When I wrote this book I never knew how close it would hit home. At 53 years old many of my friends including myself are at risk of serious health issues. Understanding this, nothing sends the message home with a greater impact than having a health issue touch you in a personal way.
Over the last two months three of my friends have had either heart attacks or strokes. One unfortunately died. The irony is that we have all had conversations about wanting to be healthy and changing our eating habits to be around long enough to do the important work of our life. However, saying it wasn’t enough for one of my friends. The second is recovering, the third back to work.
As a Black man and a man in general, I am at risk of having all kinds of health issues. Many of them preventable with better diets and exercise. However as I write this blog drinking a large orange juice and eating a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, I don’t seem to be worried that having a heart attack can happen to me. Unfortunately this is the feeling of most men I know my age.
We have not sold many of these books so far. Mainly because we been trying to figure out how to market them without having people run to the hills because of the strong subject matter. However at the same time, without a shadow of a doubt, we know that this conversation is necessary for our children to understand. Even have the power to save a life.
Our families have powerful voices. Our children also possess the influence to change the behavior of their parents in very positive ways. When my son made mention of the size of my stomach; it caught my attention.
So much so, I went on a water fast. Amazingly, I lost 11 pounds in thirty days. I gained a little back, but my point is his voice didn’t inform me of something that I didn’t already know, however it did motivate me to do something about it.
Daddy, Is Feeling Blue is simply just a conversation starter. One that I have now encouraged my friends, my age to read to their children. A conversation between us (men) will merely get us to agree to agree. A conversation with their children will get them to agree to do something about it.
You can purchase it at http://www.fistoreonline.com/collections/frontpage/products/daddy-is-feeling-blue or on Amazon
