Category: commentary

Posted on

Not Easy Being Green

“I brought sand to the beach cause my beach is better. You can keep ya beach cause that beach whatever.” – Jay-Z

When I was young and I began a modest music collection, I remember talking to some people who were older who had scads of records and tapes. I had been so proud of my Back to the Future soundtrack and my cassette of Thriller when they had the entire David Bowie, Rolling Stones, and Grateful Dead catalogs. Then I got older and began reading thick books. The first time I read a Stephen King book from start to finish I was feeling so full of myself until I talked to someone who had read ten of his books. That’s how I learned that you should never compare yourself with anyone else. Continue reading “Not Easy Being Green”

Posted on

Black Irish

Black? And four leaves? Wow.

“Mr. McManus, are you really Irish?” my student asks skeptically, knowing as she does that every Irish person she’s ever seen has been white, and also knowing that I’m not even remotely white.

“Of course I am,” I reply, with a twinkle in my eye.

“But how can you be Irish?” she asks, trying not to say what everyone else in the class is thinking.

“Haven’t you heard of Black Irish?” I say, and it ends the debate. Continue reading “Black Irish”

Posted on

Trying to Sound Smart

Want to sound smart or want to be smart?

I remember when I was six years old and I wanted to sound just like my mama. I wanted to sound “grown up.” I would go around the house repeating what she said, so I could sound smart, but I would get it all mixed up. When I wanted to say “shirt” and it came out “shit,” though, that was the final straw. My mother sat me down and told me in no uncertain terms that if I couldn’t tell anyone the meaning of the word then I couldn’t say it. So that was the end of my career of swearing until much later in life.

However, I did take what she said to heart, which is when I started trying to read the dictionary. Continue reading “Trying to Sound Smart”

Posted on

The Watcher

I’m a people watcher. I always have been, since I was yoing and I would give my mother fits when we went out in public. Because not only did I watch people back then, but I also gave them names and loudly called them by their “names.” Before you think that I took pleasure in … Continue reading The Watcher

Posted on

I Wanted to Be Harry Potter

Book 5

I remember when I first discovered the wizarding world created by JK Rowling, sometime after the release of The Goblet of Fire and before The Order of the Phoenix, and I wondered what all the fuss was about. There had been series before, and there would be series after, so I didn’t pay much attention to the one stirring up such a hornet’s nest (that one’s part of a favorite series too) at that time. I knew it had been banned, and I knew it had to do with witchcraft, but I had no idea how important it would come to be in my life. Not then.

You see, at the time I was going through an enormous move, a life-altering event that involved trust, faith, and maybe even a little bit of fear. Okay, definitely a lot of fear. For the first time in my life I was going out on a limb for what I felt deep down in my soul was love, something worth believing in so much that I was willing to uproot myself for it, and looking back on it, I’m oh so glad I did. But at the time it was all I could do to stop from getting hives (I got them anyway) during the process. The last thing on my mind was getting into a new series. Continue reading “I Wanted to Be Harry Potter”