He's Alive.

So I'm sleeping in my bed, where I imagine a phone call with a homegirl of mine. She mentions my boy Butchie, the one where I had the dream about his Dad telling me that he died. That friend didn't know about Butchie (unless she'd read the blog). When I come awake I make the decision to start looking for him. Hell I am a journalist after all, which sort of makes me a detective. And in an information age it can't be that hard. I type in his father's name. 30 listings in the area. I type in his mother's. There are two. One a double listing with another woman, an obvious mother-in-law. I call. Direct hit. He's alive and his Dad is in the same business he said he was in in my dream. I leave my number in two places and I get the reassurance that he's still breathing. Mission Accomplished. The homegirl I dreamt of calls me up as I'm leaving the message with his grandmother, his grandmother who taught at our school. It all landed in my consciousness like a bouncing ball a mere half hour before it went down here. Strange. This is what life in a drug-free zone brings me.

I'm happy about this as it means that there's still this symmetry that I feared might be gone. Of course he actually has to call me back now. And he has to remember me and youth and years long before we made our choices. But the hood is still there. If nothing else it's what binds us together. Maybe I wouldn't have pressed the issue if I was sure he was alive. Maybe my higher-self is as methodical as my lower one. Who knows? This is a story within itself. This is it's own kind of journey.

Props to my cousin,, Robert Jasper, Jr. for this.

The man above is John Jasper, one of most well-known and respected orators and theologians in Virginia's history. According to Blackpast.org, he founded the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond. His sermons attracted eager audiences, but none seem to draw more listeners than his famous discourse, “De Sun Do Move” given in 1878. Faithful followers, devoted fans, curious onlookers and even news reporters gathered at the church for a standing-room only lecture on the powers and mysteries of God. Though not all were convinced by Jasper’s heliocentric theory, his orating skills mesmerized most; as one skeptic wrote “Jasper didn’t convert me to this theory, nor did he convert me to his religion, but he did convert me to himself.”

Jasper’s work extended far beyond preaching to the devoted and attempted to minister to all black Richmonders; the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church became active in providing community services including aid to the elderly and the destitute. Jasper continued in this capacity until 1901 at the age of eighty-eight, after half a century of serving God.

I'm very proud to come after this man ;) Out.