The Thinking Bloggers Award!

When I started this blog I had no intentions to use it to boost my ego unless you wanted to tell me how awesome my son or my family or my art was. Zero competition was the word in this blogger's mind because there's just too darn much of that in the real world. And yes, I had done my research and saw those little buttons on the sidebars of my future fellow bloggers' pages. They seemed as frivolous as a modern day beauty pageant.

Awards like that are meaningless to me for a simple reason. How do you judge someone to be Miss America or Miss Possum Kingdom (yes, there is a community nearby that goes by that name) or Miss pick-your-location by how she looks in a bathing suit? Or is it the popularity type contest you had in high school which you chose "Most Likely to Succeed?" Where is the depth of discovering what that individual is about? What makes that individual special besides good looks or a huge blog roll? Are they seriously wanting world peace or just another memory to clip out and paste to their scrap book?

Well today I was "tagged" so to speak. Kyla chose me as a recipient of The Thinking Bloggers Award for this post from a few days ago. When I read the reasoning behind it I began to understand that this particular award had much more meaning than "Best Blog of the Day" or "Best Humor Blog of South Carolina 2006." There is some incredible depth in being chosen by an individual fellow blogger.

Don't get me wrong. The awards most bloggers receive are justified and well-deserved. After all we all know how tough it is to spill our guts on a regular basis to readers we've never met and have them comment back as to how that spewage is received. And I'll be honest that my self-worth got the best of me last month when I asked one of the folks mentioned a bit later to literally critique this blog.

So I am humbled by this particular accolade. It was this story that moved Kyla enough to "nominate" me. I truly wish I could nominate her back because she and her husband's journey (a well-named blog) are an inspiration for our journey. the best part of this is that I get to introduce you readers to 5 more blog posts to receive the award. In fact these are the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

I must say this was extremely difficult because there is so much written within the pages of my blog buddies that would be worthy of the challenge. But the rules say I can only choose five. So here are my Thinking Blogger Awards (in no particular order):

1. The wonderful writers at Original Man challenge me daily. They are a "family" of African-American bloggers that I've grown to love and admire a great deal. They pull no punches in regards to living as life as black Americans and stereotypes they still face. There is honest judgment and discussion of their own (past and present) culture but more importantly the bloggers write about issues that face ALL of us like the Sun King Poet's Dust in the Wind. I just cannot say enough about this blog. It is imperative reading for me.

2. I find Casey, the writer of Moosh in Indy , to be a terrifically funny writer. She's the mother of the The Moosh who is toddling quite well and the attitude to prove it. Her husband is currently in law school which presents some unique financial challenges. Casey recently wrote a very poignant piece entitled Meet Aunt Cheryl that proves just how important it is to look beyond someone's out appearance to find the real person inside.

3. Cynthia is a middle-aged mother of an adopted 2-year-old boy. Tsukismom Speaks shares her thoughts in raising her son as a single mom and along the way she posts some of her brilliant poetry. Oh yeah, she is white and her son happens to be black. Race and Adoption reveals one of the most frustrating aspects of their journey.

4. If you've read the blog for any length of time you'll know why I have a deep respect for and connection with Redneck Mommy. The poor lady regularly backs into snow drifts, does her house-cleaning with a shovel, and occasionally keeps dead livestock around just for the thrill of it. She wants you to believe that she is the Lucy Ricardo of The Great White North. What you may may not know is that she harbors a heavy heart. Choosing one of her more "thinking" entries was most difficult (there are so many) but Invisible Man seemed to be the obvious choice here.

5. And last but definitely not least I had to find something of Jeni's. She began An Editorial of Life about the same time I started blogging and her posts are a must read for me each day. Let's just say Jen tells things like they are which is to say she's a sassy young mommy with and attitude. The Mamas & the Papas is an humorous look at a motherhood experience that my wife really identified with.

So there you have my choices for receiving The Thinking Bloggers Award. I'll very interested in seeing and reading who you all have chosen.