The perfect date movie!



Women of the world I've given you a little more than 24 hours notice. Prepare to humor/entertain/placate/whatever or simply witness the reemergence of the kid/nerd/dork that lies buried in your men until a movie like this one hits the theaters.

I can't wait!

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If you live in a city, you don't have to travel too far before you drive by, walk by, or take a train past an area of town where people are living at or beneath the poverty level. Having enough money for a roof over one's head is not the primary concern in these areas. Having enough to eat and/being able to feed your kids is also right up there.

But hunger's reach isn't only contained to urban centers. According to FeedingAmerica.org hunger has its claws on the following groups/areas:

• Children
• The Suburbs
• Senior Citizens
• The Working Poor
• Low Income Families

As stated by the Hungersite.com, in 2005:

In 2005:

• 37 million people (12.6%) were in poverty

• 12.9 million (17.8%) children under the age of 18 were in poverty

• 20.5 million (11.3%) of people aged 18-64 were in poverty

• 3.6 million (10.1%) seniors 65 and older were in poverty, an increase from 3.5 million in 2004

Poverty is forcing millions of Americans into a hunger crisis. Their hunger emergency is defined by food insecurity, which is the lack of access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Families find themselves buying cheaper and less nutritious food, or cutting entire meals out of their diet, just to make ends meet. Increasing over time, this pattern leads to chronic malnutrition, affecting children and families in profoundly destructive ways

Although the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, millions of children in our nation are food insecure. Today, many public food-assistance programs and private organizations strive to meet the nutritional needs of vulnerable children, but more needs to be done to fight child hunger.

You can learn more about the global epidemic of hunger and the efforts to turn the tide on the HungerSite's Facebook page.

Tyson (yes, the Chicken company) has a nice page dedicated to hunger relief efforts and a list of resources on how you can participate. You should check out their hunger relief efforts.

This epidemic is eye-opening. The statistics are overwhelming. That fact that children are involved is downright heart wrenching. What can one do in the face of all this?

You can do your part, however large or small. Check out the links I've listed here and click the icon at the top of the post or in the far right-hand column of the page for more information. You can also check out Heifer International's website for additional information and efforts.

Peace.

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I was shopping in Home Depot's gardening section on my lunch break. It looked like an elephant had torn through the place. Gardening is the new home renovating in this new economy. If you don't know what I mean, look it up.

I settled on a shiny little Zamioculcas for it's air purifying properties and quickly went to check out so I could find some shade. While I was being rung up the woman at the cash register asked, "You're taken, aren't you?"

I looked around for a second not sure she was talking to me and then said, "Oh, yeah, yeah! More than taken..." I motioned down at the ring on my left hand.

"Ahh, all the good ones...it's always the same story. Oh well," she lamented more to her fellow cashier than to me. I smiled awkwardly and swiped my card.

"Have a good one," I said as I walked off.

"You've still got it, you know? I want you to know that."

I laughed, told her thank you over my shoulder and walked to my car. I think that was the first compliment I've gotten in about 8 months. I didn't know marriage takes "it" away from you. I thought getting comfortable, and turning fat and pudgy in marriage did.

Holler Back.

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For my first giveaway: The Makes Me Wanna Holler Happy Mother's Day Giveaway (phew, that was a lot).

The drawing consisted of the mother in my house, my wife, placing her hand into the vacuum-sealed (not really) Gladware container filled with contestant entries and withdrawing the following name:

Nerd Girl

Nerd Girl needs to respond to this post, via the button directly beneath this paragraph, within the next 24hours (approximately Tuesday, April 28th at 12:30 pm, EST) in order to redeem the prize: A $50 Amazon.com Gift Card! Please include a WORKING EMAIL ADDRESS in your response.





Congratulations, Nerd Girl! And thank you to all who participated!

PS - I'm working on something for Father's Day with a couple of different partners, if something gels you'll definitely hear about here at MakesMeWannaHoller.com!

Peace. Thanks for supporting. And please, keep reading.

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I didn't forget...the wife and I argued for most of last week. At the time, the last thing I was interested in doing was dedicating a post to her.

The reality is that I couldn't have done any of this without her, especially since men can't give birth (at least this man can't no matter what science might come up with). The last in my series from last week: my beautiful, mohawk rockin', opinionated, outspoken, opinionated (yes, I said it twice and the next one too) outspoken, wife who has told me point blank on numerous occasions, "If we ever break up, I'm coming back to you for more kids because you make cute babies." If she ever started a blog of her own I'd be finished, but she's too busy trying to take over Corporate America so I'm good for the next several years.

BTW - we made up.

I provoke this look several times a week. I like to call it the Clearly, You've Lost Your Damn Mind glare.


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I know that since the election of President Obama the whole world has been "introduced" to the existing for hundreds of years' reality concept of African Americans loving each other and existing in a functioning family unit. (Scratching my head) This is all I've ever known --- growing up, and now as a grower-upper of little ones. It's also what I was surrounded by in my neighborhood, in my schools and in my church. Even in those instances when the family unit wasn't "complete", the love was overflowing. This wasn't the stuff of fairy tales. My family was no Cosby Show, nor was anyone else's I knew...well, there were a few. It was just normal, boring, everyday reality that I've come to cherish more and more in my old age.

And now I'm passing it on to my own family. I thank God that I'm able to. Not everyone is as fortunate --- black, white, brown, green, pink, purple, polka dot or otherwise.

We're at the end of my week of mostly photos. Happy Fatherhood Friday and Happy Friday.


Check out the Dads that are doing it well, over at Dad-Blogs.com!
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I used to make fun of someone I knew in college for always taking pictures but never being in any of them. As Dad and the in-house photographer I now understand why he wasn't. Here's a few self-portraits that I managed to pull off during a few moments I was able to steal away by myself. I like working in sepia, it makes everything look classic.


Me, trying to look deep.



Practicing my new smile thanks to Invisalign, but looking bloated and gassy at the same time.

Where I spend most of my time: behind the wheel carting around children (that are mine) versus cruising. Gas is too high for that anyway.

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When my daughter was born my wife joked, "Who would've ever thought a chubby, little, white girl would steal your heart?"

She's neither as chubby or pale as she was back in those newborn days. But she still has my heart.



Hangin' out in her play-cousin's backyard.














Happy Earth Day...

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I've grown soft on my son as of late and I'm not sure why. Maybe because I spent his winter and spring breaks with him and had a chance to let him talk to me. He hasn't stopped doing any of the annoying things he does. Despite our efforts, he still isn't performing the way we'd like him to in school. I write more about my daughter here (because as a baby she's got me on my toes), but my son was around long before she arrived (a silly little 5 year old with ears as big as his mother's when we first met) and he was the one who unknowingly taught me the "how" of fatherhood. Along the way, I taught him how to swim (took him for lessons), got him hooked on superheroes, help him with his homework as best I can, keep him in line, and do my best to nurture his dreams --- often by telling him what he isn't doing to attain them.

Other than yesterday's post I don't really have anything to say this week here on this blog. I've been posting furiously since January and the reality is that it's hard to listen when you're talking so much. I need this week to be a quiet one where I listen and hopefully receive some divine guidance on a few things that have been eluding me.

But I won't stop blogging. I'm just going to do so without too many words other than maybe a caption or two. Below are a couple of pics of my boy being my boy. I love him dearly. He is exactly what he is supposed to be: a boy.











Coming home from his favorite: school.


Stay tuned this week for more pics.

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I HATE playgrounds primarily because growing up in Chicago at my parents' house I had a backyard with six trees and a deck that could hold about eight people. All I had to do was walk out of my house and I could play tether ball (yes, tether ball), run soccer drills using the trees as defenders on the opposing team, sprint back and forth up and down the length of the yard, play T-ball with a wiffle ball so it didn't go into anyone else's yard. I even had a badminton net strung up between two trees. I'm not that upset that I sucked at badminton. I didn't need a park --- a place we went to for barbecues or some kid's birthday party and the playground was where I went for recess during the week when I was in school. Taking my kids to the park/playground for them to play and stretch their legs is a constant reminder that I live in a temporary dwelling, don't have the space for them to just walk out of their door to go play on their land, and as a middle-class New Yorker, I'm currently priced out of anything suitable for my family. But they're kids. Thankfully, they don't care one way or another. For now.

Problem Number 2: During the week, playgrounds are run by mothers and nannies. Often on my days off and on days when I get home early from work I take my girl to one of a few playgrounds in the area to run off some of her steam. When I enter the playground I'm on display in one of two ways: I'm looked at like the Catch of the Day and 9 times out of 10 I have no desire to be at the end of any of these admirers' fishing lines; or I'm viewed with disdain by the women who've claimed a public, asphalted patch of earth (or mulch or athletic turf) with dirty swings and slides as their territory. Why are you here? Their looks say. Don't you have a job? Where is your wife? (I always make sure to wear my ring when I'm there) Is that even your daughter? (Several shades of complexion separate us, but she looks just like me and calls me, "Daddy" every chance she gets, so yes, she is) I think I make things worse when I run around with babygirl, hoist her on my shoulders so she can ride piggyback, play follow the leader and toss her 35-pound frame high into the air above my head and catch her easily. I don't just tell her to go play, I play with her. Please don't be jealous. Yes, ladies, I have a relationship with my daughter (and my son) that involves more than simply picking her up from daycare or slotting out some time for her on the weekends.

What would solve my dilemma would be to be able to give my kids what I had and that much more. With a high credit score and money in the bank buying a house is just a matter of finding the right one for the right price in the right city/state (a completely overwhelming, arduous and sometimes infuriating process). But it is happening this year. But giving my daughter and whatever little friends she'll accumulate over time, the means to have a ball in her (my) backyard? That would be a dream come true. A Kid's Creation Three Ring Adventure Playground Set would be the manifestation of this dream. Made of quality, real materials, this is something you can put in your backyard that will stand the test of time, the elements and a gaggle of destructive children. My buddies over at Dad-Blogs.com have worked hard to make this possible for one lucky mom and/or dad. I hope I end up being the one. This way my kids can have what I did and that much more. Then, I'll be able to check one more thing off my I-Am-A-Half-Decent-Father-After-All list. And as a handy person I'd enjoy the challenge of putting it all together and refusing everyone's help.

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Q-Tip of the legendary Tribe Called Questis back with a vengeance on his new album, The Renaissance. We Fight/We Love featuring Rafael Saadiqis one of my favorite tracks on the album. The other day I heard the remix on Hot97 during DJ Enuff's Rush Hour while I was driving and nearly swerved into a tree (not really). I tracked the remix down and found on imeem.com. If good, quality hip-hop and/or Q-Tip is your thing check it out. It's got a hint of The Jackson's Heartbreak Hotel sampled into it.

WARNING: There are a 1 or 2 non-derogatory curse words here so don't blast this if you're at work or around the kids.

Happy Friday.

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Photo courtesy of Photobucket.
This hasn't been one of my better weeks. Each day has had a theme unto itself. Yesterday was Run Around In Circles In Vain & Have No One (who matters) Give a Damn Day. Monday was Intense Self Doubt Day. And Tuesday was Get Attacked on Facebook Day.

In the back of my mind I knew the last one had to be possible. But of course, I never thought it would involve me.

Someone I barely knew (other than "hi" and "bye") in college "friended" me on Facebook when I first signed up way back when. I was leery as most were most who were new to it and didn't understand it. But we connected on writing and all was fine. As Facebook is primarily a device to help me market this blog, I ignore most of the chatter on the site unless it involves the wife or some of our closest real friends and family that actually do exist. As time has progressed, this one person's chatter has become alarming noticeable, but again, it's the computer, I don't even know where she lives. It doesn't affect me, right?

Wrong.

A fraternity brother called me on Tuesday in a panic to inform my name showed up in a barely decipherable Facebook note and I was being slammed for a few things: commenting on a photo of myself, breaking someone's arm, owing money, living in the past, and being the originator of black culture, among other things. I also have until June 7th of this year to respond to all this otherwise a class action suit will be filed against me.

???!!!

Clearly this person is going though a crisis/episode of some sort which I don't care to detail here. And I hope the person gets the necessary help to move forward with their lives. After wrapping my mind around it, I made the decision to remove myself from the situation, not respond and go on with my life. Especially since the comments pertaining to me were merely a blip in a series of notes that were written all day long over the course of a day. However someone else I went to college with was hit with potentially career-ending accusations.

So here we are, all of us sitting on the Net, not knowing each other from a can of paint (as New Yorkers say) or a hill of beans (as everyone else says), all interconnected by keystrokes --- connected and vulnerable in a way we would never allow in real life --- unless you're the type of person who is okay with having strangers at your dinner table with you. It's not my cup of tea, personally.

We all have our own separate lives, wishes, wants, families, etc. To have that so easily infringed upon is frightening. And here's a newsflash: the more activity you have on Facebook, the more you get indexed by Google. So now not only are you on front street on Facebook you're also showing up in Google searches.

If not for long, I've now had a dance with the other side of social networking and, right now (hopefully not for long) it's left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I've begun to shave down my Friends list. I'm deciding who I really know and do I want these people accessing me, my friends, my photos and my life? It's like donating clothing you either haven't worn or haven't worn in the last year: It's liberating.

Be careful who your friends are.

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Check out my latest position (excuse the pun) on this subject over at BlackAndMarriedWithKids.com.

Peace.

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That was a mouthful wasn't it?





I've never had a problem giving gifts to my mother on Mother's Day, but I've always struggled with the mother who sleeps beside me. During my first Mother's Day with her, when we were just girlfriend and boyfriend, she asked me what I'd be getting her for Mother's Day.

I blankly replied, "You're not my mother."

She was speechless. It actually took me a minute to realize that mother's who didn't birth you expect gifts from you (not the kids) for the children they birth because of you. I haven't done so well in this department during the years I've known my wife. And just like they say about those who can't being great teachers, I'd like to make the life of one lucky person a little easier.

Announcing the MakesMeWannaHoller Happy Mother's Day $50 Gift Card Giveaway. I've decided to throw my hat into the blogger-contest bandwagon (something I swore I would never do) and offer a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card to one (1) winner for use towards your gift the moms you love: the one that made you and/or the one that made your kids, or whatever you want. Amazon.com gift cards can be used at Amazon.com (obviously) and at Endless.com (not so obvious), their online shoe source. Endless.com is a place where you can buy shoes, bags, and all other kids of accessories women like.

So how does someone enter this contest?

The Rules (you can do any one or all of the following):

1. Subscribe to this blog. Then let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
   
2. Add me to your blogroll. Then let me know here in the comments section of this post.
   
3. Grab my badge or the contest button (a smaller version of the graphic above) and place it on your site. Then let me know your website in the comments section of this post. Remember, your comment is your entry. Here's the code for the contest button:
   
   <a href="http://www.makesmewannaholler.com/2009/04/mmwh-mothers-day-50-gift-card-giveaway.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll130/aesop927/MMWHContests2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>
   
4. Follow me via Google FriendConnect in the far right hand column of this page. Let me know in the comments section of this post. Remember, your comment is your entry.
5. If you've already done 1-6 or even if you haven't, you can Tweet Me! Follow me on Twitter and/or Twitter about this post (up to 4 times max on separate days during the duration of the contest). Let me know by leaving your Twitter URL in the comments section below (if you follow or each time you Tweet). Remember, your comment is your entry.

At the very least you can submit one (1) entry to this contest and at the max, nine (9) entries. The more the merrier!

This contest begins April 13, 2009 and will end April 24, 2009 at 11:59 pm. The winner will be drawn at random and announced on Monday, April 27, 2009. Please make sure to visit MakesMeWannaHoller on this date. You will have exactly 24 hours to redeem your prize. Should this not occur, I'll have another drawing and will announce a new winner (who will also have 24 hours to respond) and so on.

The MMWH Happy Mother's Day $50 Giftcard Giveaway is open to US residents 18 years and older. Must have a valid, working email address to participate. Promotion is void where prohibited.

Good Luck!



PS - Please limit your comments on this post to entries only, thank you. All others will be deleted at the discretion of the administrator (me).


PPS - This contest is OVER. No more entries are being taken. Thanks to all who participated. Check back on Monday, 4/27 for the winner.

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Today, just before dawn, my wife's paternal grandmother lost her battle with emphysema and passed. My wife had been at her bedside at the hospital for most of this week along with her father and sisters. My grandmother by marriage was a spitfire woman who was a beautiful relic of the Harlem of old --- good times and wild nights at the Savoy and The Cotton Club. Last year while visiting her home I was agog over her photos from yesteryear. I asked her, "Did James Van Der Zee take these?" She gave me a brusque laugh and said, "I looked good didn't I?"

You still do grandma. You still do.

All of my grandparents were gone from this life before I reached adulthood, so it's a blessing that my wife had all but one as an adult. But that means nothing in the face of losing your grandmother, your father's mother, especially when you just saw her. Even when you know it's going to happen, as we did.

So of course my wife cried and I told her to let it out. I took her cellphone from her so she could stop texting family and just held her until the tears subsided. And then I did what I always do. I made her laugh.

Yesterday evening I had to leave the hospital to pick up the kids and get them situated for the night. This morning I was able to catch my wife up on last night's episodes of The Office and 30 Rock and the premiere of Parks & Recreation. She laughed. I then had her go through her left-eyebrow-cocking exercises. I have been a master of this art since the sixth grade. This exercise consisted of me holding down her right eyebrow while she raised both of them and saying sternly, "Push it out! C'mon, almost...almost..." We did 10 reps of this but never made it to the third set.

I didn't set out to make her laugh. It's just what I dowhen she's not driving me to daydream about throwing her from a rooftop. It eased the pain momentarily and allowed her enough distraction to go back to sleep. I dropped my son off at his basketball camp and I'll probably take my BossLady of the house to the park to run off her steam and give the wife the room she needs to help out her father. Or I'll do whatever she needs as husbands (and wives) are supposed to do in times like these.

If you have a chance today, put a smile on the face of your wife/husband/kids/cousins/friends/lover/dog (no cats)/whomever. They'll appreciate it.

I'm signing off until next week, folks. Happy GOOD Friday, Happy Fatherhood Friday, Happy Friday.

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Even though this is blog is not about cats, about a year ago, I wrote about my frustration over the return of my wife's cat to my home after I thought we had found a new home for her. Readers Dugg and Stumbled It without any prompting from me and it remains one of the top four posts read everyday on this blog.

Last Friday, I received what I can only describe as Hater Mail because I don't believe it qualifies as actual Hate Mail. After landing on my post after Googling something about cats they apparently overlooked the theme of the blog and didn't find the humor in what I posted. This is his/her comment below written by Anonymous as always.

Anonymous said...

A lot of people hate cats because they have never had the oppurtunity to be around them, and therefore assume everything bad they've heard to be true. Other people are scared of cats, and others hate them because cats are independant and do their own thing. You cannot control a cat, so its much easier to get an animal that will become your lapdog.(Excuse the pun)

What you have posted here expresses that perfectly, you people cannot control everything, c[a]ts are just your way of venting it.

Huh? When seeking to educate or at the very least be taken seriously, one should never use the words, "you people" in their argument unless stating a location such as, "You people over there standing under that tree." One should also remember to include the "a" when writing the word, "cats" (see the last sentence of the above comment). Yes, my post was about cats, as most if not all of the comments were about cats. But no one said anything about the people who own cats (other than hating them). Our Anonymous Spinster felt the need to bring all of us into it. And this was my response:

E.Payne said...

@Anonymous - I hate cats because I have allergies and so do my kids. I hate cats because they knock everything over. But truthfully I have no ill will towards them as long as they are not in my house. My life - my choice - my opinion. It has nothing to do with control. As a husband and a father I yielded control long ago. I can't and I won't speak for anyone else. This is also a humor piece.

And of course they didn't respond. Saying more or saying worse would've given cats entirely too much "control" over my life. A person once told me that having your furniture shredded by a cat that still had its claws gave it "character." I don't know about you but looking at the springs in my couch (something I have seen thanks to a cat) is not my idea of character.

I Hate Cats. (wink)


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It doesn't get much better than this.

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Below are the results from the poll I took last week.




I'm happy to report that the majority found that their love lives have gotten better since marriage. But it was a very small majority. Being a man and knowing how men think I'm intrigued to learn a little bit more about these results. Here are 2 follow up polls. Please respond the one that applies to you. And just like before, it's anonymous.







Check back for the results and more questions. There's a method to the madness.

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Click below to cast your vote:





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Way back when...when the little girl was just a passing thought in my mind (and I had no idea who her mother would be), when my son was hardly a consideration because he was simply "this woman's kid," I tripped the lights fantastic all over the sidewalks and subways of New York with the woman pictured above who knew because she put a root on me she'd be my wife.

We also traveled outside of the contiguous U.S. The picture above was taken at the Captain's Dinner on our cruise of the Caribbean roughly a year into our relationship. My clippers were damaged when she rearranged my bag so that I could wear the shoes she wanted me to wear on the plane ride from NYC to Puerto Rico where we cast off. A barber for over a decade, I carved a race track into my head with these busted clippers so hideous that I had no choice but to take a razor blade to the damage and go bald for the duration of the trip. I didn't know anyone on the boat other than her so if I looked ridiculous, I didn't have to worry about seeing anyone I knew.

I've been rockin' a baldie ever since. And ever since, she's been with me.

Today is my 18-month anniversary of marriage and I must be truthful when I say 6 months into my 2nd year of marriage is a WHOLE lot better than my 6 months into my 1st year of marriage was.

Happy Anniversary to my wife. Thank you, wife, for sticking around.

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I was all set to write something else for this week's Fatherhood Friday until I took this picture of my daughter while we were hanging out at Fort Tryon Park, one of my favorite places to chillax.

My daughter is but a speck compared to this tree, which stretches far past the frame of this picture, and everyone else that sits down or stands next to it doesn't fare much better. I have no idea how old it is, but given the age of the park, I know it's been around longer than all of us in the 20, 30 and 40 set. Large and gnarled it doesn't yet have its leaves which will soon shade thousands of visitors from the sun and provide homes for this season's set of insects and birds.

Isn't the same true of life? Life is bigger than all of us. It has also been around longer than us and will definitely continue on after we've all passed on. Like the Kansas song says (a recurring theme for television's Highland series, one of the worst and most addictive shows I've ever watched, "all we is dust in the wind" --- mere moments in the grander scheme of things.

Our economy, our nation, our world is all in a state of flux and turmoil. Everything from American cars to the price of milk is cause for complete woe. The media apparently has decided it isn't doing its job unless it's paralyzing us with a daily dose of insurmountable odds.

And then there's this tree... I'm certain it has weathered crisis after crisis that man has found himself swallowed up in. It doesn't seem to care. Neither does Life.

What are we really in control of? Like this tree my daughter is running from and Life itself, we aren't the biggest or even strongest things here. We die, seasons and trends change and three years from now, the madness right now might have direct effect on the future, but the current days, times and feelings will be nothing more than a memory.

I want to take a play from Life's game and simply exist, in spite of it all. Children instinctively understand this all too well. They just want to play. As we grow older and take on responsibilities we get stiff, tight and worried over things we ultimately cannot control.

Does this mean one should toss their hat into the ring of anarchy? No. But I do believe the only thing we have control over is what we do in our individual walks of life. I strive to do my best --- in work, at home, with my family, the occasional stranger in need of a random act of kindness and myself --- so that no matter the outcome, I can live without regret (or at least try). Maybe if a handful of people (no names required) tried to do this maybe our current state of affairs would be a little better. Maybe.

Life isn't too short, our time here is. Make the most of it. Starting with this weekend. Despite today's problems, today I can't be bothered. Happy Fatherhood Friday to my Dads (and Moms) and Happy Friday to everyone else.

Peace.


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Sex is such a taboo subject for married folks, but isn't marriage the place where sex is supposed to flourish? You have kids (so obviously you've had sex), you have one partner (hopefully), you have no inhibitions (you shouldn't) and other than getting the kids out of the house there's none of the angst of planning, rejection, and everything else that potentially go wrong when playing the field as a single person.

I tried this several months back and got some pretty pitiful results. I thought I'd try again. This poll is COMPLETELY anonymous. I'm posting it here today and on my Twitter page where it will remain open until Monday, April 6. Here's the direct link to the poll if you want to link to it. I'd like to be able to write something soon based on the results. I've turned off the comments for this post, so if you're married and have something to say, VOTE.

Sorry, unmarried folks. Next time.





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A great man passed away last week. He was a scholar, a historian, Harvard educated, and a past president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society --- an organization both he and my father have in common. And like me, this titan is a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, because even in death you never stop being an Alpha Man.

As a direct result of his actions I know a tremendous amount about myself and my tremendous history. Anyone who happens upon his teachings has no choice but to walk away wiser from the experience.

His name is John Hope Franklin.


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No Question of the Week this week, folks.

I can no longer play this game with myself, nor can I play it in my home. Things just aren't working out. We've tried again and again, gone to counseling, prayed together, talked for hours and days, written contracts to one another. All of it in vain.

Why?

Because sometimes things just aren't meant to be. Even with kids. We are working toward something amicable, but amicable is very hard to achieve when you've been at each others' throats for so long.

Here at MakesMeWannaHoller I've sought to entertain and hopefully in the process educate and give some insight into the mind of a man --- an African American man, specifically --- to show what fatherhood and husbandry looks like through my eyes. My hope was that readers would see that my version of fatherhood/husbandry wasn't much different than anyone else's as we all belong to the human race (forgive the cliche). But the husbandry part has been a sham and I can't speak to anyone about getting along under the same roof when I can't get along under mine.

The one thing I cannot do is lie to you or myself. Because of this rule that I live by I would ask you to stop reading this right now and check your calendar for today's date. It should say April 1, as in the first day of April, as in April Fool's Day. Close your mouth. You're gonna catch flies. Gotcha... I'm not leaving my wife or kids. My life is great.

Peace.

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