Shakira - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA World...

Lessons from Maya Angelou's last Memoir: Mom and Me

Maya Angelou, was born in 1928, in St. Louis Missouri, and raised in Stamps Arkansas by her grandmother, after her parents dissolved their relationship. The name, Maya Angelou, was a consolidation of her childhood nickname and a shortened form of her married name. Maya Angelou not only scripted her name, she scripted a successful life as a multi-talented, dancer, performer, director and world famous author.

During the course of Maya Angelou’s self-made life, she became a civil rights activist and close friend of Martin Luther King, and James Baldwin, all during the early 1960’s; later  becoming a friend-mentor to one of the greatest personages of our century, Oprah Winfrey.

The autobiographical memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird sings, was the first of many memoirs. Mom and Me was the last. The story of the relationship forged between the two powerhouse women, Maya Angelou and her mother Vivian Baxter, covers several decades, from the racially segregated and tumultuous years in The South, to the California years spent with her mother as a young teenager.

The power of Maya Angelou’s mother’s influence upon her life journey was not completely realized by the author until after her mother’s death. As is the case with most of us, it is only after the years of life experience that our personal introspection can match our external analysis of the world we inhabit; therefore, Mom and Me was written as the last autobiographical book of the great author.

It is through the pages of Mom and Me that we discover the subtleties of life created by the strain between the dominant white culture and black subculture that fueled the strong determination to not only merely survive , but thrive, by Vivian Baxter. In a short excerpt of Mom and Me, Maya Angelou’s mother encouraged her to persevere when faced with rejection based on race, and when Maya succeeded in becoming the first female and first black person to secure the job, Maya’s mother asked her what she had learned by her unrelenting determination:

Angelou gave the simple answer which was that she learned she was not afraid to work, and that was “about all”, at which her mother corrected her by pointing out the deeper lesson.

“No, you learned that you have power”. 

 The awareness of personal power was perhaps one of the greatest gifts bestowed upon Angelou by her mother. The acutely attuned sense of self-perception, and the strong inner drive that was forged by Angelou’s mother and grandmother, was transferred to Angelou during her formative years. The strength, resilience, fearlessness, and courage of Maya Angelou became the trademark character traits that defined her as a public figure, and served her for a lifetime. It was Angelou’s mother, Vivian who moved her to think ‘large thoughts’ and to dream big. Without Vivian, there would not have been a Maya.

In order to fully appreciate the journey of Maya Angelou, you must read Mom and Me, because it is more than the last memoir of Maya Angelou, it is a window into the development of a cultural phenomenon. The ultimate lesson is the positive force of parent upon child is never to be underestimated.

If you have a mental health condition, you're not alone. One in 5 American adults experiences some form of mental illness in any given year. And across the population, 1 in every 20 adults is living with a serious mental health condition such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or long-term recurring major depression. - See more at: http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Living-with-a-Mental-Health-Condition#sthash.Xtx9prJI.dpuf

Living With A Mental Health Condition

Danger in the Home: Mother kills children

The type of domestic violence abusers who are willing to end life, do not value life.
Obsessive and controlling people who are usually laden with past issues, are self-centered, or egocentric, only value their own needs and emotions over the needs and emotions of others. Those who kill never held the strong values of the dominant culture: do not kill and do not wrong others, being paramount. Abusers of this nature exhibit red flag warning signs.

Abusers come in all forms, genders, and socioeconomic statuses. The most common denominator for seriously abusive people, is they desire to control their world to the point of obsession; if they can't have what they want, then no one can...at least no one in their immediate world.This type of abuser is usually egocentric, self-absorbed and autonomously insecure. Although most murders of female partners and of children in a family unit by domestic abusers are male perpetrated, female abusers commit similar atrocities. Domestic violence killers are not always men,such as in this case of a female who killed her own child in order to punish the child's father. If cases like this were rare there would not be a major societal problem concerning domestic violence and domestic homicide; unfortunately, these cases are common across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Domestic violence takes the lives of thousands of men, women, and children each year, and will continue to do so until the tide of this disastrous trend is staunched. Domestic violence begins before the first abusive word of emotional assault is hurled, and before the first slap or fist punch. In most cases, abuse begins with abuse.

The reciprocal effect of adults with a history of abuse as children is that it becomes a risk factor that exacerbates the likelihood they will also abuse their children. Abuse often predicates abuse, as learned behavior compounds traumatic childhoods in adults with poor stress management skills. Other factors that lead to serious child maltreatment and even murder, include environmental stress, poverty and lack of support systems. The breeding ground for domestic violence begins in a history of domestic violence. The cultural climate of domestic violence can be changed by raising public awareness through education, and by slowing the spread of dysfunction and abuse within families through prevention and intervention. In order to weed out domestic violence and slow its effects upon families and society, we need to change the climate in which domestic abuse grows.

O Holy Night - Josh Groban

Celine Dion

Roots, the Movie

The book Roots: The Saga of an American Family
By Alex Haley
Was written as a result of the author's quest to trace his personal ancestry, a quest that led him deep into American history, and resulted in a larger truth, one that embodied America as a whole.

The book became a televised sensation, leaving in its aftermath, 37 Emmy nominations, resulting in nine wins, as well a a Golden Globe award.

I remember when Roots first aired in 1977, and I was so greatly affected by its cultural and emotional power that I wrote about it in my own memoir, Torn From the Inside Out, by Sara Niles

An excerpt follows:

"We, as a country, were like an old faithful hunting dog who had just fought off a bear for his family and came home to lick his wounds. The timing was right for what happened next.

The social unrest that existed while the Vietnam war was ongoing, had become less intense since the war’s end, allowing the country to reach a state of calmness that enabled it to come together to watch the premier of the television version of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer winning novel: Roots. Eighty million people watched Roots, making it the most watched movie in the history of Television; in fact, the massive audience surpassed even that of the fabled movie: Gone With The Wind.

I will never forget the impact the televised series of movies had on me, for it was more than entertainment, it was a slap in the face at the appropriate time, and provided a timely awakening for a country slumbering in racial apathy. This was not the first time an author had provided that much needed slap in the face. Harriet Beecher Stowe shook a country with her simple novel: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because it was the right thing at the right time, and I believe Root’s was the right thing at the right time too. "

Torn From the Inside Out, Sara Niles

The new remake of Roots, the movie, is proving to be a masterwork of similar magnitude as the first. The first showing is airing on the History channel and Lifetime, along with a few others, this week.

It is not to be missed, for it is more than a movie, it is the story of our American past.