Books for the New Year

When you think no one is watching you, chances are that someone is. I ultimately realized this on New Year's Eve when a stranger empowered me with a gift of knowledge. Before heading to Washington, DC to welcome in 2010, Shamira and I made a stop in Maryland.

After the publication of a newspaper article back in August outlining my Fulbright plans in Jamaica, my mother was contacted by a woman who was interested in my research and wanted to pass on some books she thought might be beneficial. A relative nearby held some of the books for me until my return this winter. On New Year's Eve we picked up the books from my cousin's house and continued onward to meet and thank Mrs. Washington in person.

What we thought would be a short hello-thank you-goodbye, turned out to be something all together different. Immediately she welcomed Shamira and I into her home and demanded that we take whatever books we wanted off of her shelf. There was a sense of hesitation, but after she reiterated the fact that she had no one to bequeath them too, we got to work. One by one books started coming off the shelf. It began with popular titles, like "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" and continued to get more and more intricate. In the process we uncovered several books signed by Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Sterling Stuckey, Ivan Van Sertima and Jacob Carruthers. However, the crown jewel had to be the a 1903 edition of Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery." I would have gladly taken all the books and left the shelves bare but knowing that I could neither carry nor read all of them, we took what we could manage and decided it might be best to have her donate the rest of her collection to a public library (of course we suggested Howard University). I must say, in all, I think Shamira and I must have increased our personal collections by about 30 books each. The above photo is just a fraction of the books I brought back to Jamaica.

Now the real work begins. I know that I now have an obligation to be productive because someone has taken the time and effort to invest in my education. With 30 more books to read, on top of everything else, I guess I had better get crackin'. More reading, thinking, and producing; thats my New Years' Resolution.