Some things are destined to be, though we usually become aware of this only in retrospect.  Jade Temple is meant  to be!  I can envision quite clearly now the very start of the chain of events that led to this moment.  The first probation officer I ever had --- Mr. Cooley --- jokingly said to me one day, "If you really  want to be a crook become an Accountant".  

(Mr. Cooley, along with Basim --- the Advocator assigned to me by him ----- allowed me my first glimpse inside Black Political Networking between the Urban League and other Black organizations with similar agendas).

​

And as fate would have it, I did  become an Accountant.  Not because I consciously pursued it as a goal, but because the opportunity literally appeared out of nowhere.  I was doing a bid at Elmira, in which I spent the majority of my time in the library.  There was a civilian who came through every so often and one day he walked over to my table, where I happened to be engrossed in Amy Vanderbilt's book on etiquette.  He straight-out asked me how would I like to personally  meet a Vanderbilt.  Why me!?!  Because he'd been observing me, the rapport I had with fellow inmates, and he could use my help in tutoring his ACCOUNTING class, consisting predominantly of Black students.  In return, he'd introduce me to a Vanderbilt.  I accepted the offer, took about a month to read a Century 21 textbook on accounting, and even managed to exceed his expectations. About a year later he offered me a gig in the outside world, but I wasn't enthused with the idea of relocating to the town of Elmira, NY.  So he exercised his clout and had a job as an Assistant Accountant waiting for me at South Forty, NYC, a non-profit company that boasted among its founding board members William Vanderbilt (former governor of Rhode Island) and William Bradley (a basketball player for the New York Knicks who later became a U.S. senator). I never did get to personally  meet a Vanderbilt, but I came damn close.

​

I discovered quickly that, if you actually worked inside a South-40 office --- as opposed to a "program" simply ran by them --- it meant you had a sponsor in high places.  I clicked with the receptionist from day 1, a Harlemite named Ponytail Gail whose sponsor was Jeddy G., Chief Detective of Homicide in NYC.  He became a drinking buddy, good friend, and a valuable link in the network.

​

 

I return now to Elmira.  The month I devoted to studying and completing almost every exercise in that accounting book came at the sacrifice of daily evening rec with The Crew.  But once I completed the challenge they were greatly impressed.  One of them, a barber, relayed the feat to  a convict named Doc, who was a transient in route to Clinton Correctional Facility.  Doc was at least 25 years my senior at the time and got his moniker by having earned at least one doctorate degree.  Wise Old-Gs in the prison system were always looking for a "son" to pass on their knowledge to.  After hearing about me he decided to stay at Elmira and take me under his wing.

Among other things, Doc was a Mason.  At that time I wasn't one, but knew more about it than I should have.  My grandpops was a Mason and we were very close, his pride and joy because I was a  crooner  just like him. I also had an uncle-in-law who was one, who practically lived for it! It was his little Blue Book I chanced upon, at age 10, during one of my treasure-hunting fantasies.  I Couldn't make sense of the funny characters in the place of regular text, but my mind retained a vivid image of the illustrations.  This went on for about a year before Unc got hip to it and hid the book where I couldn't find it again.  Doc was the first to explain to me that the "funny characters" were symbols of their cipher, and he taught me how to de-cipher them.  Doc also believed in the Sacred Feminine (the greatest of whom was Sophia --- Wisdom incarnate.  To this day she's my first love).  And I also first learned of the existence of Queen Bee and Jezebel Jade from him.  It was of the latter, along with the history of the first Black Clandestine Lodge, that my first manuscript, "The House of Spades", was inspired.  Is it just a coincident that Ja-DAY-ism could just as well been called JADE-ism!

​

Concerning the first Black Masonic Faction, Doc told me there were two kinds of Prince Hall Masons : the Christian Fundamentalists, with their literal reading of the Bible; and, for want of a better term, the Contemporary Academics (which he was), and who knew  and could demonstrate that the Bible consisted of myths and distorted history.  But the schism finally came in the wake of the COINTELPRO exposé.  For it had revealed that the FBI had managed to infiltrate Black Lodges with the use of Black spies and, therefore, Regular Black Lodges could no longer be trusted.  So many Masons began to work clandestinely in the underground.  And no one is more proficient at establishing secret networks than Black people; they've been active in the Underground Railroad even before the birth of Harriette Tubman! 

 

Before his release, Doc told me I'd always be looked after.  I never saw him again but I have no doubt that he was true to his word.

​

​

Thus, using South 40 as a model, _________ Embassy began as an honorary referral agency for street-smart people (WHAT you know) who couldn't afford the accreditation process (WHO you know).  The Embassy, however, engaged in a more proactive initiative, focused on providing the means of upward mobility before crime became an option.  It intended to accomplish this objective by securing placement in a private-sector network of mutually invested allies.  The motto remains: Seek, Find, Procure, and Deliver.

​

But there are some people who are illiterate and don't possess the savvy to thrive alone on the streets.  They need help the most.  And, so, ________ Embassy gradually evolved into Jade Temple in its present form.  Because IT'S DESTINY!

​