one thousand words daily
Day 2
August 1, 2018
The
image I chose to share with you today was these groups of redwood trees. I call them “Baby Giant’s Convening.” These trees, if given the opportunity, and if
intense winds do not blow them down, will grow to be over two thousand years
old and perhaps tower above two hundred feet.
Yes they are baby giants. They
are all each roughly between twenty to forty years old. When I was young many of my friends as well
as myself, did not see us living past the age of 21 due to the inner-city
violence.
For us
the strong winds were the police and the jealousy by others that could also
kill. I grew up in a suburb of The
Village, named after Nairobi Village shopping center in the city of East Palo
Alto. When I was a small boy the city
was still unincorporated and often called Ravenswood. East Palo Alto is
translated as East Tall Trees. Palo Alto
is the contrasting city next door where corporate sharks and sub-prime mortgage
lenders are still living luxuriously while others across highway 101 remain taken advantage of, suffer. Things must change for the better, for us all
and especially for the children. It is
when greed goes unchecked and another decides what is important in your life
that shatters dreams of not just whole generations, but the dreams of their
ancestors before them. These are the
eroding fabrics and overstretched sinews that hold this country together. The people that built this country are now
experiencing hardship due to this… unchecked greed.
I was
taught that it takes a village to raise a child however I find that it also
takes a village to raise a conscious nation.
Without the outside opinion of those directly affected, governments and
societies often have the tendency to underserve their populations in the
simplest of ways. We can look at ancient
populations and folks such as the Romans.
As their morale declined and they cared less and less about the people,
the people grew uneasy and eventually rose up, allowing for the conquering and
destruction of Rome. If we look recently
at the conflicts in the 1990s in Rwanda and the genocide that took place. Those actions were directly aligned with how
the Germans, for work as well as other controlling purposes, classified, one
group of people, separating them on a basis of facial features and skin color
in that geographic region.
Once
someone else tells you who and what you are, they not only have power over you
but have power over generations after you. If we... fail to think for ourselves, as well as the future of all children and perpetuate the given myth, what type of future can you imagine being left with? What things were you told that you later found out to be false? Let us once again look at those Redwood
trees. We know what they are by simply
looking at them. No one looks at them
and tells them that they are not, in fact, redwood trees or trees at all!
If a
tree were conscious in a personal sense, as some attribute also to animals and
not just human beings, what would they think?
What would one think if a human person where to walk up to it and tell
it that it is something completely different than it was used to being,
different than it was meant to be? Would the tree shake its branches and leaves
in protest or just stand firm in the breeze as it is used to doing. Trees are remarkable, even the Redwood with its
short roots. Trees are able to withstand
flames, as well as winds and storms. Can
you weather the storm?
Trees
are known to bend as the wind blows, or else it would snap its branches, and
trunk. Leaves dance majestically in the
breeze, shimmering in the sunlight like the tall Poplar tree. Are you able to bend when you are faced with
strong pressure and natural forces known to happen in human life, or do you
break? In many ways we can learn to be
like the water moving around rocks and the trees, dealing with the strong winds
to one day bear pine cones, seeds and fruit.
We too can leave something behind to teach future generations how to
bend and how to fruitfully grow. We can
leave seeds of wisdom in words, inheritances and land for others to grow from. There are also three redwood trees at the entrance to Illinois St. my childhood block and someone once placed a sign there on one of the tall trees when I was about six or seven. The sign read "Down With Dope, Up With Hope."
When we
build for another other than self, build a nest for family, house, a legacy, it
often carries beyond our years in physical existence. The trees we plant provide shade and fresh
oxygen not just for us but for future generations as well as homes for wildlife. The legacies we build in faith, home building
as well as simple conversation with love and morals plants seeds. Whether it is in the minds of all who hear
and benefit, thus often leaving impressions with lessons that they also want to
teach, or on solid ground through owned land, cultivating of any kind takes
some special type of talent and work. Cultivation
of any kind takes hard work, persistence, and passion.
Legacies
we chose to build with faith often leave individuals morally richer than they
once previously were as well as more peaceful.
Some stray from organized religion for many reasons as well as the
congregation of churches. Many cultures
are centered on religious beliefs which dictate a certain type of lifestyle and
way of living. Many of these belief
systems overlap in the most basic and fundamental of ways in which, they are
built to help guide a society spiritually and in some cases not just
spiritually but financially as well. For one to have a strong moral foundation,
one does not necessarily have to attend a church or find a church home, but be
open to the simple lessons in a safe and healthy society which boast, brotherly
love, being considerate, taking care of others as well as fostering healthy
relationships and building strong communities that benefit each other.
The strongest societies all the way down to
the coolest neighborhoods I have seen are ones where everyone is inclusive of
their cultures, family events, music, food is offered, and where everyone
communicates with one another. Tolerance
and understanding is key as children should be allowed to learn, ask questions
and see difference yet togetherness in ways of love, care and community across
one family to another. Let us plant some
seeds as well as some strong trees for our future!
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