Monday, June 20, 2011
The New Season
I have gone into a place that is urging me to disect Biblical verses and passages to further my knowledge around what is the best way to tackle daily challenges....and well that is Simple Enough
Friday, June 10, 2011
Heart and Soul Medicine
The heart weeps
Unmasked pain that travels centuries deep
Sends young men and women on a aimless journey
Running from the comfort and calm of home to the ruthless assault of the streets
Running to drugs dressed in a dreary dress of comfort
Running to violence disguised as attention
Running to Thugs dressed in garments of loyalty
Running to money camouflaged as fame
Shit is lame. Who do you blame?
Mothers wait on porch tops awaiting the return of their prodigal son
Fathers ride the streets searching for their exploited daughters
All the while children hide in search for something.
Ain't that 'bout nothing.
A sharp reality pierces over fragile American lie
"It takes a village to raise a child" but
it also takes one village men to kill a child
See we face the reality of death without maturity
Kids Killing Kids, a new war has been raised!
The KKK has taken off their sheets, darkened their skin
and take out our village from within
You can't win, who do you get angry at when your murderer is kin
A sin? Partly.
Lives cut shortly leaves us morning lonely.
What do you tell that mother waiting on her porch?
"Mama he ain't coming home no more!"
What do you tell that father?
"You won't see her again man, you're left alone"
How do you run from death when death hits home.
The bully of the world, that makes servant and king summit
The teacher of the world that equalizes Professor and Dropout student
The Executive of the earth that humbles interns and CEO's alike.
The equal opportunity employer that is death
My heart weeps
My soul hurts
These words are mustered from a place I know too well
When 15 year olds engage in gun wars
My Heart Weeps
My Soul Hurts
How do you console a mother who lost her child. She birthed him and not even two decades
later, she has to resubmit him back into the earth
MY HEART WEEPS!
because it will happen again.....and again
MY SOUL HURTS!
because as much as you teach, mentor, coach and be a REAL model,
not just a role model, you lose some.
If the all mighty God would sacrifice his only son to save the world. I pray that losing another 15 year old
black boy in the hood could save just 10 from the same fate. If the highest anyone gets in the hood comes
from a low place, so be it, because the Hood Is Gon Hurt. Just like the mother is, just like that father is,
Just like I am.
They say crying is like taking your soul to the laundry mat, well I've cleansed myself over these words and one day the pain will subside, the smiles will return, the anger will release and the joy will replace it and finally I will look back at instances like this and know that grace and mercy are still following me every single day of my life.....for that I am grateful.....this conundrum isn't simple but its simple enough to know.....keep praying
Heart Medicine
Unmasked pain that travels centuries deep
Sends young men and women on a aimless journey
Running from the comfort and calm of home to the ruthless assault of the streets
Running to drugs dressed in a dreary dress of comfort
Running to violence disguised as attention
Running to Thugs dressed in garments of loyalty
Running to money camouflaged as fame
Shit is lame. Who do you blame?
Mothers wait on porch tops awaiting the return of their prodigal son
Fathers ride the streets searching for their exploited daughters
All the while children hide in search for something.
Ain't that 'bout nothing.
A sharp reality pierces over fragile American lie
"It takes a village to raise a child" but
it also takes one village men to kill a child
See we face the reality of death without maturity
Kids Killing Kids, a new war has been raised!
The KKK has taken off their sheets, darkened their skin
and take out our village from within
You can't win, who do you get angry at when your murderer is kin
A sin? Partly.
Lives cut shortly leaves us morning lonely.
What do you tell that mother waiting on her porch?
"Mama he ain't coming home no more!"
What do you tell that father?
"You won't see her again man, you're left alone"
How do you run from death when death hits home.
The bully of the world, that makes servant and king summit
The teacher of the world that equalizes Professor and Dropout student
The Executive of the earth that humbles interns and CEO's alike.
The equal opportunity employer that is death
My heart weeps
My soul hurts
These words are mustered from a place I know too well
When 15 year olds engage in gun wars
My Heart Weeps
My Soul Hurts
How do you console a mother who lost her child. She birthed him and not even two decades
later, she has to resubmit him back into the earth
MY HEART WEEPS!
because it will happen again.....and again
MY SOUL HURTS!
because as much as you teach, mentor, coach and be a REAL model,
not just a role model, you lose some.
If the all mighty God would sacrifice his only son to save the world. I pray that losing another 15 year old
black boy in the hood could save just 10 from the same fate. If the highest anyone gets in the hood comes
from a low place, so be it, because the Hood Is Gon Hurt. Just like the mother is, just like that father is,
Just like I am.
They say crying is like taking your soul to the laundry mat, well I've cleansed myself over these words and one day the pain will subside, the smiles will return, the anger will release and the joy will replace it and finally I will look back at instances like this and know that grace and mercy are still following me every single day of my life.....for that I am grateful.....this conundrum isn't simple but its simple enough to know.....keep praying
Heart Medicine
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Life Motto
"Whatever you do,strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born could do it any better."
— Benjamin Elijah Mays
When I first heard this quote, it made perfect sense. If everyone could somehow channel all of their efforts and energy into what this quote requires, there would be no way in hell anyone or anything could hold back anyone. In fact the idea that anything is possible would quickly become an reality and that is ......Simple enough.
— Benjamin Elijah Mays
When I first heard this quote, it made perfect sense. If everyone could somehow channel all of their efforts and energy into what this quote requires, there would be no way in hell anyone or anything could hold back anyone. In fact the idea that anything is possible would quickly become an reality and that is ......Simple enough.
Friday, June 3, 2011
September 15, 1963
September 15, 1963
4 Girls murdered in church bombing
Addie Mae Collins 14
Carole Robertson 14
Denise Mcnair 11
Cynthia Wesley 14
Boy shot by white boy
Virgil Wake 13
Boy shot by police for throwing rocks
Johnnie Robinson 16
......Simply Sad....Simple Enough
4 Girls murdered in church bombing
Addie Mae Collins 14
Carole Robertson 14
Denise Mcnair 11
Cynthia Wesley 14
Boy shot by white boy
Virgil Wake 13
Boy shot by police for throwing rocks
Johnnie Robinson 16
......Simply Sad....Simple Enough
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Day 2: Birmingham
Day 2:
There is an immediate moment of rage that consumes you when you consider the 11 year old version of you being betrayed by the law. A law meant to protect and serve transformed into a militia meant to divide and conquer. I wonder, is it that simple to blast a minor with water or to take your K9 that doubled the victim in size and weight and unleash a fury that this child would never forget. Was it worth it? Could these officers sleep at night knowing they had stripped away the innocene of a teenager and made him or her fight a war that guranteed them nothing. Hard ache and terror was given to them at birth and children came every day to hand deliver America's gift back to her. In solitude they came to Birmingham and Selma, they came to Mississippi, they went to Georgia all in an attempt to give this racist world back their present of present danger. And since when has America turned down a gift.....only those gifts that were meant to destroy families and set back an entire race. America said "Sure you can keep that one." Yet these foot soldiers would not be denied. Rather 8 or 80, damaged or half crazy, they came not to be brutalized, just to give America what rightfully belonged to this land of the farce.....I mean the free....
Simple mistake...simple enough
There is an immediate moment of rage that consumes you when you consider the 11 year old version of you being betrayed by the law. A law meant to protect and serve transformed into a militia meant to divide and conquer. I wonder, is it that simple to blast a minor with water or to take your K9 that doubled the victim in size and weight and unleash a fury that this child would never forget. Was it worth it? Could these officers sleep at night knowing they had stripped away the innocene of a teenager and made him or her fight a war that guranteed them nothing. Hard ache and terror was given to them at birth and children came every day to hand deliver America's gift back to her. In solitude they came to Birmingham and Selma, they came to Mississippi, they went to Georgia all in an attempt to give this racist world back their present of present danger. And since when has America turned down a gift.....only those gifts that were meant to destroy families and set back an entire race. America said "Sure you can keep that one." Yet these foot soldiers would not be denied. Rather 8 or 80, damaged or half crazy, they came not to be brutalized, just to give America what rightfully belonged to this land of the farce.....I mean the free....
Simple mistake...simple enough
Could I have marched as an 11 yr old
I turned to my 11 year old self in search of an answer. The question, simply could you risk imprisonment for any cause at age 11 or any age for that matter. I struggle to summon the truth within me. There is the Malcolm part of me that says "by any means necessary" and then there is the 80s baby in me that reeks of apathy.
It was worth it. Given the opportunity of the moment I could and would have today. My 11 year old self could not have and simply would not have been strong enough to deal with the pressure of the moment.
I wonder could anyone of my generation have dealt with the racial injustice of that era....and the answer to that question really isn't simple at all.....
It was worth it. Given the opportunity of the moment I could and would have today. My 11 year old self could not have and simply would not have been strong enough to deal with the pressure of the moment.
I wonder could anyone of my generation have dealt with the racial injustice of that era....and the answer to that question really isn't simple at all.....
Civil Rights tour
The following is a journal I kept while on a Civil Rights tour with my students last week. Some of it is in Pros but this was a initial thoughts while viewing some of the sights that altered what we know about this America
Day 1-
Walking the walk of the Doctor
Finding the origin of the issue
Rather the crux of the matter
The culmination of a march that
was birthed from a bloody Sunday
One day that leaked into another
A people turned back by violence
looked for help and turned up the mirrors
A fearer of a people was what they were expected to be
So on the second time over the bridge being
served by the court turned them back quickly
Yet the 3rd time was not a charm, but a catalyse
and more of an example of what happens when people dont give up
Don't ever give up.
It really is that Simple enough.
Day 1-
Walking the walk of the Doctor
Finding the origin of the issue
Rather the crux of the matter
The culmination of a march that
was birthed from a bloody Sunday
One day that leaked into another
A people turned back by violence
looked for help and turned up the mirrors
A fearer of a people was what they were expected to be
So on the second time over the bridge being
served by the court turned them back quickly
Yet the 3rd time was not a charm, but a catalyse
and more of an example of what happens when people dont give up
Don't ever give up.
It really is that Simple enough.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Today I wrote my own Eulogy
Today I wrote my own Eulogy and for the first time in a long time, I was honest with myself about the things I didn't like in case of my untimely demise. First I went with a poetry groove, closer to a still I rise but I was unimpressed with the results. So I thought I would just put together a bunch of sentences in case of my untimely demise. Today I wrote my Eulogy because somehow I think I have been misunderstood for 24 years if that's possible. So I wrote a list of things I hate, so just in case people show up and say I liked these things, you know they weren't in my inner circle. Today I wrote my eulogy and I realized......
A) I hate when people tell me "I better" or "I need to" even when they are joking, I won't do it just because I don't take orders well
B) I can't take tears, I suppose because I don't remember the last time I cried, I don't know how to respond to it. Am I suppose to catch the persons tears, I don't get it. I figure, suck it up and move on.
C) FAT PEOPLE. Everyone knows I'm a phatophobic but I just don't get how someone would want to live like that
D) Whining voices! You know when people talk in a baby voice, I find that to be so patronizing because you have to make a conscious decision to change your voice into that non-sense.
E) Bad Parents....speaks for itself.
F) The idea of "Best Friend" because the idea itself means you must have worse friends, I will delve into that topic in another blog.
G) The concept of "Falling" in love because by definition it would suggest a mistake, strictly by the idea of Falling, again in another blog
H) Crowders! You know those people that never allow you to breathe. I've have found that people that haven't given me space in my past, I usually just created it. You know kind of like a post player in the NBA.
I) Dirty shoes.....speaks for itself
J) One sided friendships, where one friend does everything, puts in everything and as a result losses everything
K) People that never figure out themselves. I just feel like I know too many people who pinpoint one person in their lives and try to mirror everything they do. The problem with that concept is you only get to see whats in the mirror and never get to see whats in you. Yep that's another blog.
L) People that define themselves by a city, a number, an organization, a neighborhood. It is always OK just represent where you are from but to not understand yourself outside of those perimeters is suicidal.
M) I stop on "M" for a reason which I will explain sooner than later but in case my of my untimely demise there is a bunch of notes from bill collectors under my bed that I am currently avoiding. I know, it seems like a lot to digest but I am quite sure its SIMPLE ENOUGH
A) I hate when people tell me "I better" or "I need to" even when they are joking, I won't do it just because I don't take orders well
B) I can't take tears, I suppose because I don't remember the last time I cried, I don't know how to respond to it. Am I suppose to catch the persons tears, I don't get it. I figure, suck it up and move on.
C) FAT PEOPLE. Everyone knows I'm a phatophobic but I just don't get how someone would want to live like that
D) Whining voices! You know when people talk in a baby voice, I find that to be so patronizing because you have to make a conscious decision to change your voice into that non-sense.
E) Bad Parents....speaks for itself.
F) The idea of "Best Friend" because the idea itself means you must have worse friends, I will delve into that topic in another blog.
G) The concept of "Falling" in love because by definition it would suggest a mistake, strictly by the idea of Falling, again in another blog
H) Crowders! You know those people that never allow you to breathe. I've have found that people that haven't given me space in my past, I usually just created it. You know kind of like a post player in the NBA.
I) Dirty shoes.....speaks for itself
J) One sided friendships, where one friend does everything, puts in everything and as a result losses everything
K) People that never figure out themselves. I just feel like I know too many people who pinpoint one person in their lives and try to mirror everything they do. The problem with that concept is you only get to see whats in the mirror and never get to see whats in you. Yep that's another blog.
L) People that define themselves by a city, a number, an organization, a neighborhood. It is always OK just represent where you are from but to not understand yourself outside of those perimeters is suicidal.
M) I stop on "M" for a reason which I will explain sooner than later but in case my of my untimely demise there is a bunch of notes from bill collectors under my bed that I am currently avoiding. I know, it seems like a lot to digest but I am quite sure its SIMPLE ENOUGH
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Bird loves the Fish
Watching a video this weekend I heard the speaker say something that got me to thinking. He said a bird and a fish can fall in love but where would they live? He was mainly concentrating on ones ability or inability to sacrifice but it got me to thinking about the reasons for change. That change is often viewed as an immediate move mentally but more often physically. Yet I see the word change often being used as a way to escape from ones current situation both mentally and physically. Kind of like that feeling you get when someone ask you a question you don't want to answer or simply can't. There is that immediate need to get up and walk away. Some people may see you as a coward when you seek change because in essence you have found the need to walk away instead of answering the question. But would it be better to answer a question you don't have the answer to? To attempt a riddle that you didn't know you had started? Change exist because it is necessary, one might even say mandated.
Could the fish fall in love with the bird, sure. Could the bird love the fish just the same, of course. Do they need to be in the same element to love or even like each other....Nope. But could they utilize their current station in life to help the other realize its potential...Certainly. There is a natural fear associated with leaving something even while you still love it. After all it does seem natural to walk away and want a change when things get really difficult. Therein it must be natural to stay when things appear easy. Yet the easiest thing to do may just be the most difficult, like walking away while things seem so easy.
Would you rather walk away a battered, beaten and Sex Scandaled Bret Farve, trying to answer questions he could no longer answer or would you prefer to be the guy who made his job look easy and left people wanting more like a Barry Sanders. If fear causes change, does happiness cause content? Can it be said that a man is more vulnerable when he is happy because he may not be seeking that change that could alter everything around him. The simplest thought of changing everything around you may seem like it will kill you at first but maybe the you that is alive is not living anyway.
What if the bird that you are is not a soaring Eagle or gawking Owl? What if you are the wobbling Penguin or the slurping Goose and you needed to love that fish in the water enough to get you out of the clouds and where you needed to be because the element you where in had you lost. But I may have never known that if I wouldn't have tried right.
That may seem complex, but I am quite sure its Simple Enough.
Could the fish fall in love with the bird, sure. Could the bird love the fish just the same, of course. Do they need to be in the same element to love or even like each other....Nope. But could they utilize their current station in life to help the other realize its potential...Certainly. There is a natural fear associated with leaving something even while you still love it. After all it does seem natural to walk away and want a change when things get really difficult. Therein it must be natural to stay when things appear easy. Yet the easiest thing to do may just be the most difficult, like walking away while things seem so easy.
Would you rather walk away a battered, beaten and Sex Scandaled Bret Farve, trying to answer questions he could no longer answer or would you prefer to be the guy who made his job look easy and left people wanting more like a Barry Sanders. If fear causes change, does happiness cause content? Can it be said that a man is more vulnerable when he is happy because he may not be seeking that change that could alter everything around him. The simplest thought of changing everything around you may seem like it will kill you at first but maybe the you that is alive is not living anyway.
What if the bird that you are is not a soaring Eagle or gawking Owl? What if you are the wobbling Penguin or the slurping Goose and you needed to love that fish in the water enough to get you out of the clouds and where you needed to be because the element you where in had you lost. But I may have never known that if I wouldn't have tried right.
That may seem complex, but I am quite sure its Simple Enough.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Simple Enough entry 1
Well I believe I will begin this Blog thing. I think I have been selfish enough in holding my thoughts to myself. Some of my blogs will delve into real world events but very few. Most of my blogs will be about life and the way people think. Not in a effort to change anyone but to shed light on the actions of people around us. I don't think we pay enough attention to the pure bliss that life can bring. I will analyze some music from time to time and a few of my favorite people in life. This blog is for no one in particular, simply a deep thoughtful dialogue with myself. They say you can talk to yourself as long as you don't answer. No one ever mentioned typing. Entry 1 complete, next blog will be......well I wont put times on myself for fear I may interrupt the simplest thought to meet a deadline. So I will blog when the next simplest thought arrives.
Yep, I think that is SIMPLE ENOUGH.
Yep, I think that is SIMPLE ENOUGH.
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