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Kwanzaa Talk 2004

animatqua intrigued me with the Kwanzaa storytelling she researched and read for each year "Invalid Item" 
Having the first day of Kwanzaa fall on a Sunday this year provided a unique opportunity at my church for presenting the principles of the Kwanzaa celebration. I agreed to speak, including the lighting of the Kinara, to our congregation. I spoke on the topic of Ujima, Collective Work and Responsibility.

Kwanzaa Celebrates Continual Living of African Heritage
The celebration upholds values that can keep a modern family connected to Nature and their own community.

The principles of Kwanzaa are brought out to make us think about the Present, the Past and the Future. I look at it this way:
In this very moment: See the People meet their needs.
What do we know of their Past? That would be their Struggle.
And in knowing and recognizing these, There is a future of Hope!

I, myself, am a TV Age kid. What I know of the struggle, what I've learned of the Past, I received through the media, mostly TV, but also newspaper accounts. How then does the People rising above the Struggle come to me?

United Negro College Fund
Civil Rights Movement
Million Man March

Any comment on Ujima - Collective Work and Responsibility - is likely to inclue Struggle.
Most of my research, because there are a few books on Kwanzaa, but not enough, regard the day of Ujima as the most difficult to explain as a concept. Current and past activism give stand out examples of the principle in action.

P.S. 2013
Kwanzaa was celebrated again during Sunday service in 2013 (other times we have presented something separate rather than during service). This time, I spoke on the last principle: Imani (Faith). And I praised the work of the original founder of Kwanzaa as a cultural celebration by noting that he had a particular focus on being able to draw children to the principles through this celebration. I also made note of the transformative story as told in the newest movie incarnation The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I explained that Walter transcended his limitations not by using his imagination to feel powerful as someone else, but instead by using it to become the person he was always meant to be. I delivered a powerful message through the pathway of those who have also delivered theirs.

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