How a Zoom Meeting Exposed America’s Much Deeper Wound.
Naked bodies, penetrating thrusts, and guttural moans startled us all. We went from talking about the bible to watching porn in seconds. We were blindsided and horrified.
Have you ever experienced a “ZOOM bomb”? If not, I pray you never will. Cyber thugs with intentions to cause chaos entered our online meeting. They forced pornographic videos, images, and profanity-laced music onto our 70-inch computer monitors.
The event host scrambled to stop the pirates. The shocking incident lasted mere seconds but felt like minutes.
After a reboot of the video feed, everything calmed down, and the quick response solved the problem. We refocused our attention on the speaker with renewed enthusiasm and with a readiness to learn.
The invisible enemy did not stop us.
That’s until ten minutes later, “AJ” turned on his webcam and…
How a son sees his father longing for his absent father’s presence
The toddler on the counter is my father. The man next to him is my grandfather. This faded picture is the only one I have of them together. For reasons, I will never know or understand, my grandfather left his family, and his absence affected my father in deep-felt ways.
As the story goes: “Go buy some chicken,” my grandfather said, “and I’ll see you in five days.” He then handed my father some money and drove off in his Cadillac. That was sometime in the 1960s. It was the last time they spoke. To hear my father tell this…
What happens when we tell our truth?
I didn’t realize a simple LinkedIn connection request would reveal a scar in me not healed. A sort of identity crisis. If I’m honest, I have never been 100% authentic in the spaces I have occupied. I feel like I need to “adjust” what I believe and think to be accepted. Most black people, I know, have to wear different masks to survive. As a dad, son, husband, and friend, I feel like myself, but work and church are different stories. My job as an associate pastor of a majority white church requires me to wear my “I’m happy to…
Michael Henry
Writer + Creative + Family Guy. At the moment, I’m in the moment. — Mike Henry
