I was lucky enough to be invited by my friend Jill Bee to attend the SMU Tate Lecture last night.
NOTE: The Tate Lectures are normally sold out. I love attending and I do get to go every once in awhile since I have generous friends who have subscriptions and they include me or every few years SMU seems to have my old boss William J. Bennett as a speaker and I beg my old boss for freebies (Second row, suckers, when you roll with Bill!).
Anyway, last night Jill and I had a quick dinner at Sushi Kyoto and then arrived at McFarlin to see someone neither of us knew much about -- M.K. Asante, Jr.
M.K. is a 30-year-old author, filmaker, and professor. He's worked with Maya Angelou and is a recipient of the Langston Hughes Award. He's amazing.
I had Aha Moments throughout his address, but my favorite was this:
When you make an observation, you have an obligation.
How great is that?
We do have an obligation to right wrongs, to share our thoughts, to make art. I think most of us just want to observe (How many lurkers are there on FaceBook who never enter the conversation?) and judge or tell others how they need to fix it.
No -- M.K. is right. We must fulfill our obligations.
Mine is to the abused and neglected children of Dallas County.
I have observed. I am obligated. So are you.
P.S. Melissa and Trevor -- you missed a good one last night!
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