Midnight and the Meaning of Love (89 page)

A
ll praise is due to OUR CREATOR first, last, and forever. Thank YOU for life, love, mercy, and protection. Thank YOU for your magnificent expressions including the sun and the moon and the stars, the sky, the oceans, and the waterfalls, for our souls, minds, memories, and imagination, and of course for the breath of life!!!!!

Thank YOU for all of the people and cultures and languages that YOU have uniquely created, so beautifully.

Thank YOU for every single word on every single page of every single book and story that YOU have gifted to me. ONE LOVE. Amen.

Home

Thank you to my husband and son for allowing me to live inside of my wild imagination. Love y’all. Thank you to both of you for leading and following me around the globe.

Big up to Brooklyn, Harlem, da Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, NEW YORK, and every single hood in America! Big up to every barrio and favela, quarter, prefecture, section, and area worldwide where the youth swarm, swell, and dwell thirsty for love, guidance, direction, survival, and profits!

Thank you to Jada Pinkett Smith for your conversation and
consideration and for being good to my family and for loving my words and stories. Remember, whatever is meant to happen will and the rest will not! I’ve been at peace with that forever. Thank you to Will Smith for being smart, funny, and kind. Thank y’all for welcoming my family in Beijing, China, and for “putting us up!” May God protect and keep your family safe and blessed! Big up to Fawn always.

Thank you Kishana for typing thousands of pages! Thank you to Dejah, the last real “GHN”. Imani Rain, please believe in love. Your name, Imani means faith! Thank you to Nekyzsa for helping out even though you believe work is for jerks! Thank you Patty, the reader, who came in at the ninth inning. Thank you Bebon, the courier.

Also nomaste to Divyanok and Manjari, thank you for inviting us to the celebration of the new life that the two of you brought into the world. Thank you for sharing your culture and traditions and faith openly.

Shukran to the Joeyness family.

Thank you to Martinique for being so cool and pretty. It was nice to meet you on the streets of Ginza. My family loves and welcomes you always.

Thank you Gabber and Tasha! Thank you Mustapha El Amin and Wafaa Abdalla for the “Sudanese vibration.”

Dr. Monica Martin and Dr. Barbara Justice, the medical geniuses, healers, sisters, and friends, thank you.

Thank you Uncle Bobby for your big heart and love for family.

Rest in peace Daddy. You finally brought me home from Tokyo.

A warm and heartfelt thank you to all the women, men, and juveniles who are imprisoned and captured, reading and discussing the pages of my books searching for truth and self-improvement.

My Korean Family

Camsamidah to Ms. Jae Kyung Lee, my “everything lady,” thank you for sharing your culture, historical knowledge, translations and insights, and for being open and without prejudice. Comoptah to the entire Lee family: Sam Kyung, Che Wee, and Jo-50. It was a great experience to live with your family. Thank you for traveling with us and welcoming us to South Korea.

Pansa Yun Sun Kim, thank you for your gracious interview and research. Professor Sango Kim, thank you for hosting my family at your university.

“My Professor,” comopsimidah for eleven months of laughter and friendship and meaningful conversation. Respect to you and your wife and family. I miss you!

To Ms. Joy Kim, thank you for hosting me and making it possible for me to meet Jung Ji-Hoon. Thank you for concert tickets to the Saitama Super Arena. It was amazing to see 20,000 Asian faces enjoying Rain’s music. Hope to work together in the future. Words are powerful and bring communities together.

To Hyejin Kim and Seo Sun Hwa, I love you ladies. Thank you for your friendship. You two will forever be my “chingoo.”

To Master Jo and the entire Jo Family. Respect to Hong Moo Kwan.

Thank you to KBS. It’s good to see y’all have your own thing! Big up to Seoul for having so much soul. Big up to beautiful Busan.

My Japanese Family

Arigato gozaimashta to Yuki Morita and the entire Morita Family! Big up to Suiko the “Prima Ballerina!” Thank you to Miho Tominari for working extra hard navigating and translating and for making us
laugh a lot! And the entire Tominari family, thank you. Thank you to Rezzy for your art and your style. Big up to Japorican. Thank you to Reiko, Sayaka, Jennifer, Yuka, Mr. Masutani.

Special thanks to Moses, Joe Hassan, Mamdou, and Kayoko.

Thank you to Kazuho the lovely one! Thank you for being smart and sweet and cooperative! I appreciate you. Thank you for NOT being a diva, they take up too much time and have so little to offer!

Thank you to Japan, an incredible and unique empire. Thank you to Shinjuku, Roppongi, Harajuku, Kichojoji, Shin Okubu, Takadanobaba, Yokohama, and all of Tokyo. Respect to Kyoto, “The Pretty Place” and Arashiyama. Much love to Osaka for the coolest people and hip-hop and lively youth.

Japan, thank you for being a peaceful place, a healthy place, a polite place, a beautiful place, an exciting place, and for having a nation of calm and orderly people!

Special thanks to Mariko Sensei, a patient and knowledgeable teacher.

My China Girls!

Liu Ying, Pan Ting, and Vivian—my Chinese opera singing, smart, quick, and happy translator.

My Thai Family

To Moo and Penny and Bell, and the entire Pimaan Thai Crew!

To Way and Nana, shout out to Bangkok.

Professional Services

Thank you to my editor, Emily Bestler, for throwing your hard work and continuous presence and heart into my project.

Thank you to Judith Curr, “the publishing boss.”

Thank you to Jeanne Lee, Dana Sloan, and Alysha Bullock. Thank you to production, the unseen workers who toil over every letter.

Thank you to Steve Wasserman and Bob Scheer for getting it all started from No Disrespect.

Thank you Mark Edwards, Kazuho Fujiwara, Martinique Brown, Wafaa Abdallah, Monique DiPasalegne, Miho Tominari, Yuki Morita, Jae Kyung Lee, Rezzy, and Danielle Priestor.