This is episode number 34 of the My Quest For Quotes podcast. The title of this week’s episode is, Challenge Accepted During Black History Month we are looking at quotes that are related to Black History, but I’m trying to NOT consider the customary names that come up each year in February. We first looked at the artist who was ahead of his time, Otis Redding Jr. Then we looked at an example of, what I considered to be great parenting from my FaceBook friend Krischa Esquivel, author of “Losing Control, A Guide To Successful Non-Violent Parenting. Last week I asked the question, Is Gregg Popovich Right? Gregg Popovich, the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs declared that the U.S. is a racist country. Check out episode number 33 for more on that. This week is the final episode for Black History Month. I simply had to take this week’s quote from the recently released Marvel Comics movie, “Black Panther.” Black Panther is an absolutely great movie! Actually, using a quote from the movie is an excuse for me to talk about the movie especially seeing that it is Black History Month. The quote comes from King T’Challa aka The Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman. He makes the same quote in two separate scenes in the movie. The quote is, “I accept your challenge.” Each time that he made this statement, the fate of the country that he loved, Wakanda, was at stake. And, each time his challenger, at least physically, was bigger and stronger than the king when stripped of his special powers. Yet, each time he accepted the challenge. To me, this is a great metaphor for us when we have to face the challenges of everyday life. And make no mistake about it life is full of challenges. For us, just like for the mythical character king T’Challa, even if we accept the challenge there is no guarantee of success. I hope that you would agree with me that the magic sauce is actually in the trying! Ok, let’s talk about the movie! Don’t worry, if you’re one of the few people that haven’t seen the movie yet, I’m not going to spoil the movie for you at all! First of all, I am not a Marvel Comic person at all. Second of all, I’m not really that much of a Marvel Comic movie person either. Until now, my favorite Marvel movie was The Avengers! Well, after the opening day of Black Panther, I have a new favorite Marvel movie! I absolutely loved everything about Black Panther. The pageantry, the plot, the plot twists, the acting, the directing, the cinematography I loved it all. To be honest I didn’t get caught up in any of the lead up to the movie, because again, I’m not much of a Marvel Movie person. If I’m remembering correctly, prior to Black Panther, I had never seen a Marvel movie at the theatre, ever. So, a good friend of mine texted me sometime after 8pm on opening night saying he was thinking about seeing the movie around 9:30, I said let me know if you do and I’ll meet you there. I knew I wasn’t going to take my wife to see a Marvel movie, so I was like why not! I didn’t know what to expect! All of the main characters were played perfectly by the actors, every actor landed the right roll. My favorite main character actually had the fewest scenes of all the other main characters. M’Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe, played by actor Winston Duke. Duke dominated every scene that he was in. You’ll be seeing more of him in the future. One of the things that hurts him in getting rolls is the fact that he is 6’5” tall. The other character that jumped off the screen was Okoye, the General of the Wakandan army played by Danai Gurira. She was electric! My immediate impression at the end of the movie, was that Black Panther wasn’t a great Marvel movie, it wasn’t a great Black movie, it was a great movie PERIOD! It has everything! Drama Intrigue Action Betrayal Family Loyalty Hope Honor Revenge Bravery A great movie indeed!
