I have been wondering why, when we ask for something and get it tenfold, we question it. We question getting what we asked for in the first place.  Did we not really want it?  Or did we not really believe we would get it when we asked for it?  Or maybe we ask with a preconceived notion of what we think we will get, which places a limit in our own minds on what we could get.  Or maybe, we don’t really have faith in our ability to handle that which we asked for. It would seem as though our faith is lacking somehow, when we receive exactly what we ask for and then sit down to ponder the receiving.  If we are putting in the work to achieve something and being the best we can be, and we are trusting in the faith of our beliefs, achieving our goals should be a joyous occasion.

I believe my father, Eddie Green, had faith in the process he chose to progress in life.  Eddie  wrote “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” when he was 17.  This song went on to be recorded by more than 30 artists over time.  People such as,  Marion Harris, in 1918, Wilbur C. Sweatman’s Jazz Orchestra, in 1919,  Bessie Smith, in 1919, Eddie Condon & His Band, in 1927 and Frank Sinatra, in 1947.  Too bad Eddie was not psychic because he sold his song in 1918, however, he was able to take this song out on the road for about two years with a company he called the “Deluxe Players”.

By January of 1920, the St. Louis Argus newspaper was posting “Last Chance To See Eddie Green’s Deluxe Players” because he was on his way to New York.  And he had written another song “Don’t Let No One Man Worry Your Mind”.  He had begun the process of building on that which he wanted to achieve, and by December of 1920 Eddie was in New York in a new burlesque show doing comedy.   Eddie was from a poverty-stricken background and became a comedian.

Eddie’s faith in himself and his process secured him a break into burlesque theater.   Eddie was in Tampa, Florida in 1920 touring with his company when he noticed an advertisement in the Billboard for a comedian.  Eddie had an engraver make him a letterhead with a fancy border and big letters that read “De Luxe Players”. There were 18 players in his company so he listed himself as “Eddie Green, owner-comedian-manager-director-organizer”.   He got the job.  He also got the job because he was truly funny.  According to an article I found in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1923,   “Eddie was the funniest black-skinned comic of them all.”

In December of 1920 “The Billboard” newspaper received a letter from Eddie that they said “was the most unselfish communication that has come to us since the department as been started”.  The letter was to tell other actors about the most convenient place to get a room in New York.  The newspaper editor noted that Eddie writes something other than letters, that he also wrote “A Good Man is Hard To Find,” This information helps me know that the Eddie Green they were talking about was indeed, my father, which helps the building process of the writing of my book about Eddie.  The Editor’s note also stated,  “He has also written himself into a class of regular fellows with the above letter.” This statement shows me what other people thought of Eddie’s character.  So it is probably a good idea to be seen as a regular fellow in life.

Faith, effort and being a regular fellow, that is what helps us get on in this world.  Belief in yourself and belief in that from which you expect help.  I believe if you truly have faith and you are doing the work, expect great things to happen in your life, and when they do, share it, because there are people like me who really need to hear stories of inspiration.