By Ernie McCray
A little while ago while kicking back in a park with a few members of my family tree, I found myself humming the Rascal’s catchy tune, “Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon,” because that’s what we were doing. Grooving. Cruising. Schmoozing. Amusing. Aka enjoying ourselves.
On a Sunday afternoon.
As we laughed and talked about what’s going on now with us and what went on in our past, individual thoughts about each precious one of them would rise in my mind. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
With the mayoral election coming up on Tuesday, November 19th, it’s time for one of those “Get Out the Vote” kinds of appeals and I’m up for the deal because voting is what being an American means to me.
But there are folks who don’t vote which I see as an insult against the very notion of a democracy. They cry “What’s the use?” claiming that special interests rule the day and our representatives don’t care about us. Well, there sure is a lot of truth in that but I can’t think of any better reason to vote than to take on such abuses of power.
Voting is at the core of our nation’s soul. The big cats know that well. That’s why they buy folks who’ll heed their will. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
Man, I love that Lyric. My tenth grandchild. I recently spent a couple of fun days with him at our family’s Palm Springs getaway. As I got to know him better I couldn’t help but think of Nancy, his grandma, who over twenty years ago decided that we McRobs (combination of our last names, McCray and Robertson) needed a vacation spot, some where close where we could just get away from our everyday lives for a few days. Palm Springs came to be that place.
I was on board right-away except I didn’t understand the “time share” lingo but Nancy spoke the language well and she just put the papers in front of me and pointed to where I was to sign and we were in business. It turned out to be one of the nicest gifts we’ve ever bestowed on ourselves. It always signified to me, a school principal, that the summer was coming to an end and a new school year would soon begin. But I was always – after a week of swimming laps and having it “made in the shade,” literally, with my journal and my pen and whatever book I was involved in, not caring about the placement of prepositions – more than ready to engage kids in discussions of “What I Did This Summer,” more than ready to dive in and make learning as fun as I could get by with in “the system” and that, in and of itself, at times, was a whole lot of fun. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
I’m not, necessarily, one for seeing movies or plays or other things that are staged more than once unless there’s something really special about it. That being said I can’t wait to take in my friend Calvin Manson’s wonderfully soulful musical “Don’t Let me Be Misunderstood” again.
I highly recommend this beautifully crafted piece of theater because it’s so personal to me. It features the songs of one of my show-people-heroes, Nina Simone. This inimitable singer and pianist not only dazzled the world with her sultry sincere soulful voice but she also, at the same time, actively pursued dreams of that world being one where all people live in freedom. With dignity. Like Robeson and Belafonte. That kind of service to humanity resonates deeply within me. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
My old stomping grounds,
the turf upon which I grew,
from 1938 to 1962
on the north side of Tucson,
is now a historic neighborhood.
Such a designation makes me feel good,
validated, appreciated
for just being.
The neighborhood is now called Dunbar/Spring
and I remember well
many of the things
that, over the years,
have given it its historical authenticity
as it was home
to so much black history.
My history. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
Oh, if the Boy Scouts of America
could just begin to understand
how much better the quality of life
could be in this land
if they would just completely
put aside their homophobe-ary
and recognize the humanity
of folks who are LGBT,
folks who add to and enrich our diversity –
if they would just embrace all of them,
even those who are older than eighteen,
the age at which gay boys can still be dismissed
as no longer being worthy of boy scout membership.
It’s way past time they
began treating
all human beings with respect
and decency. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
I hadn’t camped since Nancy died in ’09. But there I was, this past weekend, laying my sleeping bag down on the ground, to spend some time in the wilderness, near Julian, for two days and two nights with some of the most delightful people one could ever meet in life. It would be an understatement to define those moments as nice.
I mean we were living good, just kicking back, underneath a sky that was black as it could be considering that there was a full moon at play, eating meals off the grill, over burning logs we needed to feel cozy in the evening chill.
It had been a while but nothing had changed since the days when Nancy and I and our offspring would get out into the woods. Like back then, no sooner than I stepped out of my car my spiritual nature rose to the fore. At first it was a reaction to the sheer majesty of it all: the emerging colors of autumn all around me in the oak and cedar and pine trees, the knowing that I was surrounded by mule deer and wild turkeys with bobcats and mountain lions watching the whole scene, the fresh air. How could my soul not feel moved when I was, by the very environment I found myself in, feeling such a connection to nature’s wonders? [Read more…]
by Ernie McCray
The other night while watching tv I heard interim San Diego Mayor, Todd Gloria, mention that it’s “A new day at City Hall.”
Well, I’ve witnessed many a “new day” in my life and what’s going on today in City Hall doesn’t look anything like any one of those days to me. Instead, it looks like the same old same old to the millionth degree.
Oh, but there was a new day at City Hall. Not too long ago. And it wasn’t like any “new day” I have ever experienced before. It was something to behold. True blue. I mean no mayor, as in none, before Bob Filner, had ever cited visions for our city that coincided with mine, a vision that included people like me, many of us South of 8, activists, artists, performers, non-profit folks and business folks of common means, all trying to meet our community’s needs. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
If a community could be labeled a hero then City Heights would be mine. I’ve loved the community for a long time. I used to live there back in 68 or 69 – when I was trying to get my life back in line after it had been weakened by more drama than one would find in a telenovela storyline. So, to my delight, I rediscovered the light in City Heights. That bonded us.
The word around town in those days was that there were streets in the neighborhoods that were “kind of rough” and there was some truth to that but I’ve kept the love.
Over time, though, “rough” became a pretty apt description of the area. Gang banging and drug handling came more and more on the scene. Abodes were crumbling. Citizens had nowhere to go to ask questions as there were no “public services” to speak of. Some definition of “disenfranchised” has to be included in that picture somewhere. [Read more…]
by Ernie McCray
I love getting out into the world and I’m particularly fond of spending time in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico with Maria, mi querida.
That little seaport town and its surroundings compose a world of beaches and bays and mountains and lush jungles and mahogany colored peoples – and kick-ass mosquitos who seem to savor the taste of tall old black men.
This part of the world, as I learn more about it, gives rise to my spiritual nature, granting me a sense of what it must have been like for the Tarascan, Aztec, Toltec, Olmec and Maya peoples who walked this world many yesterdays ago. [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
Prologue: I’ve had so many of what one might call moments in my life. Come from behind victories on playing courts and fields. Ovations on stage. Rich surprises. This list goes on and on. And now I find myself in a wonderful moment in time, enjoying a relationship with an incredible woman when, at one time, such a reality seemed unlikely for me. This is a poem I wrote for her 70th birthday party. Hey, I have a 70 year old foxy squeeze! How cool is that?
Feeling my way around
in a new place in life.
Had been to some dark places
had lost a wife,
my soul-mate, my queen,
in a haze, wondering and wandering,
how to move on to other things.
Looking at the world with tears in my eyes.
Breathing out.
Breathing in… [Read more…]
By Ernie McCray
I was a bit out of tune the other day from just dealing with whatever tiny bits of frazzle-dazzle life had laid in my path that day and as I’m mumbling to myself over my little “First World Problem”, my cell phone vibrates in my levis pocket and I turn it on and there’s a picture of the dude, my main man, the leader of the band: Lyric. Flashing a smile that says in its very cuteness “Hey, dude, let all that minutiae go, bro.”
And so I did, like the sun melting snow. I just let it slide off my hide. I do that anyway, via my DNA, but my grandson’s smile made me not only stop but pause. Any rose near my nose was going to be smelled.
I sat down at my desk in my refreshed frame of mind and my little black book of “what day it is and where I need to be” just happened to be open and at a glance I could see examples of just how good life is being to me. [Read more…]
