Greetings and warm felicitations to all of you! On this day, one that has been set aside by the ages to commemorate the moment in which our Lord made his first physical earthly debut, I wish now to share how I did it. Did what, you may ask? This is how I asked the love of my life to join me in the journey of a lifetime along the road that leads to forever.

Well, to fully understand my reasoning, I must take you all back. Back to the 22nd of December in 2006. During this time, I was living and serving in Boston with an occasional frequency to the academy. I was invited by my "line brother", Richard Price to attend an event in New York sponsored by an organization long steeped in the production of distinguished brethern charged by noble and honorable precepts, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (Org. 1906). I must admit, I was not very excited about attending. The trip from Boston to New York was about 4 hours during a season when I had one million things to do with only very little time to do them. Richard continued in his unrelenting desire to count me in the number, so I obliged.

So, finally we arrive at the Stir Lounge on 1st Avenue and 73 St., NYC. The place was packed! Though the conversation and the unrequested phone numbers from zealous ladies were plenteous, I still found myself to be uninterested and rather bored. I shared my concern with Richard and he declared, "Malcolm, you should feast your eyes on that Whitley Gilbert over there." I turned and I caught a glimpse of the most splendid gift God had ever sent to earth for the admiration of all humankind. I looked, and at that one moment, I, a longtime philosophical skeptic, I, M.J. Byrd, became a believer in love at first sight. (you may not believe it, but you may not have seen what I have seen.) There she was, Dominique.

Exactly one year later to the day, I put her in my car after dinner at her favorite Thai joint and I drove down to a spot in lower Manhattan. A place, that amid the hustle and bustle of money changers and gogetters of every form is strangly, hallowed ground. I open her door and present her with a dozen roses and I beseeched her to follow me. She obliged willingly. I took her by her hand and escorted her to the African Burial Ground. As we stood in that place, not a car drove past nor a person walked by. It was just she and I. Even time froze to incline its immortal ear toward the proceedings of the hour.

She presented me with a pocket watch in commemoration of our year together. How appropriate is a time piece when duty demands for time to be marked. At that moment, I began to share with her all that she means to me. I wanted to share more but the evening zepher was mildly cruel as evidenced in her slight but noticible tremble. So, I shared how important it is for us to seek the blessing of not only God but the blessings of our ancestors before we proceed into the unknown vistas of the future, hand in hand. (side note, in many West African Cultures, men seek the blessing of thier foreparents and ancestors before seeking a wife.)

While verbally seeking thier blessing, I bowed down before her and them and asked her to marry me. If you don't know your history, you run the risk of moving through life attempting to do what has already been done for you. The foundation has been laid by our people of old. It is now our moment to build a future upon the rock that is inscibed with all their African names.

Well, after a long series of "Oh my God, and I can't believe this", she finally said yes! I felt that the forces that are enabled to make 2 people 1 people started to work at that very moment. After then, while still on bended knee, I pulled out the ring and man did she love it!.......and I loved her. Well, We left a rose upon the monument for our people interred under that strange sod, and we also left a rose at the spot where I bowed down.

The Stir Lounge may be closed one day, the Thai joint may become an office building, and other places where we have so many memories can become lost, but that one spot in the African Burial Ground will be there when in the distant future I take my grandson to the very spot where papa, "bowed down."