Letters to My Daughter

As a famous artist once said, "Mo Money, Mo Problems." Indeed, it appears that having more money, coming from a colonial mindset that makes you seek money as the primary value of your work and more importantly your worth, money does indeed create problems. When someone comes from an upbringing in which money is inherited, a life in which there is an absence of want or need because the parents provided adequately and comfortably for children, money is merely a tool, NOT a an end in and of itself. Yet people who come from families in which there is or was no money, they will always judge you by how much you make. They judge you based on your profession, your income. They might be too cheap to buy expensive things because these things are considered wasteful, but ultimately, these people are and will always be cheap. People who are cheap are naturally attracted to partners who are not cheap, strangely enough. However, people who judge others by their profession are truly bankrup...

As a twenty-something year old, I have an uncanny affection for kite-flying. The love began in high school, when I was introduced to kite flying through my friend M. We followed the directions and built the kite with our own hands. We took our handiwork to the park. My first time kite flying, my approach basically involved running around until the kite picked up the wind. My technique, apparently, was not the orthodox way to fly a kite. Nevertheless, we relished the beauty of that day. Since 2006, I've asked others to fly kites with me. I've asked other members of my family. Today, I didn't ask anyone. I brought the kites-which my mother carefully brought from Bangladesh in her overstuffed luggage, a least a thousand miles away--and I tied the appropriate knots. My cousins who had many opportunities to fly kites in their youth, showed me the proper way to release and control the kite. We successfully got the kite to go as high as our house but the kite's time in the air...