Over the weekend I ran across an interview that Bill Moyers did with poet Nikki Giovani back in 2009. Nikki Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia as well as a renown poet and activist. If you remember, Virginia Tech was the location of a mass shooting that took the lives of 32 people and injured 17 others in April 2007.
In the interview with Giovanni, Moyers referenced the shooting at Virginia Tech and asked the poet what do words do for grief. Giovanni said “words help to acknowledge that we’re human and we hurt. And so you don’t have to pretend you’re not hurting. Because you have a hole in your heart.“ He felt that her answer back in 2009 was as relevant today in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Aurora Colorado.
Like the rest of the world, I luv Giovanni and her work. She has a way of using words that expresses the emotions of life like no one I have ever heard before except for maybe songwriter Stevie Wonder. I bring her up today because during the interview with Bill Moyers, she said that “we have to do things to remind ourselves that it’s a really good idea to be alive!” I was immediately struck by her words and thought about how my philosophy of Eat My Dessert First was just that: a great reminder to me that being alive is still a good idea.
No matter what is going on in the world or in your personal life I want to remind you that there is nothing better than being alive! There is nothing better than being able to dream! There is nothing better than being able to enjoy the beauty of nature that surrounds us! There is nothing better than being able to taste the sweetness of fresh picked summer fruit or the decadence of a fabulous chocolate dessert; first of course! There is nothing better than being in Luv! There is nothing better than being able to hear the voices of children and hear their take on life. There is nothing better than life itself!!
I hope you will click the link and watch this poignant interview with the renown poet as she shares about life and luv and be reminded on this Magnificent Monday that not only is being alive a good idea but that YOU are a good idea! So go dream! Go watch the sunrise and the sunset! Go to the park and watch the children play as if they don’t have a care in the world! Go read a poem! Go and tell someone how beautiful they are just because! Go and tell YOURSELF how beautiful you are! Go and be alive! Go Live!
Eat My Dessert First 