goat yell like a man (i like)

for everyone that needs a little laughter sometimes. please enjoy this video (preferably repeatedly):

flashin'

thanks to youtube and a few friends on facebook, a phenomenon called flash mobs has recently come to my attention. as far as i can tell it's a large group of strangers that descend on some public location and do a choreographed group dance or performance. i love it, i've added to the list of goals for my life to participate (or help organize) at least one of these pranks before i die, but preferably within the next year. here's an example so you can see the amazing-ness for yourself:

ante up

okay. two in one day may seem like a lot, but we can't control inspiration. i suppose it's just coincidence that a good friend just sent me the link to another amazing video of a slightly different persuasion than our favorite UK boy band. i also realize that i may be really late on seeing these clips that everybody has laughed at for years, but it's new to me and i am not ashamed. perhaps some of you will also appreciate sesame street's bert and ernie singing "ante up! get that fool! ante up! kidnap that fool! get em! hit em! get em! hit em!" perhaps not. but here it is either way:

i couldn't help it

aw yeah, check it, check it out, second verse girl!

so a friend of mine introduced me to this diamond of a song that i had never heard before, and i must admit has consistently been able to change my mood and get me laughing. it's by this UK boy band from the 90's called 5ive, who had one hit here in the US (at least as far as my recollection goes) called "when the lights go out". this other song, i feel is infinitely better, for too many reasons to explain. let's content ourselves with saying that everything about it raises many questions worth (or not) pondering at least momentarily.

we'll use the first line as an example: "do you wanna get freakay, when the five of us make one?"

what does that mean? i don't have an answer for that, if anybody else does i'd love to hear your thoughts. don't limit yourself to the lyrics either, the images themselves also provide plenty of absurd moments to enjoy. nuff said. check it:

westside trippin'

i've been out for a minute, it gets hard to keep up when you're on the road for weeks on end. i'll try and be back for now. i'm still in between times, preparing to move out west for grad school. speaking of the west, i just got back from a couple weeks in california, serving, teaching, mobbing hard with good people (more on that later).

i spent a couple days in LA at the end of the trip with my brother. We had the good fortune of a rare Minnie mouse sighting on the street. It must have been about 100 degrees outside when we spotted Minnie mouse packing up her car across the way. We even witnessed the tearful reaction of a toddler after watching Minnie get into her car and take her head off. Poor kid....

God said...

have you ever seen those billboards on the highway, the ones that are all black with white type, and say something like "i am the way, the truth, and the light. - God"? it's pretty common to see signs that say "Jesus saves" in people's front yards where i stay. there's also this one intersection with a long, low to the ground sign that has two arrows on it, one pointing up, the other pointing down. the message reads "turn to Jesus before it's too late" (check the pic).

it doesn't really bother me to see these signs all over the place, but i'm really curious about how other people feel. what do you think when you see these signs on the highway, or in your neighborhood? how different is this to when people put signs in their yard broadcasting who they plan to vote for in an upcoming election? or hanging a flag in front of your house? is it any different from wearing a shirt with a picture of somebody's face, like che guevara for instance? how important are these statements we make about ourselves and our beliefs based on signs we put around our house, stickers on our cars, clothes, or even tattoos and piercings? do these things really reflect something about who we are inside, or should they be regarded as simply superficial things meant to be fashion? personally, i tend to try and stay aware of what my outer trappings might suggest about who i am. what y'all think?

road trippin'

sorry for being away for so long. the last few weeks have been pretty busy, and recently returned from a week long road trip all up and down the east coast. you may have noticed the amazing photo that accompanies this post. at a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania we discovered this claw game called "Bling King".

This may seem unremarkable at first, but upon further inspection there were some interesting things to note about this special claw game. The majority of the prizes were amazingly cheap-looking pieces of shiny plastic jewelry. Thrown in the mix sort of randomly was also an assortment of different sea shells, and some polished rocks.

the crowning glory (excuse my sarcasm) of this realest truest hoodest claw game, is the picture at the top of the white guy in the suit, surrounding by these two black-face women fawning over him. i'm not even sure what to say about it really. i'm not the only one who finds that absurd right?

how does that happen? you know, who came up with idea for this claw game, pitched it, and had somebody with money to make it happen say "yeah, make a 'ghetto' claw game and put a picture of a white dude pimpin' a couple black chicks at in between the name Bling King. that'll be perfect." there's race and gender issues at least involved in that process somewhere. i would love to hear what your thoughts are on the matter. holler at me.

reader discretion advised

i say reader discretion is important for this post because the subject is pretty intense. a friend sent me a link to a BBC article about some recent amputations carried out under Sharia law in Somalia. four young men, estimated to be between the ages of 18 and 25, were accused and convicted of robbery, and sentenced to lose their right hand, and left foot.

i know this isn't the first time that such cruelty has characterized the execution of so-called "justice" in human history. i'm also fairly convinced that we still have a ways to go before we'll see such violence for the last time. however, it still deeply saddens me when i hear about my people perpetrating these heinous acts in the name of law, or piety, or revenge, or any reason at all really. it hurts me that these young men now must live with the pain and humiliation of losing two vital appendages.

perhaps someone might wonder how i could have sympathy for criminals, or people who have broken the law. well, some people do commit atrocities, and there must be ways for society to justly punish these people. at the same time, no matter what a person may do, i believe in essence that human beings are inherently noble. that the abasement we see results from our lack of education about what this nobility means, and requires of us to live up to our potential. because people are noble, even when they have made poor choices in life (who's perfect anyway, i make mistakes and poor choices plenty often) the possibility always exists for positive transformation. i can also say that i don't want to see people suffering regardless of which "side" of the law they're on when it happens. i want to see people becoming increasingly aware of the oneness of humanity. to see that this whole planet is our family, and that we can't rest easy while our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins (you get the point) are in pain.

all the suffering in the world will not be solved overnight in case you were holding on to some extra high hopes. they can and will, however, be overcome through a unified effort on the part of a growing population around the world, that regard it as one civilization, and want to make it a safe, beautiful, and prosperous place for all people. until then, even if you haven't heard me say it recently, just know that it hurts me to see people in pain.

as always your own ideas and reflections on such an intense issue are strongly encouraged. what do you think about all this? is corporeal punishment an appropriate way to carry out justice? what is an appropriate punishment for crimes like robbery? why do people use religion to sanction barbarism? in the context of islam, if God is the Merciful and the Compassionate, does violent punishment really reflect mercy and compassion? have we misunderstood God's will? holler.

my prayers and my love are for this human family.

spiritual flapjacks?

so the story is: i just signed up on rainn wilson's website soul pancake. here's what i think so far. i love that it's so arts driven, and that you're really encouraged to be creative in expressing yourself and uploading content. the fact that it's purpose is to provide a space for people to explore and discuss matters of spirituality and relationship to God is fantastic. it's refreshing to see a space for a subject that affects so many people to be so open. while for a long time it was taboo, or in some ways 'not allowed' to want to talk about our beliefs and ideas when it comes to the soul or contemplating our Creator, now we have one more green light to speak our hearts and minds.

the discourses of society, the various aspects of reality that help shape how we think about, talk about, and behave in the world, have been a growing area of awareness for me, particularly during the last several years. the messages and images we see in the media around us, the news, what we learn in school, all have an impact on the types of thoughts we're likely to have, the questions about ourselves and society we're likely to ask, and the conclusions we're likely to reach. it also plays a role in how we observe and evaluate the challenges we see facing our global community, and the solutions and strategies for addressing them we can imagine. in light this influence that discourse can exert on our collective consciousness, it's especially significant for so many young people to have a forum for engaging in dialogue and reflection about an area that's long been neglected.

all these wonderful things aside, that doesn't mean that by participating in such a discourse, anybody has to accept or agree whole-heartedly with everything anybody shares in that space. in a sense, it's partly the point that we all have different experiences and ideas to contribute. that in the exchange of these ideas we all can learn a little more about ourselves, each other, and the world we live in. i suppose all i really want to say is that it's cool that we can participate in such a massive dialogue that addresses many of the concerns most pressing to the human heart. nuff said. check it out if you want, or don't. but do share any thoughts you have related to such things, or your own experiences or stories from using the site.

slummin

what's fun about riding through the slums?
it might be home, but it's a sign of the pain we come from
i go dumb trying understand why it's impressive
to show your date a scene that reeks of oppression
when will we learn our lesson?

stop letting the system rape our bleeding culture
stop selling our struggle
stop pimping our souls for disposable income
of kids living in the suburban bubble

just let it burst, it'll hurt
we owe it to our people for what it's worth
i'm done watching art pass by in a hearse

the crown

when you standing on the ground you looking up
you see the brow adorned with a crown
and drown your sorrows in a cup
when you're alone, the climb is twice as far to the throne
you thrown out in the cold thinking of giving up
on your own they looking at you like you ain't living up
to they standards you can't find the answer
at the bottom of a bottle of stout
or the end of a philly burnt and hollowed out
it's when the feet finally follow the mouth
they see the deeds do what your mouth is talking about
they see the seeds planted and now the plant is peeking out
excuse me teacher i'm sorry for speaking out
but i can't see the reason for what you're teaching 'bout
the truth is what they usually preach about
if i question what they preach am i seeking doubt?
if i see truth i believe i should seek it out
tongue loose preacher said i should watch what i'm speaking 'bout
keep kneeling down hail mary
repeat it or God is telling peter keep him out
no heaven when time on the meter's out
I'm a ride for the Glory and see the sequence out
and see sense in the Speaker on the Mount
now we back to the climb up to hear the Sound
we pick it up to keep from falling down

to my.......

to my people still pedaling holding stereos
to the kids without ipods playing music from cell phones

to my young dudes sitting by the train pan handling
to my mothers working three shifts while the streets raise the kids

to my families with one bedroom for ten people to live
to the minimum wagers that find change to give

to my daughters scared of daddy coming back so you hid
to my sons who went through what my daughters just did

to the parents who suffered so hard to give us this
but never talk about the struggle they try so hard to forget

for the children coming up that can't appreciate it and
take for granted that they're standing on the shoulders of giants

for my atheists dying daily through self-reliance
and can't see God blowing the breath of life that's inside them

for the pastor on his knees, in denial of the wolves
decimating his sheep and power of the Lord

as He who truly blesses and keeps the soil
of the hearts fertile for the harvest we reap

for the imams on jomeh protecting the believers, who hear
Allah call yet are too backwards to pick up the receiver

for fundamentalists preaching the return of the Son, that
burn in hell until its burned in them the Prophets are ONE

to my killers that took life with no value for their own
with a death wish for deliverance from being alone

to my doctors writing prescriptions for kickbacks on drugs
and taking long vacations to test new golf clubs

for the chemists that cook crack and others that cure cancer
and the students by day and by night exotic dancers

for the hopeless romantics and cheating 'gimme 1 more chancers'
for the passive aggressives to the eager to get the last words

to concrete jungle survivors and lazies grazing in pastures
to baby-boomers flashing back to '68 & thugs that bully for stature

to those losing their way and couldn't wait for the Rapture
what if i told you that it already came and had passed ya

would you open your eyes, or would you hush me with laughter?

carry on commencements

word up - it's about time for us to continue our exploration of ridiculous statements heard in graduation speeches. now that we've considered some of the implications of viewing the university experience as separate and apart from the 'real world', we can move on to other false assumptions about young people.

one of the refrains we hear almost any time someone is speaking to the importance of young people is that we are the future. that the prosperity and safety of the future rests with us, that one day we will be the leaders and shapers of society, and how wonderful it is that a college education has prepared us to assume these responsibilities...........one day. there is some truth in that the youth of today will be the shepherds of nations and the world for some time in the future, however, this type of thinking implies that we are not able to actively contribute to the rebuilding of society or directing significant efforts of social change TODAY.

there must be many factors that lead to such an assumption, so we'll try and mention at least a few of them. in the united states, it's become a fairly established cultural tradition to extend childhood as long as possible. what does that mean? well, it means that as a society, through various systems including education, mass media, politics, etc. we repeatedly tell young people that their primary objective in life is to have as much fun as they can now, because later they will have to enter the 'real' world and be responsible, hard-working adults. we can see the evidence of such an approach in the institutions of society. one example (which certainly could be investigated further to find the exact percentage) is that the overwhelming majority of people serving as members of congress (House and Senate) are 50+ years of age. that means that practically all of the people creating new laws and policies by which our country is governed represent only one generation of americans. how can our legislative institutions make decisions that are truly effective and beneficial for the entire country if the perspectives and voices of multiple generations are not fully heard? it is true that with experiece comes wisdom, and it is important that some of our public servants have seen and experienced enough to offer an informed historical perspective. at the same time, it is also important to understand that often times young people, though with less life experience but properly educated, see the challenges we face in society in another way, and may offer ideas and views that shed light on old and new problems alike. this diversity of perspective add strength to the overall understanding of the institution and insures that as many possible angles are seen and the best possible course adopted. the same principle applies in terms of the importance of having a balance of women and men represented, and racial and ethnically balanced representation.

another manifestation of the extension of childhood is the decreasing value of a standard liberal arts bachelor's degree in preparation for a career. economic recession notwithstanding, it's been getting harder and harder for graduates to find suitable career paths directly out of college. most liberal arts programs don't provide much in the way of marketable skills, prompting young people to seek more and more advanced degrees, or look for work that often is very unrelated to their major subject of study. this essentially communicates that you're not ready to work yet, you need more training. if you're needed greater training then you still have to wait to make your significant contribution to the advancement of society. closely related to this is how often most of our education is the memorization of information and theories, generally divorced from practical experience and bearing little relevance to choosing a meaningful career path that somehow serves humanity, but this concept should be further considered in future posts.

perhaps the most fundamental disadvantage to encouraging the population to carry the habits of behavior and thinking of childhood through adolescence and even early adulthood is the limiting effect it has on how young people think about themselves. if we let it, it can convince us that we lack the capacity to serve and advance our communities because we lack the necessary education, life experience, financial resources, understanding of the world, etc. as we move towards a learning approach to life, we will better understand the futility of waiting for more experience, more education, more training, more permission to take ownership for the conditions of society and begin to take action towards social transformation. the truth is that every individual has the capacity to contribute in some way to the betterment of society, and that the sooner we embrace this the earlier we can start to learn about which lines of action seem to bring the most benefit and how to refine and expand our efforts over time. NOW is the time for young people, with their vast energy, creativity, and fresh perspectives to be empowered to work in and for the community, embarking on a path that education and training can lend clarity to and enhance as we directly apply the themes and concepts to the social action in which we are already engaged.

it would be foolish to think that we've exhausted the many complexities of these social dynamics, and therefore this is an area to which we'll frequently revisit as the conversation progresses. feel free as always to share your thoughts on the matter.

PS - stop telling young people that we only represent the future. we ALL have a part to play today.

the Blessed Beauty

the soul is limitless
living bliss living legend
living in the midst of murders, thieves, and peasants
dreams and forgotten hopes decay in the hole
the dungeon too foul pain impossible to hold
the last in society the first to see the light
a living song of God yet He was tortured through His life
these cowards dragged Him down to the lowest place
below disgrace and beneath the lowest eyes
just to turn around and bow before Him when we die
they chained His neck, shackles on His ankles
the fetters left scars time could never fully whether
still the Blessed Beauty, still limitlessly above
any humble expression of fervent undying love
dying of choke lungs die to walk upon the dirt
that was touched by His foot so i'm dying to prove my worth


..........touched by His foot, yeah i'm dying to prove my worth

commence the commencements!

aww yeah, it's graduation season again. folks all around the country and the world are passing milestones in education - transitioning from primary to secondary education, earning an associate's or bachelor's degree, or completing master's and other advanced degrees. it so happens my brother just earned his BA from a college in pennsylvania, and the family gathered for encouragement and celebrating his entering a new stage in life. as long as school's been around in the world we've watched the ceremonies and rituals associated with graduation evolve.

at this point it's pretty standard that everybody dresses up in these funny caps and gowns (it's one of the few times you'll catch men of all kinds perfectly comfortable with the fact that what they're wearing is called a 'gown'. well that, and when you go to the doctor for a check-up and you have to put on that awkard paper thingy). all the graduates file into long rows of seats and then wait until each of their names are read aloud and they walk across a stage of sorts and shake hands with administrators, receiving their certificate in the process. but before student's names are called, often times some accomplished administrator, academic, celebrity, or politician gives some kind of address meant to encourage and inspire the graduating class to reach for greater heights of excellence when they step into the 'real' world.

when i heard the speakers referring continuously to my brother's class as being prepared to enter the real world, i couldn't help but wonder where they'd been for the past four years, and the 18 or so before that. clearly the intensity of attending a college or university and the daily patterns of life are unique, and differ greatly from both life and school before college and full-time involvement in the work force afterwards. while these conditions are special and different from other stages in life, i wasn't aware they were significant enough to imply that college exists separately from the rest of the world.

you'll forgive my tone, it's just that i've grown a bit of tired of people constantly separating and dividing different aspects of life into discreet categories that aren't supposed to be related - you know like work is separate from family, which is separate from friends, separate from religion, separate from politics, etc. i remember at one job being told repeatedly that i was lucky to experience certain flexibilities in the workplace, because that certainly wouldn't fly in corporate america. it was quite aggravating because i wasn't working in corporate america, so why should standards of conduct and professionalism exert such an influence on the expectations for my job. now one might notice that i'm making a distinction between corporate america and other industries after railing against excessive divisions in our world view. here lays the nuance of the concept, it is not that there are no distinctions and differences in various realms of human endeavor, but that despite the differences we see, they all take place in a common space (the world) and influence each other (some more greatly than others, power and influence in the world is certainly not balanced).

part of what frustrated me about my experiences being compared with corporate america, was that the implication was that corporate america was the golden standard of what was right and good in terms of effective industry, while the environment in which i was working was some fantasy realm with special rules that don't apply in the 'real' world a.k.a. corporate america. is it too aggressive for me to say that i think that's nonsense? firstly, corporate america is plenty corrupt and not even remotely representative of the principles of justice and equity that i believe should underly all human endeavors, and therefore not the standard i wish to aspire towards in my work. secondly, regardless of how you feel about the standards and principles that should govern industry, the work done by organizations and people 'outside' the context of corporate america very much take place in the REAL world, involve real people, and have real outcomes (some to the benefit of humanity and others of course to the detriment of society, but real consequences nonetheless).

it seems to me a fundamentally flawed perspective to minimize the impact of endeavors not consistent with the corporate model, and one that is not useful if you hope to participate in rebuilding all aspects of society to support true justice and global prosperity.

bottom line.................................get it?

i really intended to touch on some of the other things said commonly in commencement speeches about youth and the future and education, but that'll have to wait til later i guess. in the meantime, holler with your thoughts.

under pressure

the pressure builds up i feel like i can't take it
so i fake it, sometimes it's the only way to make it
i feel naked, all alone with no defenses
racks my senses and comes out in my sentences
guess it's revenge against all the times i feel focused
wonder why it doesn't work out how i hoped it would
if i could i'd control every angle to make it certain
that the hurting was contained in a corner of my brain
conductor hold the train, it's a strain i can't rush

hush to all the voices

i find i feel best when i make my own choices
not with every direction that's pulling me
been a long time, been a long rhyme
feel the wrong enzyme release the wrong hormone
that's why i fall out the zone of coherence in my life

to chaos in my thoughts

no way to settle down when the maze leaves you lost
sometime when we pay we don't realize the cost
it can be a lot how do we know it's enough
i pray to recognize when i'm spending too much

bachelor what?

i got an email a few days back from a friend asking for any ideas about how to plan a dope bachelor party with no booze, strippers, or drugs. for a lot of people out there, that may defy the definition of "bachelor party". i haven't been to, nor planned many bachelor parties myself, and i really only know of a couple that were clean, sober, and hooker-free (as in without hookers, not that the hookers were there for free). the only idea i could pass on to my friend was to go out to a place like dave and buster's (it's this restaurant slash big arcade for grown folks) with a bunch of dudes and play skee-ball and video games. maybe that suggestion was helpful, or maybe it was lame (though anybody who doesn't know how fun it is to make a fool of yourself by struggling through several rounds of dance dance revolution to loud house music is probably lamer). either way, what's actually important are the thoughts that his question inspired about the whole concept of a bachelor party.

in responding to my friend, it occurred to me (perhaps for the first time) that before we plan a bachelor party, regardless of how clean we'd like our fun to be, we might want to consider the social implications of such a tradition. in doing so it's useful to consider the tradition as most commonly practiced, i.e. the drunken debauchery and pseudo-supposedly-semi-permissible-
or-rather-begrudgingly-accepted infidelity that usually accompanies it.

personally, i'm having a really hard time with the whole "infidelity is just part of life, everybody cheats, just don't get caught" thing. i'm overwhelmed by how many songs on the radio, and movies and television shows, portray people two-timing and playing each other as if it's only disrespectful if #1 - you get caught and #2 - it's her (or his) friend. i refuse to condone the disdain and degrading view of women demonstrated by men who believe it's okay to engage whoever they want sexually whether they're single or in a marriage or other committed relationship.

regarding women as objects to satisfy the sexual whims of men is NOT what it means to be a REAL man.

by the same token, i find it difficult to continue to have respect for women who feel it's alright to treat men essentially the same way. i'm not quite sure how we allowed the selfishness (looking out for #1) so lauded by an individualistic culture to embed the "grass is greener" syndrome so deeply in our consciousness. it seems like i'm straying a bit from our original purpose, so maybe we can explore infidelity in another post. moving on...

where did the tradition of bachelor parties come from? if anyone knows please share, if i weren't so lazy maybe i'd do some research, but it's not an entirely necessary detail to follow our train of thought. regardless of how it started, we can use our own experiences and the views we've heard in various forms of mass media as an indication of the some of the lingering effects the "bachelor party" has had on the male psyche.

how often do we hear guys speak about marriage as a stifling trap, a last resort, or something you only do because some woman finally forced you to settle down? how often do we hear about the merits of sowing our wild oats before settling down? is a bachelor party for celebrating marriage? or is it really mourning the end of living single? why do we have to party with women besides the bride-to-be? if we don't have alcohol, or lewd and licentious behavior at the bachelor party, does it still have to be all men? if we're celebrating marriage why don't we do so with friends of the bride and groom all together? if we're mourning the loss of independence, do we really love our future spouse? if we truly value marriage and see it as a sacred institution, and believe in the equality of women and men, should we blindly carry on this party tradition (raw or radio edit version)?

i wouldn't dream of trying to answer all these questions at once, or on my own. we can see this as starting a conversation about some of these ideas, share your thoughts and reactions. and considering how intimately matters of gender are to our lives we can be sure that we'll explore further in later posts. holler. period.

booooorrrrr-ring

family time at my parents house during the NBA playoffs usually involves watching the cleveland cavs play. maybe it won't be surprising then that i've seen some more commercials since that last post which have inspired some more thoughts. this time we won't get quite as deep into the impact of mass media on public consciousness, we'll just notice a few trends that must relate to thought and culture somehow.

the ads that caught my eye tonight were for a couple new shows coming out soon. if i told you that there were three broad categories of shows that come out, and that these ads were not for reality shows could you guess the other two categories? if you guessed doctor/hospital shows and police shows you'd be right.

if there's something we definitely don't have too few of, it's cop shows and doctor shows. we have fifteen different versions of csi, 20 of law and order, a host of military investigator and lawyer dramas, the closer, cold case, without a trace, and let's not forget about the spin-offs of the nypd blue archetype. in the doctor category we have of course er, grey's anatomy, house, heartland, general hospital, and many more i'm sure. for those of you wondering why i haven't mentioned any sitcoms with similar settings, for now we're just considering dramas.

there are a couple things that strike me about this saturation of doctor and police programs on television. one is, that it doesn't offer much diversity of programming if the only shows we can choose from on prime time are either in a hospital, or about the endless struggle between the law and criminals. personally, i don't spend much time in hospitals or antagonizing (or be antagonized by) the authorities. i'm not really relating to these characters and situations. the other, which is possibly much more profound, is that the plots of these shows are driven by really terrible things happening to people all the time.

in the hospital people are always dying. if it's not cancer or some other serious terminal illness, it's that's they're the victim of some violent assault - victim of mugging, casualty of gang violence etc. in the cop shows they're always chasing murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. so we sit at home and watch some of the most horrible things that people perpetrate against each other played out in graphic detail over and over again.

time to add something to the mix: as if it wasn't enough that so much of our television entertainment is centered about death and violence, when we turn on the news (local or otherwise) we see more of the same. with the news you can throw in a healthy (that's sarcasm) dose of political scandal and corruption, but mostly it's the same themes we see in the dramas mentioned above. so my question is - if our entertainment and news are so consistently reminding us of the tragic aspects of life in this world, can it be a surprise that our culture is so dominated by fear? we're afraid of everything! if it's not terrorists, it's kidnappers, serial killers, and rapists (by the way, the word rape/rapist is particularly painful for me to use because of the intensity of the violence against usually women that it calls to mind). when it's none of those things it's not having the right car, or an acne free complexion, not being cool enough, or not having the right clothes. the list is endless. how did we get to such a dark place as a society? and how do we find hope in this madness? once we've found hope, how do we share that with others?

when we focus on the negative evidences of the disintegrating society around us, it's overwhelmingly difficult to see the signs of progress and our growing sense of global solidarity and compassion. if we determine to look harder for the positive developments in the world, and start building communities around with a common purpose and vision, how long will it be before we see some changes in the programs we look to for entertainment?

commercials

i was watching some tv with family today (cleveland cavs beating the atlanta hawks in game 3 of the second round of the NBA playoffs for those who like sports). i'd been traveling for the last few weeks and hadn't been around television for awhile so it was the first time i was seeing commercials in some time. i can't remember quite when i became conscious of this, but it's been several years at least since i was able to view ads without analyzing them and thinking about the various messages they sell us about ourselves, society, and happiness. some ads seem to reflect fewer blatantly oppressive assumptions about human nature than others of course, but the vast majority uniformly claim that our lives will be better on the whole if we just buy this product.

there are two commercials i wanted to mention, one because of how disgusting i find the portrayal of male-female dynamics, and the other because it has implications for how we demonstrate our love and appreciation to the people we care about.

maybe some of you remember the ads for tag body spray(here's one example). when this product was first hitting the market there were a number of promotional commercials. the common plot was a man putting on tag body spray in some public place, for example the grocery store, and immediately afterwards being very aggressively assaulted by women from all sides who'd clearly lost control of themselves because of how wonderful this spray smells and would stop at nothing (including violence towards the other women) to have their way with the man sexually. after the scene would be a disclaimer excusing tag body spray from any responsibility in the event that a consumer were injured by some overeager woman's sexual assault. the icing on the cake was a picture of the bottle sprayed by some invisible hand, accompanied by a sensual moan from an invisible woman. it would take too long to unpack all the implications for our understanding of men, women, sexuality, and joy so we'll only consider a few (but feel free to reflect more deeply for there is much to be learned about what our media and culture are feeding us).

one of the messages this ad sends is that what a man needs to be happy is to be sexually irresistible, and to be able to attract any woman for that purpose simply by wearing a particular scent. needless to say it's quite beneath the nobility of the human station to reduce happiness to regular sexual activity. it belies our capacity to direct our attention towards being active participants in social transformation, thinking beyond our own immediate physical needs and seeking to improve the lives of those around us (and in so doing ourselves as well). for women one of the things it implies is that they are ruled by sensory instincts, that with the right physical conditions they can be manipulated as objects to serve the needs of men. this is clearly degrading to the faculties of women to act according to reason and conscience. if we hope to build a society in which women and men are truly regarded as equals, enjoying the same opportunities for personal development and involvement in the processes that advance civilization, notions about men and women such as the ones conveyed by this advertisement must be eliminated from our collective consciousness, and replaced by ones that uplift and empower women and men to take on more noble aspirations and attributes.

the other commercial that prompted these thoughts was for a jeweler. the screen flashed with shots of diamonds earrings and necklaces and was narrated by a voice telling us that there's no better way to show our appreciation on mother's day than with the gift of diamonds. this too has far too many layers to thoroughly explore in the format so we'll be brief. perhaps the most basic idea the commercial conveyed was that if we want our loved ones to know that we truly care about them, then we must buy expensive objects for them. this again, assumes that as human beings our greatest happiness is derived from the accumulation of material things, rather than the joy of serving our community, learning with friends and family, and striving to develop spiritual qualities. in part, seeing ads like this make me want to spend money to show affection or love even less, and inspire me to look for ways to demonstrate my appreciation for those i care about through other means. perhaps in another post we can also explore the reasons behind the intensely materialistic and consumption driven elements of media, and their relationship to capitalism and the economy.

for now, i'd be interested in people's thoughts about anything this discussion calls to mind. holler.

learning and problem solving

today i was having a conversation with some friends about community service and social action. as with most things these days, the approach favored by the group involves an attitude of learning. someone mentioned that a posture of learning has an opposite. this intrigued me because i couldn't readily determine what the opposite of a learning mode would be besides some form of arrogance or conceit. this friend went on to say that the opposite of a 'learning mode' is a 'problem-solution' mode. that is, if there is a problem we present the solution. for instance if the problem is you have a headache, here is some aspirin, that's the solution.

on a surface level this may seem logical, one might ask "if the aspirin alleviates the pain of the headache, have we not solved the problem?" perhaps the answer is yes, we have solved the problem. but what if there is more to this  headache than simply a bit of pain? what if there are deeper roots of this physical discomfort? what if this particular headache is just one in a series of headaches that seem to arise under similar circumstances? if our attitude is not one of learning, will we be considering these questions? might we not simply ignore the larger patterns of circumstances surrounding the headache? when we decide to adopt a learning mode, we consider the context in which the headaches arise and begin to discover the relationships between certain biological responses to physical and emotional stressors. we may notice, for example, that the pain comes after any meal in which we ate peanuts. in this way we discover more about what brings on the headaches and can modify our behavior and choices in order to prevent further discomfort, thus taking out the roots of the problem rather than simply responding once we feel pain.

there seems to be a clear connection between seeking to learn about the processes (physical, spiritual, emotional, social, etc) that affect us, and finding long term and sustainable methods of preventing various problems from arising.

we can apply this analogy to how we attempt to contribute to remedying many of the ills we see plaguing human society from AIDS to poverty to gang violence. many of us are familiar with programs that attempt to address these complex social challenges from the 'problem-solution' school of thought, and often we see that there is little success in really mitigating the severity of the situation. for example, when we hope to put a stop to gang violence we may think that solution is to confiscate weapons and lock up anybody we catch involved in violent activity. in fact, locking up young people in either juvenile detention centers (or prisons for those slightly older) is a very common so-called solution. but we must ask, as the numbers of teens locked away or in correctional camps and programs has increased, have we truly witnessed a significant decline in the amount of gang violence in the neighborhoods these young people are coming from?

returning to our learning mode, we understand that there are many factors that influence how likely someone may be to join a gang. we notice family and social dynamics. we consider the impact of mass media on the psyches of young people, and the tenuous relationship that our brothers and sisters living in these areas have with police. the role of religion, faith, and moral education can shed light on this social phenomenon, and there are surely many other elements that would increase the clarity with which we understand how so many young people come to believe in the power and benefits of gang life. this growing clarity then allows us to craft a much more elegant and comprehensive strategy in working towards long term prevention of gang violence, and keeps us flexible to respond to new realities as social factors shift around us.

these are just a few reflections inspired by that conversation. i'd be interested to hear about how others have approached challenges in their communities and what they have learned. please feel free to comment with your own experiences.

walkin

the world will swallow you up whole it you let it
watch the road, try not to get too close to the edges
some people on the path might try to push you off
but if you make it i heard the goal is worth the walk
so i'm walking on pushing through the struggle of living
yet after every long night the bright sun again has risen
and lit the way, so we walk another day
one foot after the other hoping that they don't stray
lead me right, i keep trusting and i'm praying this life
for all its burdens is just a part of the price that we pay
for everlasting and a slice of paradise and that's it's
more than just chance in rolling the pair of dice
or playing the hand it dealt me and i'm searching on the side
for another who truly felt me to walk this path with me right
to hold me up when i'm falling or down when i'm floating
and i'll use my last strength to help you too in your coping
because it's heavy all alone, so many end up lost
or sell out for dreams of comfort getting swindled by the frost
you know the cold that grows slowly
and covers diamonds with moss

hindsight

at times i look back at the times past
but lack the looking glass to see past most of the trash
that littered streets, and ask why we let it last
when we couldn't get past the beef
and silences would speak instead of laughs
and shattered glass was mirrors for the fact
that we each had demons that would harass
and defeat our chances to craft
the kind of love that made poets past pen odes to better halves
and coldness stole the warmth we chose to let the moment pass
when love is broken it limps instead of strolling fast
so we end up slowing as the heat grows dimmer
till we simmer and the flame subsides to just a flicker
of the fire that burned to symbolize how we yearned
to hold each other ever tightly as hands turn the hours nightly
clock faces race by politely and remind us
that time doesn't take our wasting lightly
it's likely that you'll find me on the other side
of the stream that's now a river mississippi wide
a second city where the healing is a home
from the fights that kept revealing
that the shelter love tried to provide was in decline
are you fine?

open wide

on the edge of sleep
thoughts run deep and
conversation tends to threaten the secrets
that consciousness keeps
so it's the most revealing time to speak
or listen, guess it depends on what's your mission
listen twice and talk once if that's your disposition
this position i find myself in of asking questions
often have to wrestle with another's suggestions
the whispers in your ear from the heat below
tempting you to walk across the coals
contrary to the softer call from the soul
reminding of purpose and directing you to slow
its real easy to trip if you push the tempo
but can you maintain your grace if you simply let go
i've been wondering about that since the get go
if you have any ideas i've got a paper and a pencil
i'm happy to take notes of course this life is full of learning
and i only know i know nothing yet inside i have this burning
urge to be submerged in all there is or was or could be
but suppose there's certain woes if i stray from where i should be
i don't feel restricted by knowing my limitations
there's beauty in discovering eternity through patience
so i can hold on a little longer as i need to
and share you a perspective from the eyes that i see through

jokes and race

i'm not sure if i've ever met anybody with absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever, so it seems safe to assume that everybody thinks something is funny. i think it's also fairly common that the things we find funny may not be to others. sometimes our humor actually appalls and offends others. i can't say that i'm really a fan of the whole political correctness thing, i tend to feel it often only serves as a mask to hide how we truly feel about a particular subject rather than helping us change the underlying reasons (usually ignorance) for holding socially unacceptable views. at the same time, i do think there are certain bounds of propriety that we can consider when we share our humor with those around us.

i saw an interesting discussion regarding a joke on facebook today about swine flu. a friend of mine had been in an argument with another friend about whether or not the joke is racist. here's the joke:

"They once said a black man would be president when pigs fly. His first 100 days...........and *BAM* swine flu."

most of the comments seemed to suggest that people didn't see any connection between the joke and race in the first place, and that it certainly wasn't racist, but hilarious of course. i can't safely say that all of the comments came from a particular persuasion without further research, but i'm not convinced it necessarily matters for our purposes. what struck me most about the responses i was reading was how easily the posters had laughed at the joke, and taken for granted the fundamental assumptions that allow it to be funny in the first place.

if anybody is wondering if there is any connection between the joke and race the answer is yes. in fact, if you know nothing about the history of race relations in the united states this joke becomes meaningless. in order to get the punchline, that we now have a black president and all of a sudden swine flu (playing on the past tense of the verb fly i.e. flew - which i'm not adding because i think you aren't capable of figuring that out on your own, but i just realized that myself after reading the joke like 5 times, joint learning process - remember)

okay timeout. that's probably unorthodox for writing, but that sentence just got way to long to stay coherent.

moving on, to get the punchline we have to know that by saying that "a black man would be president when pigs fly" we mean that it's extremely unlikely for this to ever happen. why is it extremely unlikely? because in this country we have a history of persistent and deep rooted discrimination against people of African descent, one so intense as to generate the worst known tradition of chattel slavery and a constitutional statement that defined black people as being less than human.

when we say that a black man will be president when pigs fly, it's because we don't expect it to happen in light of this shameful heritage. at the same time, while we cannot make sense of the joke without knowing something of our past, it is a story so familiar to us that we recognize the premise of the joke without realizing we've just considered the dynamics of race in our country. perhaps this is one of the lingering manifestations of how deeply racism affects us still today. and how much more insidious that very often we don't even see it working in our lives.

i must say that in spite of the compassion i feel for people who have suffered injustice and oppression, i am also inclined to encourage those who feel like victims to become empowered souls who use the faculties available to them to help themselves and others. this does not mean that those responsible for the oppressive circumstances are absolved of any duty to rectify the injustice they have caused, and themselves contribute to the empowerment of those they formerly tyrannized. it means that i believe that everybody has an active part to play in the process of healing, no one side has the right to sit around and wait for some expected progress to be made by the other.

indeed the concept of different sides is a crippling outlook itself. we truly need to stop regarding ourselves as a divided community, some white and some black, some hispanic, asian, native, or otherwise. we must increasingly come to regard ourselves as a unified whole, one human race, and the injury of one is the injury of all, the happiness of one the joy of all.

while it appears we've diverged from the original theme of race and humor, i've made these other claims to provide a context for my next statement. part of the healing process for people of African descent will include a willingness to give our brothers and sisters of European descent the benefit of the doubt, even if we feel certain that some statement reveals some veiled racial prejudice. also part of this process will be for our brothers and sisters of European descent to leave behind the trend to think that with the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, and the global conquest of hip-hop music and culture, that racism is dead, and that anybody who thinks they've experienced it is just confused.

while no one can rightly accuse many of you of enslaving or discriminating against people of color, it does not diminish the fact that the oppression of the past has afforded members of the majority advantages which are often taken for granted (some of you may be familiar with the term white privilege). therefore, it is necessary to educate ourselves about how this advantage is played out in our daily lives and in so doing gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of our society and increase our capacity for compassion, and strengthen bonds of true love, embracing the diverse backgrounds of our neighbors, friends, co-workers, and families.

i never intended that i'd be writing this long of a post ever, but i tried to be as clear as possible without leaving much ambiguity. i'd be lying if i said i didn't think some of these themes may come up again in time, but hopefully we can keep things fairly light. i figure there are enough things in the world that can burden a soul, i'd rather help sweeten life. so i'll leave you with the following quotation from the Baha'i Writings:

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. . . It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."

another poem? umm...yup

i blow thru like a wind in the trees
that brings you to your knees, and ushers in the storm
that fertilizes the seeds that i planted
it's magic their fruits nourish the needs
of the famished souls diseased
with a sickness of the eyes that
makes food appear poison like cianide
so we're eating arsenic and dying inside
but reaching up like we're dying to rise
quicksand is keeping up, trying to drown the problems
we're deep in a cup, knee deep in a rut, the more we struggle
the quicker that sand be seeping up
i've seen enough to know how the story ends
so i'm hoping its an end to purgatory
when it ain't no choice left, we lay pain to rest
and start to count how many ways we've been blessed
and hold our faith so tight to the chest, welcome the tests
we do our best....yeah and God does the rest

marching orders

i'm not a night creature, i'm just a street teacher
a poet, empowered with a voice so i'ma speak out
you hear the poison that a lot of people speak bout
you know it, so you'll forgive the pieces that i leave out
i'm only interested in truths that i seek out
and sparks of inspiration my creations might leak out
been patient for a while quiet waiting for permission
but my mission is to speak to the sincere who choose to listen
given to give my heart through the words and the music
from the grassroots in the trenches with the troops
fighter for forgotten hearts and downtrodden youth
champion of justice and conqueror of oppression
enemy of ignorance and nemesis of obsession
paladin of peace and destroyer of the weapons
healer of the sick and surveyor of His blessings
rider for the people seated firmly on the steed
in opposition to the armies of lust, hate, and greed
how many rising with me, how many casualties we need
to recognize the acid eating us and spreading disease
a humble soldier in His Shadow praying softly on my knees
to send the strength to overcome the inner demons and lead

talk about integration

lately i've been thinking a lot about what it means to have an integrated approach to the many different aspects of life. that statement is kinda intentionally oxymoronic, because what i'm really trying to do is understand life as one coherent whole, in which various elements are organically connected rather than discrete categories such as: school, work, play, family life, religion, recreation, physical, spiritual, rational, emotional, etc.

a friend of mine sent me the following link to one of the talks on TED.com of a woman speaking about a crochet project with implications for upper level math, environmental consciousness, the advancement of women and more. in a culture that is dominated by a predisposition to want to separate and divide things, it's encouraging and refreshing to find communities of people that are looking for the underlying order and unity in the universe. perhaps equally exciting is how much more profound our understanding of ourselves and the world around us seems to become when we do discover the unifying patterns in life, and find meaning in things we'd previously taken for granted. the potential to apply knowledge to the advancement of society appears to grow as we move away from abstractions and pure theory, and start to examine how various theories and phenomena actually play out in the world.

maybe you'll find this interesting too:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/margaret_wertheim_crochets_the_coral_reef.html

so you wanna be startin' somethin'

alright, the time has come for me to give in and embrace the inner author. i'm up in this blog thang now and we'll see how it goes. anybody who knows might remember my initial reaction when some of my friends started getting involved with blogging. at the time i was having a hard time figuring out why anyone should take time out their day just to read about mundane day-to-day activities of friends they probably see all the time.

needless to say my exposure to and understanding of the range of possibilities for how blogs can be used to connect and communicate with others was less than significant back then. something about it sort of reeked of rampant ego. i thought that if i was ever to delve into the "blogosphere" ( i'm sure i've heard that word used somewhere, but i'm fairly certain i don't really like it), that i'd have to have a strong theme or purpose to my posts.

well, i've learned a lot since then, and must admit that my receptivity to this medium as a tool for participating in and influencing discourse has grown. at the same time i've shaken off the tendency to immediately assume that anybody reppin' their blog was dealing with some serious self-centeredness, and have come to appreciate that many bloggers are just sharing a piece of themselves with the world come what may.

a process of learning seems to be a fairly common thread in life that is increasingly asserting itself on our consciousness on a daily basis. therefore, part of how i understand this blog is as part of my learning process. as i experience life there will be many people, landscapes, journeys, situations, books, songs, films, conversations, youtube clips, facebook statuses, myspace spams, etc that may prompt some reflection. from time to time i'll share some of my thoughts and feelings related to this crazy world and the struggle not just to live, but to thrive in it (i might ask if that's even possible, while the optimist inside screams that it must be). so that's what it is. to any friends upon whose blogging endeavor i've thrown salt in the past, you live and you learn (before your bridges burn - old 90's RnB song), you know i love you right? here we go.....