An introduction. . .

When I was about 11 years old, I can remember sitting up in my bedroom watching the pre-game musings of a Mike Tyson fight. Growing up in Brooklyn, Mike Tyson was everything to us. More than basketball, more than baseball, more than football, he represented the truest of sports to us Brooklynites. Here was a man paid millions of dollars to physically replicate the daily angst and mental battles of blacks in Brooklyn. And he would win every time. We never watched those fights to see IF he'd win, we watched them to see how fast. And with each victory, if only for a moment, all the people in all the Brooklyn ghettos stopped feeling poor, hopeless and defenseless. Iron Mike was one of the first to put Brooklyn on the map. Yes, Mike Tyson was a fighter. . .He was our fighter.

Well, I digress a bit, because actually, this story is not about Iron Mike. In fact, quite the contrary of this young, short, well-faded, unsophisticated black male bull of a fighter was his opposite. An older, tall, salt and peppered afro'd, charming black male businessman named Don King. Growing up in Brooklyn, you were taught not to like Don King. He dressed too nice and he talked too fast, a far cry from a Mike Tyson who was noted for going into the ring with a cutup terrycloth slung over his shoulders and black boots with no socks and spoke just like us. Our hero!!!

That afternoon, Don King was being interviewed on regular television. To allow you to understand how profound this interview was to me, Here I am almost 19 years later and I still can recall it. Mr. King was asked a question about what makes him such a successful entrepreneur. King replied that as a child, he was told, and I quote, "If you light yourself on fire, the whole world will come see you burn."

"If you light yourself on fire, the whole world will come see you burn." I remember feeling so enlightened by this statement that I ran to my mother's typewriter and reached under the stand where we had a package of blank white typing paper and took out one piece to write on. I grabbed my book on marine biology that had the hard sturdy cover and placed it on my lap. I steadied my pen in my unsteady, 85% of the time illegible, left hand and began to write out that quote in block letters. At the end of the quote, I included the author's name. Next, I took 4 pieces of tape and pasted this piece of paper on the wall next to my bed, roughly a foot and a half above the bed's surface. It would become my inspiration, my mantra.

Up until this very day, in times of my most apathetic and sullen moments, I always reflect on that statement. It tells me to lift myself up and be strong for all others, no matter who or whom "others" may be. Ladies and gentlemen, I have many thoughts. Many thoughts at once. . .many thoughts all day long. And I aim to share them with you. Sometimes it might be prose, sometimes it might be in poetry. It will always be me.

I entreat you to SIT and hear me out every now and again. Add your impressions and nuggets of information when the spirit hits you. Though I've never been much for pyrotechnics, I will do my best to spark that fire, Don King, spoke of and be a beacon of light to topics hopefully we all think about.

Welcome to my Stalks of Incandescent Thoughts. . .welcome to me.