Just around the turn of the century, The Ballantine Publishing Group put out a series of books called The Library of Contemporary Thought. One of the first in the series, and apparently the only one that's not out of print, was, Workin' The Chain Gang: Shaking Off The Dead Hand of History by Walter Mosley (yes, the Walter Mosley of "Easy Rawlins" fame).

This is not a book I suggest to a lot of folks because I don't think many are ready for it.

Sections are crystaline, though, and this is one. This is Cosby's message, but it's descriptive of everyone. Somewhat lyric, but some messages are best delivered in that mode.

There's a difference between the person we see in the mirror and those we see in the street. My eyes are mine, as is my stomacheache, my broken heart, my slow descent into old age.

What does this have to do with the new millenium?

Just this: We must recognize the volume and quantity of baggage that we all carry; the years of experience, the quirks of our genes. We're like tiny three-leaf weeds that have beneath us a root system larger than a peacock's fan. What we show, what we see, is nothing compared to what we are. This is why change, real change, is so difficult.

Maybe you should shed a leaf, one three-leaf weed suggests to another.

I've been thinking of moving out from under the shade of that big oak, yet another weed declares.

Anything is possible, but not without the knowledge of our true situation. The three-leaf weed cannot simply move out from under the shade of the all-encompassing oak. She will have to alter the excruciatingly slow process of growth to drag her leaves to a brighter sun. Failing that, she will have to scatter her seed toward the light.