TIME

So on Friday night I had the pleasure of taking in a performance of a local spoken word duo The 5th L. Their performance took place at a local art museum. It was nice to be able to get out and catch the performance, after a week which had been spent mostly studying for exams. At the end of the performance, the duo performed a poem entitled "A Matter of Time". It was the last lines of that poem which ultimately spoke to me, and connected with me.

"Time measures life's motions
Different directions it keeps going
Destination unknown
Like the weather
When the wind is blowing past you
Time waits for no man
So while I sit and brood, I ask myself
'how you gonna waste time
like it was made just for you?'"

This was just a reminder of how precious life is, and that time is of the essence. Time is sometimes our greatest luxury, but certainly not one we can take for granted.

As I thought about how precious life is, how precious our time I browsed The NY Times website and saw that yesterday there was a protest concerning the shooting death of Sean Bell. If you've been under a rock, and thus haven't heard about the shooting of the 23 year old father of two. Check out yesterday's article by clicking here..

What this immediately brought to mind was the fact that not only was Bell engaged to his high school sweetheart, but he was also the father of two young daughters. I was reminded of watching his fiancee's interview on CNN a few weeks back. The interview was almost too hard to watch, without tears coming to my eyes. Nicole Paultre wasn't bitter or even angry during the interview. I think Stanley Crouch's editorial accurately depicts her courage and strength during the interview.

I then remembered reading that Paultre had taken her late fiancee's last name, Bell, in rememberance of him. It was touching and heartbreaking at the same time. It showed her commitment to formally uniting with him, even in death. What becomes abundantly clear when one learns of their story is that they shared a love for one another, and for their 3 year old and 6 month old daughters Jada and Jordyn.

Then curiousity drove me to find now interview with Essence Magazine which in effect told a classic love story.

One can only lift them up in prayer, and pray that Nicole has continued strength to raise those two beautiful little girls. Maybe with time, they can grow into young women who will understand how much their father loved them.