Melette’s Thoughts on The Conversation

I really enjoyed this book.  When we first started reading it Diva stated that she was feeling some kind of way about Hill Harper writing a book about relationships and he wasn’t in one.  My first question was, “How do you know that he’s not in a relationship?”  Anyway, after I thought about what she was saying, I thought, why does he need to be in a relationship to write about building a trusting and loving one?  I’m sure Harper and a lot of people have seen enough loving Black relationships to know that the couples have worked hard and long to make their love work.  You have to admire that.   I don’t think there is anybody out there who is an expert on relationships, no matter how many degrees you have or how many years you’ve been married because people evolve.

The reason that I liked this book so much because there were (for what I know) honest opinions from Black men and women on what they wanted, what they needed, and where they thought we have gotten off course.  My dream is one day marry a Black man and have a family.  I’m not one of those women who is open to dating other races.   With that being said, it was good to read that there were women and men like me out there who are looking for or waiting for the same thing I am.

Reading Harper’s journey with meeting Nichole, his missteps and finally the Conversation Party he had at the end, I was really entertained, informed and inspired.  The three tenets he gave that he learned from his journey falling in love with Nichole are great nuggets for relationships.    My favorite quote from the book is this, “It’s not easy to free yourself from fear.  It’s not easy to trust someone and to love someone.”    But I know I have to do, if I want to experience the intimate man-woman relationship that I have recently been wanting.

I would recommend this book to Black men and women everywhere and hopefully more of us can have The Conversation.

Hiatus

Hello, friends and fans!  We just wanted to let you all know that Sisters With Sense Blog Talk Radio Show will be on hiatus until the new year.  We will still update the blog with news stories, interesting topics and random thoughts.  If you have any show suggestions, please send them to us and we will do our best to accomodate you. 

Enjoy the holidays with those you love and we will see in your 2010.

Hot Chocolate & a book – The Conversation by Hill Harper

This week, we will be discussing The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships.  This is the description from Amazon.com:  In his first book for adults, New York Times bestselling author Hill Harper invites you to join the Conversation: an honest dialogue about the breakdown of African—American relationships. For generations African Americans have turned to their families in times of need—but now, this proud and strong legacy is in peril. Black men and women have stopped communicating effectively and it threatens the very relationships and marriages necessary to sustain the Black family. Today, less than a third of Black children are being raised in two—parent households, a sharp decline from past generations. So, why is it so difficult for Black men and women to build long—term, loving and mutually beneficial relationships? What is happening in the community that makes it so hard for women and men to find their way to each other? And why are there so few people who manage to hold a marriage together, even after finding a person to love?

In his moving yet practical book, Hill Harper undertakes a journey both universal and deeply personal in search of answers to these questions. He has conversations with friends and strangers—married, single and divorced—and learns about their private struggles, emotional vulnerabilities, and real concerns, and begins to see common themes emerge. As his journey picks up momentum, Hill begins to recognize his own struggles in other people’s stories, and is encouraged to more deeply examine his own relationship issues.

Why does so much misinformation and mistrust exist between the sexes? Hill addresses the stereotypes that have developed in the Black community, in the hope that by addressing the challenges, Black men and women can find their way to common ground. The Conversation aims to open up the lines of communication, and offers inspiration to those who want to take control of this crisis and start building successful, sustainable relationships.

Please read it with us, and send us questions via email, Twitter, chat with us during the show or leave a comment here.  We would love to hear from you.

The Immigration Show. In case you missed it.

Last night we discussed immigration. We started by chatting about my family’s personal adventures with the then INS, now USCIS which began with my husband’s arrival in this country as an H1 visa holder and culminated in his American citizenship (Which I blogged about, of course). I don’t know whether it was a labor of love, but it definitely was a labor. I think that the great immigration debate of 2006 definitely made things extra pointed for a few months.