What Ever Happened to Rae Dawn Chong?

During one of my bouts with insomnia, I recently saw a 1994 movie Rae did called Boulevard where Rae plays a prostitute named Old living in Canada. She takes in a young woman whose running away from her abusive partner and the two become fast friends but things quickly go awry. I thought Rae was great. In fact, I've always really liked her as an actress because she seems to ruminate depth and she gives me the impression that she is a thinking woman. I'd love to have a conversation with her in a New York cafe on a rainy day. She just strikes me as a woman with something to say. From Beat Street to The Principal to The Color Purple, I've always found her performances convincing and full of depth. I feel like she is one of those celebrities I'd like to meet just once. I remember about three and a half years ago when I was a graduate student at New York University,I was walking along Washington Square I saw and walked right past Lynn Thigpen, star of such movies as Lean on Me, Novacaine, and Anger Management and the the TV shows The District and L.A. Law. I absolutely loved her and I looked at her in astoundment and awe as I passed her. She saw me looking at her and she smiled by I was too chicken to say anything to her. Alas, she died in 2003 from a cerebral hemorrhage. I had an oppoortunity to tell her how much I love her and I wasted it because I was too shy and insecure to do anything about it. And the worst thing about it is that I think she would have been receptive to me. So this year, I have been intent on breaking out of my shell and taking a risk every month. If I ever met Rae Dawn Chong, I would definitely take the opportunity to tell her how much I respect her work. Maybe she'll be receptive to me and maybe she won't but at least I will have taken the chance.

stormy petrel - noun: 1. Any of various small sea birds of the family Hydrobatidae, having dark plumage with paler underparts; also called storm petrel 2. One who brings discord or strife, or appears at the onset of trouble

"America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up"
-- Oscar Wilde