blessed enough to have that opportunity (several times) when the World Cup was hosted by the United States in 1994. Boston was one of the host cities. I remember that for many American that were non-immigrant or who had just lived for generations in America. The idea of an event being bigger than the Super Bowl or the World Series, or even the Olympics was unheard of.

Suddenly, they were seeing neighbors they never knew they had, emerging with a motley of flags and skin tones and languages. Everyone had a team. Either the country you were originally from, or the region, had some representation in the contest. Again, I was blessed to have both Nigerian and the United States in the World Cup. And for a few intoxicating months in 1994, every Argentine, Greek, Italians, Mexican, Japanese, Arabian, Jamaica, Dutch, German and Costa Rican was my brother or sister.

My Old Coat.

Today I walked home and the temperature was in the low teens. It was officially bitingly cold. My ensemble included solid boots, thermal underwear (a.k.a. long johns), an undershirt, a sweater, a windbreak, and finally my old army coat. Of course I couldn’t forget my hat and gloves.

I had to thank God, because after two years in Florida I actually found my tolerance for cold had increased. My wife has a lot to do with that. It’s harder to stay warm when it’s just you, even when it’s in the fifties.

My old coat is old because I’ve had it for close to nine years. I don’t think I’ve managed to keep anything that long. I have either donated items or worn them out.

The dark blue is no longer so dark, and reminds me a bit of myself: weathered and a bit frayed here and there, but still functional and reliable.

I thought about what if I didn’t have this coat. Frankly, it’s my only coat. I would probably freeze to death. I would be another statistic of Mister Freeze.

I thanked God for a warm loving house to go to, and a warm woman waiting. I thanked God for the privilege of getting up way too early to a job that I love, because it uses the stuff in my brain that just yearns to be used.

Other coats have come and gone. All more flashy and all more expensive. This one was earned, and I couldn’t have bought it if I wanted to. Thank God for my old coat.

Chico Is The Man!

The other night I bested, with the grace of God, 17-degree Boston weather en route to pick up my car at the shop. After persuading the bus driver to drop me right at the gas station repair shop, I eagerly awaited to pick up my car that I had to wait three months to take to the shop in the first place.

I greeted the owner of Chico’s and he welcomed me warmly. When I went to the cashier to pay, I realized that I didn’t have my debit card with me. After calling the house and getting the answering machine, twice, I began to dread the walk back home, in the cold. Plus, I would have to make the frigid trip BACK to Chico’s the next day to pick up my car.

Suddenly, the owner came out and asked me what was up. Why was I still here? I told him that I forgot my debit card, so I would have to come back. He asked me where was home, and I told him it was just about a twenty minute walk away.

Without breaking stride he pulled out my key out of the repair order, handed it to me, and said it was too cold to walk tonight.

He never mentioned coming back soon or anything like that. Granted I was a customer he knew, but it was the ease by which he did what he did that lifted my soul. With all the turmoil in the world, and the hype the media adds to it. It was a blessing to experience such a random act of kindness.

Waiting for Something Big.

Yesterday’s sermon was poignant enough that I am still thinking about it, more than 24 hours later with even great depth. The main point to make one dream so big that one would spend one’s whole life waiting for it.

More importantly, that big dream had to come from God, which is from someone outside and greater than oneself. So profound I thought. What could be greater than having kids? And why wasn’t that big enough? Well, kids as a dream is easy, having kids that is. Raising someone else’s is another story.

So as the sermon went one, I began to think, what was bigger than wanting to have kids as a dream that would or could possibly take my entire life. I was baffled.

Then the pastor helped by asking us to consider things the we found disturbing in life. Aha! I had a few things. However, the first was the disappearing of West Africa, particularly Nigeria as an emerging nation.

Since independence from British colonial rule 45 years ago, the economic of Nigeria has gradually wound down. Despite the best of intentions and the human capital brimming in the land, corruption and oil have been the specters the have tormented young men from my fathers generation to me own.

Now the commitment to something so big, the pastor went on to explain, would require “dying to our lesser dreams.” There is only so much time and energy in this life to do it all. The big dreams, especially those beyond ourselves, which are those so big we cannot accomplish them on our own, require the dedication of time that is our lives.

When The World Is Coming Down.

Thanksgiving is over and of course the Christmas hustle begins. There is some much good in world that it unfortunately only seems to see the light of day, maybe during the holiday season. I was reading in the newspaper that the reason people think the world may be going to the dogs isn’t necessary because things are so bad, everywhere, all the time. Closure to the truth is that in the world we live in good news doesn’t sells nearly as well as bad news. Conflict is the reason anything move, sparks, or titillates.

So are things really getting that bad or is the media just focusing on what gets peoples attention. Well, I know why I don’t watch as much TV or movies as I used to. It’s the same reason I abhor spam and junk mail. I no longer have the bandwidth to take in such as mass of non-essential in my life.

Of course, one man’s non-essential is another woman’s passion.