Author Archives: Keesha Cuthbert

Shoemaker

Nationality: African American
Age: 11
Occupation: student
Residence: Rialto, California
Primary Language: English

Jayden Hamilton was born in San Bernardino, California in 2002.  He is a fifth grader at Preston Elementary School in Rialto, CA.  He currently runs track for the school.

Me:                        When you are playing games at recess, like tag, how do you know who is “it” first?

Informant:          We play Shoemaker.

M:                          What is that?

I:                             Everybody puts their feet in and we go around the circle singing the songs.  Whoever shoe we are on at the song takes their foot out.  The last foot in the circle is it.

M:                          Oh, okay.  I remember this when I was a kid.  Which one is your favorite song?

I:                             ummmm … Johnny.

M:                          How does it go?

I:                             Johnny ate a boogar and it taste like sugar.  Put it in a pot and it tastes like snot. (grins widely)

M:                          That sounds like something that any little boy would like. (smile)

The pot and the kettle

Nationality: Hatian
Age: 28
Occupation: Physical Therapist Assistant
Residence: San Bernardino, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: French Creole

Christopher Jean was raised in Los Angeles, California.  He graduated high school in 2003 and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Loma Linda University in 2012.  He is Hatian and grew up in a devout Catholic household.  He currently resides in San Bernardino, with his wife Shirley.  He is a Physical Therapist Assistant.

Look at the pot calling the kettle black!

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An accurate interpretation of this would be, “How are you going to talk about his faults when you have the same ones!”

Unity Sand

Nationality: Hatian
Age: 28
Occupation: Physical Therapist Assistant
Residence: San Bernardino, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: French Creole

Christopher Jean was raised in Los Angeles, California.  He graduated high school in 2003 and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Loma Linda University in 2012.  He is Hatian and grew up in a devout Catholic household.  He currently resides in San Bernardino, with his wife Shirley.  He is a Physical Therapist Assistant.

At our wedding, me and Shirley decided to do the Unity Sand … Now that I think about it, we did a lot of unity stuff.  The whole day was about us becoming one.  I guess that is kind of the point when you think about it and put it all into perspective. … so we had two jars of sand.  Each was our wedding colors.  So Shirley got the Coral colored sand and I got the dark brown colored sand.  When the pastor announced it, we made a big production of walking over, together, to a table that we had set up and decorated with a larger vase.  Together, we emptied the sand in our vases into the new, bigger vase.  It symbolized us being united.

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A Freudian interpretation of this would interpret the larger jar as symbolizing the children that they will create together as a result of this union.

Death Anniversary

Nationality: Hatian
Age: 28
Occupation: Physical Therapist Assistant
Residence: San Bernardino, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: French Creole

Christopher Jean was raised in Los Angeles, California.  He graduated high school in 2003 and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Loma Linda University in 2012.  He is Hatian and grew up in a devout Catholic household.  He currently resides in San Bernardino, with his wife Shirley.  He is a Physical Therapist Assistant.

A few months ago my mom planned this huge celebration for my dad, who died five years ago.  We had never done this before, so I was a little confused, but it was important to her so I went along with it.  I spent a lot of weekends before going down to her house painting and paving the driveway and being a general handy man in preparation for this day.  My mom said it was important that everything look amazing for all of our family that would be coming in from out of town and that it has to look like everything was in the best shape.  On the day of the celebration we went to Mass, had a huge feast of all of his favorite dishes, and we had a lot of family over to enjoy this lavish display.

While I miss my dad and everything looked really nice, and tasted really good, I’m not really sure why she did this.  In all that I remember, we never did this for any other family member.  But, when I think about it, I think that this is her way of dealing with her own demons.  She was outright mean to my father when he was alive and she treated him like he was nothing … She treated him like shit for no reason.  He wasn’t a bad man, he wasn’t abusive, or anything like that.  But she talked down to him and just didn’t behave the way that a wife should, you know? … … … when I think of it like that it really makes me believe that she did all of this because she felt bad about how she treated him when he was alive so she had to make a big show of it with all the food and cleaning and stuff.  (shrugs)

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I do not know exactly why his mother decided to do this, or what her motivations were, but I did find that this is actually something that is observed in Catholicism.  It is called Requiem Masses.  They are used to celebrate the anniversary of someone’s death.  There are a lot of rituals and customs involved n this practice, but it is, in fact, a true ritual.

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Cited: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12776d.htm

Judgement

Nationality: African American
Age: 26
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: San Bernardino, CA
Primary Language: English

Shirley Turner Jean grew up in Rialto, California.  She graduated from Dwight D Eisenhower high school I 2004.  From there, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Cal State San Bernardino.  Shortly thereafter, Shirley obtained a Masters Degree in Kinesiology from Azusa Pacific University.  She has sense obtained a number of credentials from Azusa Pacific University.  She currently lives in San Bernardino, California and teaches at Synergy Middle School in Los Angeles, California.  She is a PE teacher.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

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Essentially, since it is believed in Christianity that everyone is born into sin and has a sin nature, this proverb basically states that we cannot judge each other.  The only one that can judge us is God Himself.

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This is cited in the Holy Bible.  John 8:7