#MNR: A CHRISTMAS STORY

#MNR: A CHRISTMAS STORY
 
“Someday all our dreams will come to be. Someday in a world where men are free. Maybe not in time for you and me, but someday at Christmas time.”
Stevie Wonder
 
“In my mind...I want you to be free.”
The Temptations
 
 
Shareon was a holidays type of lady. She lived for this time of year. It began with her faithful viewing of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and concluded with December 25. As an adult, the holidays were usually the time I took my annual trip to VA to visit her because both our schedules were clear. For her, the holidays were always about spending time with loved ones. The gifts and food were great perks, but nothing compared to kinship. Shareon (and damn near everyone else) is gone, but her spirit lives on.
 
My mother was heavy on spinning her holiday music. It has been the inspiration for past #MNR blogs on the greatest holiday songs in Black American culture. “Silent Night” by The Temptations will always finish number one, but several others are staples in my culture as well. “Let It Snow” by Boyz II Men and Brian McKnight is my personal favorite, as it is a song that was released while I was an eclectic music-consuming adolescent with a porn star’s libido. I’m almost certain that if you asked 100 random colored folk their favorite holiday song the consensus would be “This Christmas” by my great uncle Donny Hathaway. All these songs are GOAT status. I’ve got to keep it all the way real and include “All I Want For Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey. I say I’ve got to keep it real because I resented the song for years. I LOVE Mariah and liked the song when it was originally released (Shareon had the CD, of course) but I couldn’t embrace the song after its reemergence into Billboard. It pissed me off that because white folk discovered a 30-year-old song a decade ago, it gets to claim #1 every damn year. For the record, I feel that every song I mentioned in this paragraph and a handful of others are all better than “All I Want For Christmas is You.” But a new generation of whites found it to be cute, so it gets to outshine other Christmas songs from other Black legends. This isn’t a knock to my baby Mariah or the song. She deserves every penny and every accolade. This is a knock against dickriding as a movement, sport and culture. Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.
 
I took my Auntie Sandra and a loved one to see The Color Purple Christmas morning. I was very impressed with the film, outside of a couple of aesthetic miscues. The men had their hats on inside the first church scene and the cross on the church wall had Christ hanging from it. As a lifelong churchgoer and believer, men NEVER wear hats inside the church. In addition, my Christ is living; he got off that cross a long time ago. Our crosses do not have Christ crucified and hanging on them. That’s Catholicism. Aside from those noticeable errors, the movie was amazing. It followed the original storyline but took a musical approach. I don’t watch a lot of musicals, but I’m pretty sure that was the vibe. I loved Tasha Jefferson’s portrayal of Sophia; she popped the most to me. She stole every scene. The dinner table (Thanksgiving) scene was arguably as good as the original. I’m a big Fantasia fan, and she did her thing this time around as adult Celie. My baby girl H.E.R. made an appearance as Squeak, whose character had a bigger role in the 2023 adaptation. Colman Domingo did his damn thing as Mister. He didn’t have the same evil aura as Danny Glover’s hardface did, but he was mean enough. Watching the original version as a kid was one thing. I knew it was a classic because all the adults around 9-year-old me raved about how much of a classic it was. But watching the storyline as a grown ass adult hit different. I understood the incest first time around; that’s not what I’m referring to. As a kid I didn’t fully realize that Celie really felt that she was alone and unloved in the world and how much her bond with Shug meant to her psychological development. I also didn’t realize that Celie and Shug munched each other’s carpet, either. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not mad at all (insert eyes emoji). I’m just saying... All jokes aside, I loved the movie. It was much more than I expected. I recommend taking a loved one to see it.
 
Ty Monday #MNR Official Movie Rating: 9.1/10. (new classic)
 
I hope that you all are smoking the finest of Christmas trees this holiday season. As I gather around the yuletide fire and light my holiday tree, my wish is that every human could be free. I wish that WE loved OURSELVES the way WE did before desegregation. I wish that every kid had presents under the Christmas tree. I wish Israel would stop massacring Palestinian civilians and desecrating their communities. I wish that Republican governors would reverse their insidious intentions and restore SNAP benefits to the downtrodden children who call the states they govern home. Feeding a hungry child has never been nor will it ever be political. I wish that every man could love his neighbor the same way he loves himself. And if he doesn’t love himself, I wish he knew that God loves him and always will. I wish that all missing children were returned home safely to their loved ones. I wish that quality education was attainable for all, irrespective of socioeconomic background. I wish United States and World History were taught from a 100% contextual standpoint in every classroom and lecture hall around the world, from elementary school to postgraduate school. I wish that Shareon were alive to receive this Pulitzer Prize I’m going to win from my next work of fiction. I wish I would have gone downstairs the night that Chubb called me and told me that he was on the block and wanted to see me. I wish Tamika were here to go through the ups and downs of this beautiful struggle called life with me. I wish that I could see the day that the last are the first.
 
Happy Holidays from The Unbearables Crew to you and yours.
 
tymonday.com: @tymonday on Twitter & IG
crewunb.com: @crewunB on Twitter & @theunbearablescrew on IG

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