If you want some, come get some (in other words, Add me as a Friend)!
Let's take a trip, ya'll. Right out the box, I represent "The A" (and I'm so glad everyone knows what that means now).
"The worldwide headquarters of the Afrikan-American Experience"
I know there are many people from other places that may take offense to that, but just come down here and you will see that I'm not just talkin' out the side of my neck. We have a little bit of everything from a little bit of everywhere…except Atlanta…and I dig that.
Be patient, I won't take up a lot of time.
In my years, my eyes have produced an interesting screenplay of life. The purpose here is to get to root of my very being and share with the masses (or at least this MySpace edit window) a small libretto named "A First Safe Safari".
"…sounds like an argument. Is that momma and daddy fussin'? I better stay upstairs 'cause lord knows I'm not trying to get yelled at tonight. What are they talkin' about? I think my room is clean. Man, I'm hungry, what is there to eat? I wonder if I say that I am hungry, would they stop yellin'? I can't even move right now…not for real. I am SO hungry. SO hungry, that I am HOAN-GRY. What in the world am I supposed to do? Well, I'm supposed to be asleep. It's hot in here. Let me open this window and let some of this heat out…wait, now everybody can hear them fussin'…I better close this window. Well, I guess I better wait until…"
What you read above were the thoughts of a three (3) year old just before being presented with "real life". I chose this script because I wonder how many people were introduced to "real life" the same way. We often look at our lives and our various situations as this contained existence, unique in its personal affect. Ultimately, we convert our experiences to a self-preserving reality of independence (often incorrectly diagnosed as human nature). People, community, family, and congregation are all antonyms of this reality. Can we truly "share" with one another in this selfish state of being? The thoughts of this three year old, with limited life experience, can easily be translated into the state of our community. We are hungry, we are confused, we are fussing, and, unfortunately, we are still WAITING. I won't get into a long diatribe (…today…) about the "State of the Black Union", but I do want to say that we are not three years old anymore. We don't have to wait anymore.
The thoughts of three year old, with limited life experience, communicates another attribute that all of us see everyday in this online community: INSECURITY. The thought that we better close the window of "self", is also a symptom of "human nature". We are a unique, we are distinguished, and we are celebrated in every walk of life, but somewhere we have confused our pride with self-righteousness and it is rapidly becoming a tool of separation. Thugs, Christians, wealthy, college graduates are a fulfilling prophesy to create a lack of individualism. Maybe instead of "all men are create equal", we should say "each man is created equal". We are so inundated with style and perception to point where self-expression is merely someone else's expression. We desire to be categorized and accepted, and ultimately conceal and disable TRUTH in our never ending effort of self-preservation. It has taken a long time to create you and Gods greatest gift to man is self-determination. We don't have to be afraid.
Lastly, in this first safe safari, I would like to associate vocation. First, let me say that I think all of us with jobs understand that are working for a standard of living. We have become a productive, functioning, component in a typical existence. We are taught to do what we are told, then to do well in school in order to get a good job (which is fine, I guess). The three year old was compelled to question whether the room was clean enough, or was the room an object of dissension. How many of us feel that way at our jobs? How many times have we heard, we have to "work" twice as hard just to keep what we've got. For those of us with our own businesses, how often do we try NOT to focus our goods and services to the needs of our people because we don't want to "limit ourselves"? There is something that I have found to be very interesting and it is extremely evident in the hip-hop community. If we are not successful within our own culture and community, we are rarely successful as a crossover. Take a pause for a moment and really think about that while I run off some names in American History (in no particular order): Eli Whitney, Frederick Douglass (BTW, Happy Birthday Mr. Douglass), Percy Julian, MLK…more recently…Muhammad Ali, Richard Pryor, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Shawn Carter (forgive me for digressing, but it's Black History Month). My point is that although we don't want everybody in our business and we want to create diversity, success can be found right here with us. We don't have to be ashamed.
I mentioned the "root of my very being" and when you remove all of the layers, and the assortment levels, we get education. Education is teaching and learning. Education is culture. And Education is ME. Please feel free to comment and/or join in as I would love to hear what you all think. I will close with a common phrase I use when I'm doing IT work…
"solutions, not answers."
- Possum Jones, 2007.02.13
