Wednesday, September 1, 2021

In One Thousand Words: Power & Our Relationship with It

An Odyssey of Creativity and Wisdom:

 one thousand words daily 2021 

Power and Our Relationship With It

Power
Power - Photographer: Ian Stauffer


    In one thousand words I wonder if I will be able to sum up these awesome thoughts and emotions.  Yes people, today we are going to talk about thoughts and feelings for one hugely strange reason.  That reason is that I have come to a realization.  The realization is simple yet complex in concept which is that Power, as I relate it to a book I am writing, is not so relative when it comes to something I call “The Presumption of Power.” Power can be many things from electricity, to political, to the power we have as individuals but there's more!

    My reasoning against my own solidified beliefs is kind of simple.  This reasoning or "Awakening," is due to the fact that the most powerful of influential powers we as people wield, is a power that is often overlooked and seldom for anyone to be presumptuous about.  I myself, although I understand this well, did not add it to the Contents of my work, at first. We all underestimate these couple forms of power, based on what we are taught, how we are conditioned and what we believe, based on our experiences. These two major powers are the "Power of the People," or what I call "The Power of the Conscious Masses," and what some try hard either looking for or running from; "The Power of Love." (In my Sade voice)

Power of Love by Felipe Almeida
Credit: Felipe Almeida

    We cannot perceive how influential an individual or a group can become based on the “Power of Compassion.”  I could just say “The Power of Love,” but the many concepts of Love are summed up by this understanding we know of as “Caring for Others,” or having this unseen force of understanding called Compassion.” As I converse with my woman, I tell her something I noticed about our current society and things we experienced.  I tell her somewhere along the lines of “people wouldn’t ask stupid questions and use escapism when dealing with issues, especially if the media or political figures if they can see and understand about what others go through and how it affects them." I also added that folks rooted in the community have family in the community and oftentimes have to go back, sharing similar roofs with the patients, clients, or constituents they indeed serve.

    The key in all of this is to raise future leaders with a sense of purpose, and compassion. But what do I know about fostering caring? 

Power of Prayer
The Power of Prayer

Shot credit: Me
Power of the People

Power of Prayer
[Power of a Voice for Others]


    Empathy can be taught as a way to achieve success. How revolutionary is that idea, that by taking care of others around you at the same time as yourself, that a community environment would help to take care of you?  This is not socialism, Marxism, capitalism or any of those man-made isms of control. It is simply human necessity for survival and the logical deduction of thousands of years that we indeed can have more together if we work together and share than just to work towards one small goal, solely self-serving. Have we forgot the moral values we receive when working in virtue?  

Have we forgotten the worth associated with having the sum of all functioning healthy parts of a close-knit community?  Whether we realize this, we all are taught this dog eat dog lesson of conquer, control, and struggle for yourself or else.  Some have been sadly led to believe that they must do whatever to survive, even if it takes taking from others or disadvantaging another for their own personal growth. On the contrary we should in a civilized society, do the exact opposite of the barbaric, which is to do like I have said in a video late last year, to simply Build People Up! 

(There is another power we often take for granted, which we cannot personally control such as the Power in Natural things and the Power found in the uncontrollable weather.  I will save this subject for the next blog).

Ocean Beach Tides, by: Me

In a controlled economic environment such as ours, the leaders make moves and instill laws which are beneficial to the way they have been taught to build wealth, power and prestige.  Now is the time when we are reminded that there are other ways.  We now are forced to learn through the crucible, through the fire, that even when in quarantine or separate, that we do need each other.  There are excellent ways to survive which do not involve others as well as the support network of a tightly-knit community, which can work great for whichever goals the individual sets.  We on the other hand, well some of us, need affirmations, meetings, appointments and guidance with and from others in order to complete what we need to function in the best way we see fit in our new environment of mask and sanitize.  

Political and Legal Power
Power:  by Shora Shimazaki


Some simply need to work with others to generate income and support their families although innovations in the workplace have allowed many, fortunate with technological jobs and the financial means, to work from home.  Many have experienced hardships as well as personal loss due to the COVID 19 Pandemic.  Some have lost loved ones and many children, as well as adults have lost their parents.  This puts things into perspective as the strength of people is shown through the power they show when they come together for a good cause.  This turns habitual when the majority of us realize and are reminded that it is okay to positively change the life of another other than ourselves.  


It was Instagram that caught me by surprise, when I was about to post a quote of mine and noticed some video about some popular rapper talking about how he saw that his friend was touched and had tears in his eyes when he bought a house for his mother.  His initial thought was not “look at this emotional ass nigga,” no.  His first inclination was to think “how can I help him get it so he can buy a house for his mother and put someone else on so that that can do the same for someone else.” I thought about many things and I thought about myself.  I have been wanting to contact some music producers as well as a couple of publishers for my books yet I fall on one realization I have found while typing these last lines.

I have found that I, although I like to think if myself as a rebel, independent, blah blah, have also been conditioned. Many of you might know exactly where I'm coming from when I say we have all been duped by the patriarchal theory of ruling others.  This thought has gone so far as to suggest, by the unfairness suggested, that we don't need women, or vice versa, men.  People all need people in some capacity yet some reiterate in so many ways that it is not proper to ask for help or have not been taught how to or that it is even okay to ask for help.  This is something which I struggle with now.  

Struggles are not something foreign or alien to me but let me address this whole macho-derrived, anti-familial, anti-community culture we exist in.  Not just in the Western world but elsewhere, we as in humanity, have been found many times to choke our own human existence.  We do this by simply going too far and pushing the envelope, going too hard, against the human bonds that make us stronger together as a force than alone and isolated as one.  

Some are fed thoughts such as it is too dangerous and reckless, too radical to think outside the concepts of the powers all around us.  We are taught through something carefully crafted, called Fear to "act accordingly or else!"  We all understand power, fear, all of these things differently.  Some people, like me now, find ourselves shying away from large groups and not just for pandemic reasons.  I simply have been burned a lot so I prefer to physically stay away from folks.  

What we all can agree on is that life in general can sometimes take us by surprise.  Throughout these surprises, instances, situations or adventures, it helps to have someone understand what you are going through or have experienced.  I miss traveling, going hiking with friends, even locally to a small stream or lake and sharing the sights with those I care about.  My many car problems on top of other scruples have completely incapacitated my traveling and adventure status.  Yet here I am, taking you with me on this "Journey of the Heart and Soul," but know that under the stars, there is a whole lot left to understand that even a small child with strong will and determination, can control.  Poem below.


Teenagers who dig the truth

Reach back to hip hop songs 

Their parents praised as youth like

Tupac's "What you do for love," while

We witness, sadly in the distance 

What others do for any type of attention

When elders look at realities 

Never believing that other generations 

Would ever have to endure anything close to the same insanity

When no one in power speaks on the watered down industry with musical Blacks

Instead back then it was strict like a diet what we all lacked and

The only beefs were from religious and politicians due to the power to influence white youth and use of colorful profanity

Some wonder how did we get here?

Amongst the push for what others view as normalcy defined

Others realize the matrix of confusion thus move closer to a much easier design

Aligning ourselves with others

Grounded in purpose perhaps

Linked with The Source which creates

Majestically disconnecting from the mundane madness which chokes gladness, hopes and dreams

Then comes the truths that surprisingly don't get lost with thugs

The survival tactic that faith carries as far as 

Togetherness makes us that much stronger with

Nothing more than the audacity and courage to love

Protecting not just hearts but lives with this

Reality placed in the damned of places 

As if the Jewels were purposely placed for our finding

It is then when we have reached a shore 

Without storms and scary waves 

Through comforting, a warming of

Care and compassion from or

Financial action that we then believe

That we have indeed been saved

Walking away from any type of love can be a challenge yet imagine

With a return to what's deep like foundations and solid like rock

The types of kingdoms possible to exist and

Roads without potholes that can be 

Built with a special type of power called Love, be paved

First we must seek wisdom and the needed strength to power through tomorrow, even just for today

Power Through

August 30th, 2021








Sunday, June 20, 2021

My Version of Poppa's Day

 





For so many years we have watched many men own roles and responsibilities as well as abandon them.  There are examples to show yes as well as socio-economic reasons for the imbalances in many families.  As some parents are fine without their significant other, many are not.  Strength does not come from the will to provide and survive!  Strength comes from sources unmeasurable and not seen by the naked eye. 

Some families are comprised of only woman, mothers and for me, this is fine and none of my business. I as a father look at Father’s Day in a particular way for many reasons and I will explain this.  Basically we have witnessed many examples in this nation as well as internationally, what a good father is.  Everyone has their own take.  I for one have noticed examples in media now, what I have seen as a child on TV and wondered, “why can’t my dad be that cool?”

 In the community or communities I grew up in, examples were in my friend’s dad’s, well those that had them around.  Many I know were raised by their mothers, aunties, uncle’s and mostly grandparents where I come from.  Those grandmothers, Aunties and such were powerful people!  I myself have been fortunate that when my mother left my father, he told her that she was not going to take my brother and I from him.  From what I understand about my dad’s pops, he was different, a lot less affectionate than his own few words speaking dad.

  I watched him sacrifice for us, many times. Struggle, even though he was a Stanford Grad was a reality for us. Pro Wings from Pay Less were my favorite shoes as a child while he was going to college. Although I praise him for the father and grandfather that he is, seeing his shortcomings as well as other parents as a child, are a reminder for the man I never want to become and serious father that I am today. My father is a particular individual yet although I do not agree with things, I love him because I understand him.   Yesterday he stopped by my honey table to pick up a manuscript he’s working on and to me, I know that for him to share these things is unique and special.

  I have two sons.   I did not want to break up with or “leave,” my ex eleven years ago due to the fact that my mother left us, me when I was four and a half, on some “Your father is an asshole,” type shit and she’s possibly right. What I learned through much searching and conversation is that there are two sides to every story. Broken apart, not understanding how a woman can do a good man so wrong when my ex wanted to “explore,” herself, I dug well until I found answers.  What I came up with helped me gain a deep understanding about my parent's relationship. 



 Father’s Day and Mother’s Day is not just about one parent.  We are led to believe in separating tasks, people, roles, defining things for categorization of some reason, like it’s not okay to mix our parental peas with our mashed potatoes but let me be frank, there can never be one without the other.  Granted there are families that consist of just one parent, some where a person, (usually well to do financially) wants to adopt or have a child of their own, without a partner.  I don’t know what to think about this other than I know through experience, that having another person there to support goes a very long way.   Even I, I mean pops was pops and did the best he knew, yet in his shortcomings I was blessed to have the community step up when they did to help him out.

 I have many aunties and uncles I refer to as Baba so and so and Mama you know who you are for this reason so let me wrap this up so I can rest some.  Father’s Day for me is a culmination of not belief or involvement but straight up love!  For this reason I share this day with my woman knowing that a father is nothing without his community and his woman!  There are those that stepped up to be a parent when others either failed to care or were not able to for many generational and purposely constructed reasons.  Yeah, I said it, some did not want you or them to be fathers, wanted us not involved or even “locked up.”  This type of isolationism comes from the racist criminal justice system, as well as conditioning, to destroy the strong identity and power of families and communities.

Looking back to then from now, Father’s Day wasn’t much but something written at the bottom of a calendar day but Kwanzaa, Christmas and Juneteenth, oh yeah!  I remember schools would put an emphasis on “making something,” for your mother or father was taught to us, when all we understood they wanted was for things to make sense, for us to obey and overall from everyone in the world, this forgotten thing called respect! 

There are some without parents for one reason or another and their definitions of family for me and towards me have always been the most heart felt.  Like I tried to tell you guys earlier, I was raised by the community. It was those inside of doors that were not ours where we often learned; by loving hearts, out of the box minds that in many instances, made miracles occur, right in front of our very young eyes!  For those that read this, thank you for reading, I just wanted y'all to think a bit. Sometimes I used to think about our government or even our Creator, Him/Her or whatever your belief Them and what they thought when it came to Father's Day, USA!

You see, a father and a mother must first have an example to emulate in order to discover, how one ought to be for future generations.  For me, this is why Western man’s theories and ideas of creation mean little to me.

Happy Father’s Day 🎉 🏆!!! Now for a poem…


Hands, rough hands hardened and caliced by occupation's malice or

As smooth as a newly built marble palace

Caress hair of the sleeping child time after time while others

Have not yet learned their place or something malicious instead

Engulfs the time given, even what should be said

To be honest, in society, our ideals are thrown about like black mats covering weeds

From not allowing growth, light is kept out

Purposely drowned out by darkness 

So that any remaining seed would either die off while the ones allowed to poke through

Survive in a carefully controlled environment

Then there are the seeds that blew in on the wind

Not knowing exactly from whence they came how, where, why or when

Taking root in the best soil found even the bits within concrete

On sidewalks with chalk either laid by children or CSI

We ask as if everything we are purposely taught, goes against the norm when

Reality is the best indicator of how the wind might blow and by instinct

Knowing even in deserts can be the lurking presence of a dangerous storm

Realizing these challenges, many step up and commit while others well

They don’t know shit or understand shit to begin with

Even King said he might not get there with us but that he “sees the promised land”

But tell me, will we get there without making some type of peace and some kind of demands?

As children’s smiles from Earth can be seen from the heavens yet

There are few places on open Earth allowed to safely stand

Folks want respect but children, they only want Love and an open guiding hand

So let us all now foster what was purposely forgotten with I love you’s

Be back real soon because like we also wanted to hear back then

You can do it

Not because we haven’t told but 

Because some were never led to believe

Allowed the space to breathe, to explore

To be daring aside from driving 80 mph on city streets or

Brave enough to climb the mountains or spelunk the caves beneath

Ingrained not to swim from the lines of closely following sharks, we remained

Bouncing back with the audacity to create, invent and remain

The parents others wish they had, even without children, we are

Ending cycles of neglect, smashing disrespect and spitting hot bars or wisdom

Knowing Freedom and Peace for parents Exist beyond stereotypes, death and prison

Nothing short of miraculous with glory, honor and still some calls residual pain

Building communities and foundations deeper than the roots that bind us

Giving smiles, hopes, sharing dreams and admiring tattoos and scars


Parent in Your Hood

June 19th, 2021

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

A Story About Faith

 


A Short Story about Faith

               I wrote this blog post December 11th, 2019 when I was still healing from surgery in residential facility yet for some reason, I guess I didn’t post it.  Perhaps I let depression and pain get the best of me and thus, many of my pens went dry without touching paper.   Although this is more than a year ago, it remains relevant, as someone might be able to receive help from a few simple words about faith and action.  Helping others is one of my sole reasons for writing in the first place. While quickly talking about the subject of Faith, I’ll throw something out there which is that, you don’t have to have a deep spiritual belief or religion to exercise it.  To exercise Faith, a few conceptual elements definitely needed which I have found are Patience, Flexibility (time-wise as well as outcome-wise) and definitely an Open Mind.

               A week ago I woke up with a beat in my head, a musical beat. I’ve also woken up with beats still in my head from the end of a dream like a soundtrack.  The first time this happened, I was six or seven years old.  The song then was “Let the Slide Show Begin,” and the curtains closed in my dream before I woke up.  This has happened many times before from some dream or from the end of some dream and I was reluctant to jot down the idea from it, telling myself that it was “too simple,” thus it didn’t matter.

All of the sound generators I'm using on FL audio.

                Any message I receive in my dreams should be taken seriously for many reasons.  Sometimes my dreams are learning tools, reminders from the past; possibilities of what could be or to the extreme, direct windows into the future.  I told one of my associates about this and he knows me well and suggested that I should have made that beat, knowing what beats I have made in the past from dreams.  I ignored his advice although his voice on the other end of the phone sounded surprised and serious that I ignored one of my Divine-given gifts. I thought about it later and regretted it, thinking “oh well, another beat will pop in another night… hopefully,” yet knowing that I had missed a very unique valuable opportunity.

Rain Comrade trying to hear what Daddy did today.


               Last night I had a very short dream, where I met up with him.  In the dream he let me know that he got hired at the same place he was working at before he started the business with me; “Collections,” which is a very grimy business. He explained that they hired him right away and gave him his same position.  I asked him if he became John Gilman once again yet he did not answer. Instead the focus was on my handing him earphones to let him listen to a rap from a familiar sounding rapper, someone reminiscent from what we used to listen to (to be frank the guy in the dream sounded like a mix of Eclipto and B-Real from Cypress Hill and I don't sound like either lol).

               In the dream he was surprised and apparently so was I, as this was as if, it were the first time I had heard this song.  I woke up this morning to this beat still in my head and was thankful, thanking my Creator for gifting me with this simple yet very hard sounding track.  I scrambled to find a phone so that I could beat box into to record the idea before other daily sounds drowned out the idea.  In this retirement/rehabilitation center, I had to act fast but I did not want to wake up my other two roommates with the task.  Thankfully they were awakened with medical diagnostics, breakfasts but damn, my phone was dead.  I scrambled like fighter jets to find the cord, cleaned up my whole bed area and drawer just to find that I was sleeping on it.

               I plugged up my phone, kept beat-boxing the tune at a low level as well as repeatedly in my head and five minutes later, took down the idea.   As I thought about the simplicity of the beat, I came to realize that it was the exact same beat that I was given a week ago!  The only difference is that I can hear the sounds much clearer as well as having a point of reference of what I will sound like spittin a rap to. This is how I know Jesus likes good Rap music, lol or at least the being that created him! Sometimes I get songs, stories, whole movies and predictions in my head from dreams.

    When your Creator gives you messages or gifts, are you able to listen and openly receive? Okay, now I might need some headphones because these little Apple things just don’t cover the sounds but watch me make miracles with what I’ve got; well that’s what I’m used to!   Look out for “The Return of the Real,” one of these days, hopefully before or right after summer.   Now let me save the progression of this beat and get back to these books, which is a whole other subject of faith and action.


Curious minds often wonder if there are some pertinent things we might forget

After our slumber

Are we capable of listening to the squeaks in-between being awake and asleep?

Can we, reach deep into the subconscious of self and sanctuary?

To pull out what has been etched into our DNA of ages by sages and ancestors but

Will we, willingly let ourselves to expound upon the gifts made to silence evil and

Drown out all negativity, corruption, put crowns on children 

When men and women once given their opportunity

Scowl at them with jealous eyes with thoughts of

Drowning the innocent in the tides

Working on burying the truth with lies the youth persist as we have

For so long we have been silent although

Some have listened yet

To find the right time or better yet, the courage to speak of such things

Seems never right for those not chosen to understand the visions chosen for

Within your sights were right to recognize what others missed yet

Simply it is the overwhelming treasures that come with such gifts

Something grabbed attention for you to become stopped frozen for

An idea, a light, a way, a path inside, a hope or a remedy to help another life

Occurrences whether often or rare are perfect sphere not square and

Nothing close to boasting of pride

Reminders of what could very much be

Ways not yet tried 

I'll lead the way 

I'll close my eyes

I mean, I can wait

Until we are all safe without fears in that Dream State


Dream State

03-01-2021