It's me standing in front of Haycock mountain in the field where I used to play. In the field where I'll build my house one day. I picked this spot intentionally so I could look east, give thanks to the ancestors and meditate on the mountain in the morning as I'm writing. Can't wait to get back home so I can camp out at the old house, just behind the hedgerow, watch deer, rabbits, turtles and geese gaggling by the stream that flows into Tohee, finally overflowing into Lake Nockamixon. Can't wait, because I feel like my head's going to explode and I just might hurt somebody. It's been a long semester yo. Carole and I stood in this same field in the pouring rain this past winter, gathering brush and multiple rose that Dave (our brother) cut on the weekend when he wasn't working his regular j.o.b. We're a crew, Chapman C. Johnson & Sons & Daughters...working together to maintain and continue the legacy left to us by our parents. And oh yes, we have our differences and certainly don't always agree or get along, like most normal families, but when it comes time to handle business...we simply do. Perhaps it's because we are stake holders and know what's at stake--our land, our freedom our future for future generations to come. 
Can't wait to see Gracie. She's taken to calling her Nan every day to plan her 13th birthday party, check on my sanity and make sure I come home soon so she can wrap her arms around me. . Don't know if I've accomplished anything this semester as far as teaching is concerned. Tuesday, for instance, I stood in the quad outside my office listening to a group of students argue about their group presentation. They wanted my advice and what I didn't tell them was that at this point in the semester I barely can focus, let alone have any words of wisdom to bestow. But I listened to them speaking about their group process, which was trying everyone's patience and last nerve. The argument escalated and became quite heated. At one point it seemed as though they were going to throw blows. They talked over, under and around each other, refusing to listen... to each other or to me. I had to remind them that although Europeans hate each other, they manage to squash their differences long enough to let's say...enslave and colonize Africa. And now we, the descendants of this madness, kill and maim each other--on the continent and the diaspora over petty differences, like colors and territory we don't even own or he said/she said sour grapes. Greed Breeds Evil Deeds. There's too much to live for, too much work to do. Conflicts can be resolved if we stop, look and listen. Read history in order to avoid repeating it is also useful. It' just too easy to be the proverbial happy darky, sassy sapphire or xenophobic zip coon. So please yo, stop the coonin' and recognize, "there's fyah on the mountain and nobody seems to be on the run." One day when the river overflows we'll wish we had....
