:: papa SAMMS

July 4th.

Independence Day for some, but I digress, as I don't want to delve into the issues of this very day for folks of color. Rather instead, I'll highlight a different sort of good on America's day of freedom: my dad's birthday. Jamaican born, by way of Kingston, July 4th was no day of independence. Rather, it was a day of birth. A day in which, sixty two years ago, my father was ushered into this world. A man of many facets and shades of character — good, bad, ugly and beautiful — my Dad is like no other man I know. The problem and the solution to many moments in his life, my Dad has managed to do the one thing he sought out to do: that is LIVE. He's LIVED a book-worthy life. Full of classic lifetime storylines infused with the pure unscripted drama of any of today's popular reality TV shows. Like a movie you cannot look away from, my Dad has been able to spin a life of not, necessarily, gold, but a life full of GOLDEN memories. And in all honesty, what is there to life but to LIVE the best version of it you can — even despite the bad and the gloomy days.

On that note, I'll end with this:

Happy Sixty Second Birthday Dad!

As always, I give my love. I hope that with every year you are blessed with that you make the most of it. So, enjoy this new chapter of life. Make it GREAT.

And to everyone else, happy independence day! —

:: Post Rationalizing(s)

"When you start to live outside yourself, it’s all dangerous.”

— Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden —