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 - 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)

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? 

The Power of Prayer

Power of the People

[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.  

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