RANDOM THOUGHTS

SHARING RANDON THOUGHTS For many years now I’ve made it a habit to read from several books each day of the week – titles and substance of interest to me. No day passes that I don’t comb the local and world news for information – I think knowing what’s going on close to and far away from me has some value and perhaps some effect on my life. Being a free thinker I don’t allow any belief system to dictate what I can or should read – I certainly won’t allow any person, living or dead, or yet to be born to take the freedom of my own will. Since I don’t believe in a God, a Heaven, a Hell, a Virgin Birth, a Christ, some would classify me as an atheist. I don’t debate my freedom with those who live within a belief system; nor do I attempt to dissuade them from their sanctuary. I’m happy to say that those who know me respect me enough not to try and dissuade me from my freedom. I live within what a call a universal notion – I don’t know how we began but I think we have the power to determine whether we will continue to live or die forever. www.adolphusward.net

WHY I WRITE NOVELS 11

WHY I WIRTE NOVELS – 11 In my novels to date I have examined how significant historical events influenced character behavior. I think human beings are making the history of tomorrow today – what we are doing or not doing today will create the historical events of tomorrow: we are making our tomorrows every minute of today. Our trees, our water, and our weather systems play a major role in filtering the air we breathe. The air of our earth has become so polluted the trees, water, and weather systems can no longer filter (clean) it. We need clean water to drink and grow food – we need clean air to live. Climate Change is well into becoming a significant historical; human (our) behavior will change significantly – not for the better. www.adolphusward.net

WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 10

WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 10 HARVEST THE DUST is my first book of family fiction. I set the story in the time of my grandparents – it’s the mid-1930s in west-central Arkansas. Most people in this small farm town rode in wagons or walked – few people owned an automobile. Water came from a hand-pump outside houses not from faucets inside. There was no running water inside houses so toilets were built in an outhouse. Milk came directly from a cow not from a grocery store. Black and White people were separated by law. Jacob is a black man and the head of this family – his wife, Clara, is a black woman who could easily have passed for white. As a boy Jacob witnessed a black man being burned alive by a mob of white people. Clara’s father was a prominent white doctor who never acknowledged her as his daughter. These early experiences of Jacob and Clara not only influenced their behavior but also the behavior of their children. My own life experience convinces me that my behavior is influenced by not only my experience but also the experience of others. www.adolphusward.net

SHARING WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 9

WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 9 The Pasadena Play House produced a work of Peter J. Harris at a history making event Sunday 31 August 2014. The dramatic poetry was directed by Alison M. De La Cruz, a staff member of the Play House. The historical event is the First Annual Leimert Park Village Theatre Festival, Los Angeles, California, presented by The Leimert Park Vision Theatre Consortium. Ten black male actors of diverse backgrounds and impressive resumes used their crafts to animate Harris’ characters giving them life. “THE BLACK MAN OF HAPPINESS,” became a living organism, a choral synthesis of what makes a black man happy. As one of the ten black men chosen to be in the performance I became a part of this historic event. For some time now I’ve been doing two things with my life-time: I write and I act. I love life, I love story – when I’m not on stage or in front of a camera living a story, when I’m not reading story from a book, I’m sitting with my laptop creating a story. www.adolphusward.net

SHARING WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 8

WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 8 I once had a morbid fear of making a mistake – of being wrong. My fear was so intense I would often not try to do or say something for fear of failure. When circumstances forced me to risk, my whole body would shake violently; if I didn’t get to a toilet fast enough I’d pee on myself - I’ve often used paper towels to absorb the wetness from the front of my pants to get rid of the stain. I was and am a physically active person – I had and still have the body of an athlete. As a young person I had an athletic body but not the confidence to compete successfully – I was scared of not making the basket, not jumping high enough, not catching the ball, not hitting the ball, not running fast enough, I was scared of looking like a fool in front of my peers. With my fear I created a self-fulfilling prophecy. I thought I’d fail and I did; I thought I’d look like a fool and I did. The one redeeming quality I had and still have is I NEVER STOPPED TRYING TO MAKE THE SHOT, NEVER STOPPED TRYING TO CATCH THE BALL, NEVER STOPPED GETTING UP, I NEVER STOPPED GETTING BACK IN THE GAME. Along the road to becoming an adult I learned that failure is a part of any success. There is no success without some failure. Along the road to maturity I learned that I had created prophesy to fail – I learned to use that same energy and created prophesy to succeed. This insight didn’t come out of the blue – it came from learning to think, it came from reading many books out of many disciplines. www.adolphusward.net

WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 7

SHARING WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 7 I have lived most of the adult life as a single person – two wives and a number of lovers along the way, but most of the time it’s been just me. I love and trust me so we get along just fine. From time to time, however, I get tired of being with me alone – conversation and sexual manipulation tends to get a little stale. My one bedroom is lovely: furniture, artwork; but once in a while my otherwise spacious place tends to close in on me and I have to get out. Since I love espresso, my get-out place is always a coffee shop with other light eating stuff. I have a couple favorite spots but prefer moving around. I belong to a writers group; we meet once a month – that together with my theatre contacts satisfies my need for interactive social contact. I shared a coffee shop table with a middle age man the other day, interesting individual. He’ll be the model for a character in a future novel. I often attract people who want to tell me something about themselves or something they believe. This table-mate was convinced that all Muslims want to kill all Christians – that Muslims are so evil they even kill each other; that Christians don’t kill each other; that Jesus will soon return to save Christian. As a non-believer I gently disagreed with all of his assertions. I calmly told him that most Muslims and Christians are decent life-loving people trying to treat others as they wish to be treated. I let him know that I had neither trust nor belief in a Savior to come or One to come back. I went on to say there is no prescription for life – humans will either do what is helpful to all humans or they will do what will kill all living things. We are our own savior – if we chose to be- we have a choice. My table-mate promptly excused himself and quietly left me alone. www.adolphusward.net

NO RESPECT NO JUSTICE

NO RESPECT NO JUSTICE A race without respect should not expect justice. America was conceived and born out of racism. The legacy of that bastard-birth is enshrined in all of its institutions – none excluded. Native Americans, and other races, have their own voice so I’ll pass over that consideration and focus on African People and now African American People. African People were enslaved by plunderers and with slave labor America grew and prospered beyond its imagination. African Americans had the flesh and bones of their ancestors torn from memory and themselves sold to rich cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane plantations. Slaves have nurtured their master’s young. They have given their lives to protect the master and his family. African Americans have given their lives in defense of America and have been paid in lynching, no right to vote, no right to a job, no rights that a white man must respect. Tavis Smiley was the host and convener of a television forum, made up of African American leaders. The one leader I most remember is Minister Farrakhan. The discussion came around to the outspoken and vitriol hatred for President Barack Obama by some white Americans. Minister Farrakhan warned against (I’m paraphrasing, with apologies if incorrect) warned against a misstep of security in the personal safety of our president. The Minister, with open sarcasm, pointed to the security missteps in the assassinations of Malcom X and Doctor Martin Luther King JR. The Minister went on to say (I again paraphrase with the same condition) say that the real power behind our government’s doings should not make another misstep when it comes to protecting the life of President Barack Obama and his family. Reparations for the enslavement of a race; for no jobs; for no vote; for no respect; is a must. I’ve never had any confidence in changing the hearts and minds of white people who hate black people or those who stand against affirmative action and reparations. I don’t care if some have the ridiculous noting that affirmative action takes white jobs or that reparations would take from the rich so that everyone has the same level of wealth. Both of those absurd positions don’t deserve a discussion. Reparations must become a reality to raise the standard of Education for African Americans, to prepare African American for jobs in any area where a sustainable income can be earned, to move young African Americans out of prisons and into productive lives, and Reparations must become a reality to purge the American mind of the psychological poisons of Racism. www.adolphusward.net