Today marks the last day of Black History Month. This also marks the first full month of attacks, set backs, and insults from two males (one regrettably elected, and the other who paid to play), and their sycophant minions. I have remained publically silent as my family personally stumbles, in real time, through the rubble that these guys so quickly and recklessly created. Without regard to due process, fairness, thoughtfulness, or deliberation, our nation is being ripped apart at the seams, and our ever so fragile and nascent ever-maturing foundation of "liberty and justice for all" is being shaken and shattered to its core.
So I saw myself turn inward, only engaging with a few friends or small groups of friends at a time. Processing this turmoil buried me into my thoughts, making it hard to celebrate anything outwardly. Oh! We did manage to celebrate my daughter's 9th birthday early-on in the month with a pool party! That was fun!
This was also the first full month of having additional Kidogo team members! I'll introduce them in a separate post next month, but for now I'll say that we are pushing forward, pushing hard, and pushing as fast as we can toward a tech product. I absolutely needed my team during this time. As I struggled personally, I leaned on my team to keep us going. I kept on repeating that our response to the nonsense, and our form of resistance, is to keep building and growing. I know it is taking us a long time, but I believe it will be worth it! Please continue to wish us the best! We are Black History in the making!
Two Object Lessons
I see object lessons everywhere!
The first one comes from our time in Ghana at the Kakum National Park. We were doing a canopy walk (you know, those Indiana Jones-style plank and rope deals?), and when we got to the middle, I decided to look down (why did I do that??) and had to squeal, breathe, and sweat my way to the end. Like entrepreneurship, sometimes we feel vertigo, like there's no bottom to our perception of falling (or failing, if you will). And when we feel that way, we have to squeal, breathe, and sweat our way to the end or the next milestone. It's all good!
The second object lesson comes from my daughter. She was in a mood and didn't want to be in the 100th photo of the day, so she protested. Her form of resistance was to dance instead of stand still. In the moment, I was so annoyed and I fussed. I felt entitled to her obedience for some reason. Later, when I looked at the photo, I was actually impressed. Her resistance in her way created a much more interesting photo than what I had imagined and wanted. In this day and age, civil disobedience will yield a better outcome than blindly following leaders to the abyss or even to the mediocre. Civil disobedience is how we make the best progress. I encourage all of us to find our own and creative way to getting into some good trouble :-)
Black History Month is not just a 28-day blitz of interesting facts. For me and my family, it is part of our daily discourse all year-round. Whether it is reading a book, watching a documentary, visiting a place or space of interest, or having conversations with people whose memory serves our present-day understanding, we honor our ancestors. We honor their sacrifice and contribution to society. We honor them with both joy and solemnity.
We also believe that Black History is not just about the "back then", but also about the here and now. There are Black people who make history everyday that ends in Y. We celebrate them, too!
As Black History Month technically comes to a close, let's choose to keep celebrating and learning. We are in a season where our roots needs to be even deeper, our ancestors need to be even closer, and our sense of self needs to be even stronger than ever before. At Kidogo Productions, we are even more determined to ensure that our children are safe, affirmed, competent, and armed with our love.
For the Kids, for the Culture,
Keeana
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