What is your favorite place to go by car?
My favorite place to go by car is home in Middletown, Connecticut. It’s where all my stuff is. All the things I love, the people that I care about most, are at home. I dig meeting people all over the country, but y’all forgive me if I like to be at home sometimes, too.
What is your favorite place to go by train?
I actually like the train. I wish the planes were more like trains. It’s more comfortable, it’s an easier travel. So, I’m real cool on a train. I prefer to go, since I live in Connecticut, from Connecticut to Massachusetts, or Connecticut to Rhode Island, or Connecticut to New York. Two hours of travel is good for me on a train. Once you start getting past that, it’s a whole different thing and I don’t like it as much.
What’s your favorite island?
My favorite island is St. Martin. I’ve been to a number of the islands and didn’t love them. I don’t know, maybe they were oversold or maybe I was just a curmudgeon. But, St. Martin had a real cool vibe. The people were cool. I liked the whole European experience. Like, even on the beach. Here in this country, we’re so body˗conscious. So, people are concerned if they weigh too much they can’t wear certain bathing suits or they gotta wear a shirt.
Out there, they wear what they wanna wear. And, I respect that. I respect people recognizing that this is the body that we have and we all work to improve it, but it is what it is. You don’t have to be a model to do it. And that was what St. Martin had. It just had a nice flow to it. I dug that place.
What three books are you reading right now?
I just finished reading a couple. I just read Let it Go, by Bishop Jakes, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and Pat O’Brien. See, there’s my two books. You see, there’s Bishop Jakes’ Instinct. I read Instinct most recently, Let It Go, and then I’ll Be Back Right After This from Pat O’Brien.
Who are famous people that you feel are doing the right thing, and get it, and are making an impact in our community?
So, what’s cool about my position is that when I communicate with people, I’m communicating with them about how we can improve our community. I’m not the one talking about which club is the best club, or which music is the best. I don’t know any of those answers to any of those questions.
So, when I’m communicating with Deion Sanders, with Bishop Jakes, P. Diddy, Pharrell, these are all people who reached out to me to help them play a bigger role in the community. Jalen Rose, Bill Cosby, those are all people who have, at different points, have reached out. And it’s real cool because I can think of a time when Pharrell reached out. He said he wanted to do something in education.
Or when Diddy reached out. He and I are working on a project as we speak that I’m hopeful will go through. I mean, if it doesn’t, it’s not gonna be because he didn’t do what he was supposed to do. And then Bishop Jakes and I are doing this great project now with Regent University, the T.D. Jakes School of Leadership. Those are the people who I know who are doing great work. Soledad O’Brien, through her Starfish Foundation of which I’m on the board. Those are the people who I personally know, have the phone number. They have my phone number and we talk about how to work together to get things done. Yeah, those are the ones I know. But there are many more.
