“Queen Of Katwe”, A Film That Opens Your Eyes On Some Of Our World’s Poverty

Have you ever watched a movie where you found yourself being more interested in a certain aspect of the movie versus the plot itself? Queen of Katwe ended up being one of those for me.

Based upon the real life story of Uganda native Phiona Mutesi (played by Madina Nalwanga), Queen of Katwe revolves around Phiona’s discovery of an incredible ability to play the game of chess at a very young age. While the film itself was quite inspirational, I found myself more drawn to the fact that Phiona grew up in extremely impoverished conditions. Much of the film drew upon that and showed scenes from the conditions of the slums she once lived in.

Why her impoverished upbringing was far more interesting to me than the story of her becoming a master chess player is simply this. I have never experienced what it feels like to be poor like she did and to totally honest, much of the previous years of my life I was pretty ungrateful for the abundance that God had blessed me with since the day I was born.

Things like having running water, being able to take showers or baths, having ample food in the cupboards, sleeping on cushiony beds, and having windows and doors to my home that can actually be opened and closed were all things Phiona never knew during her childhood. Her home was initially a metal shack with one room and an area where she and her siblings slept next to each other on a hard slab. Water came from a rusty spigot in the center of town that she had to carry in buckets home each day. Food was consistently scarce for her and usually came from daily bartering on the streets. And due to how poor her family ultimately was, she spent most of her younger years not being able to get a proper education because they couldn’t afford to send her to school. Thus she was never taught how to even read or write. Each of these aspects of Phiona’s life were things that automatically came to me in the family I was born into. I grew up in one that was middle to upper class and I’m sure from Phiona’s childhood perspective, I probably lived a life of luxury.

I feel sad when I think about how ungrateful I used to be when billions of others were and still are living in severe poverty-based conditions just like Phiona once did. Yet it’s easy to forget about that in today’s society and instead dwell on nothing more than what we don’t have in life. Take when I was a young teenager for example. Back then every one of my neighbors had cable and I was angry that we didn’t. And when a childhood friend got a full-size arcade game for his garage, I became irritated at my parents when they didn’t get one as well. Those were just two of the many ungrateful moments I had in life that I never realized how good I really had it.

Thankfully I’m far more aware of it these days and am quite grateful now for things such as my humble abode, the food I eat each day, the clothes I have to wear, the water that comes into my home, and for so many other things that are a regular part of my life. As now I’m aware of people out there who don’t have any of these things and instead are living in dire straits like Phiona did during her adolescent years.

So while the Queen of Katwe movie was mainly about the emergence of a poor female chess player from Uganda, my interest remained fixated throughout the entire film on the conditions a little girl was born into and had to endure. Given the stark contrast to the rich bubble life I grew up in, I’m thankful to God for helping me to see just how much of an abundance I truly had growing up and still do.

It’s my hope each of you will think about this the next time you find yourself becoming ungrateful for anything you perceive is lacking in your life…

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Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Designated Survivor”, A Riveting New TV Show That Seems All Too Real

For those who know me, I’m not much into politics, but there’s a new television drama most definitely political in nature that has become the number one show I look forward to watching every week. It’s called Designated Survivor and stars Kiefer Sutherland as Tom Kirkman who is suddenly thrust into the role as President when a deadly terrorist act wipes out all the members of Congress during a State of the Union Address at the US Capitol.

Until I watched the first episode of this new television series, I never fully understood what a “Designated Survivor” actually referred to in our government. Simply put, it’s an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location whenever the President and all the country’s top leaders are gathered in a single location, such as a State of the Union address or a presidential inauguration. In the case of ABC’s new hit show, Tom Kirkman is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who is chosen to be the designated survivor during a major presidential speech at the capitol.

What has interested me the most about this show so far is the reality that something like this type of event could truly happen in today’s day and age. In a country and a world where terrorist attacks seem to be ever increasing, I often wonder if it’s just a matter of time before something like this ends up taking place in the United States or somewhere else.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, I can honestly say I didn’t feel safe in my country anymore. Maybe I was living in a bubble prior to that and was never safe to start with, but given the fact that every time I glance at the latest news headlines nowadays, I see there’s been some type of terrible event somewhere in our country, which in turn makes me constantly question whether it’s just a matter of time before another deadly terrorist attack happens on our soil like 9/11 or even like the premise of this new show.

Nevertheless, what I like best about Designated Survivor thus far is how it’s choosing to portray what might happen after an attack of such magnitude occurred in our country, when essentially all of our leaders are wiped out. Personally, I hope something like this never, ever, happens as long as I’m alive, because my honest opinion about what would take place is what the show is already demonstrating, that utter chaos would probably reign supreme for a while both within our borders and most likely with a good portion of the rest of the world as well.

I must say that Sutherland does do a superb job playing the underdog in a position the country didn’t elect him to in this riveting series that seems all too real. Great supporting work is also done by Kal Penn, who plays the president’s speech writer Seth Wright, Natascha McElhone, who plays the president’s wife Alex, and Adan Canto, who plays the president’s Chief of Staff Aaron Shore.

For a dramatic program with such great depth in acting and an incredible premise, believing in the possibility that an event like this could ultimately happen isn’t much of a stretch. And while it’s hard to imagine the state of our country deteriorating even worse that it feels like it has in recent years, the show clearly shows it could. But as with all calamities that have ever taken place in our country throughout history, great leaders and heroes have risen from their ashes and Tom Kirkman seems poised to become just that in ABC’s new series Designated Survivor, of which I greatly look forward to continuing watching in future weeks…

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Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

The Glass City Men’s Coffee Group

Earlier this year my partner and I began attending the Glass City Men’s Coffee Group here in Toledo, which consists of gay men who meet every Tuesday night at various coffee shops, restaurants, and member’s homes for great conversation, food, and of course coffee. What’s ironic about this is that it’s doing something quite out of my norm.

About five years ago, I actually stopped hanging around the whole gay scene because I had grown tired and weary of what usually went on during most of the things I attended in it. Conversations always seemed to be sexualized. Cruising others was a constant norm. Gossip and judgments ran rampant. And open promiscuity was often present as well. None of which were in alignment with my spiritual journey anymore.

Occasionally though I’d make a gay friend or two, or sometimes a gay couple, usually from my recovery from addiction realm, who shared similar feelings as I and my hanging out with them here and there would become the extent to my gay social calendar. Thus going to things like gay pride, gay bars, gay pool parties, gay camping trips, gay drag shows, and plenty more, were all thrown to the wayside, simply because I just didn’t enjoy those things anymore whenever I went to them.

But back in February here in Toledo, I met a guy named Carl at a party that a local businessman and friend was throwing for his community. And it was Carl who told me about this Glass City Men’s Coffee Group during the course of our conversation. When I told him the truth that I normally didn’t attend most gay-based things anymore and why, he suggested I give this group a chance because it didn’t fit that mold.

A few months later I finally did, and I’m grateful to God for that because I actually enjoyed it. But far more important than that was the lesson I learned in continuing to go and that was the realization that I really had been doing nothing more than placing judgment on the gay community as a whole every time I avoided doing anything that was gay-based. And overall, I truly had totally polarized myself completely away from in some aspects, a part of me.

Thus I’m thankful I’m far more open to change these days than I used to be. I give credit to God for this, as my faith in God has led to some pretty wonderful changes in my life like going to this group.

The bottom line is that this Glass City Men’s Coffee Group here in Toledo, which officially began back in the late 1960’s, is a wonderful collection of gay men who have truly opened my eyes to the notion that there is a lot more to the gay culture than just cruising, sex, gossip, and the like. I have already made a few new friends in the process because of attending this group and look forward to continuing to be a part of something that ultimately showed me there is depth in the gay culture and that it was only me and my judgments that blinded me from seeing this…

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Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson