Monday motivation: Dreams/Goals

For some reason, I felt the urge to take about dreams/goals this am. I don't know why, but maybe this is will be a part of somebody's process on their road to greatness and success.

In life, what do you want to do? What do you want to become? If money was not an option, what would you truly do in life? Do you have people that think that your dreams/goals are unrealistic and suggest that you "wake up" and live in reality? 

The reason why I asked all of these questions to make one point: FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS/GOALS. In today's world, it seems like the age of dreaming is slowing dying out. We have people who are not doing what they truly want to do in life. They are settling for a normal life when they are meant for much more.  You were not meant to life a normal life. You were created by the most high for amazing things, but you won't do these things by just playing it safe.

In order to follow your dreams/goals, you will go through a lot. I won't lie, you will have make a lot of sacrifices along the way. Sometimes it will seem like you maybe are wasting your time, energy, money, and life on something that is not either going the way you would like it or not getting the reception that you would like to have. People may/will tell you to give it on it. Hell there will be times that you will convince/talk yourself out of or continuing the road that is ahead.

No matter how hard things may seem, no matter what people will say, no matter how hopeless things may seem, DON'T GIVE UP. If following your dreams and making them reality was easy, everyone would do it. Nothing were having comes easy. It takes the bold, the brave, and the strong will to do this. Just think of every body who wa/is successful. Two things they all have in common is they didn't give up and they worked their asses of until want they wanted became reality. Even after their dream/goals come true,  they still work to keep what they have and gain even more.  They didn't quit before they even got started,  and neither should you.

If you didn't get nothing from this post, I just hope that you will at least think about I have said. If you have a dream/goal that you want to see come true,  then do it. Nothing or no one can stop you unless you allow them to. Dream dreams that no one had ever dreamed,  and then make those dreams and goals a reality. As I close this blog out, I will leave you a quote from the Oscar wining actress Lupita Nyong'o; "No matter where you are, your dreams are valid. " As always, live life, be great, and do dope shit.

The perfect day off

Well the birds out back, the bugs are biting folks, and the weather is FINALLY hitting up. You know what this means????? SPRING IS HERE!!!!!! Now usually I am not excited about spring, but this year I am. The reason why I am so happy spring because it has been a hard winter to say the least. It was super cold, it rained, the wind chill was crazy, and it snowed. Now for most people, they would be excited for the snow. Hell I was until the aftermath of the snow/winter storm. Now I live in the south so it rarely snows down here, but no one was ready for what the snow/sleet/winter storm would cause. Because of the snow/winter storm, the roads frozen over, ice was on the road, people were stuck in traffic for countless hours, and whole cities were shut down. Now that spring is here, we can say goodbye the cold/winter and embrace spring.

Now yesterday was the official first day of spring, along with being the international day of happy but more importantly, I had the day off. If you knew the ish I deal with at work, you will understand why I greatly look forward to my days off but that is besides the part. After i went to a job fair that was a totally bust,but after that, my day was perfect. It was around 1 ish when i felt that job fair and I was hungry. I was in the downtown area so I decided to grab something from there. I went to one of my favorite pizza places and got two slices of meat lovers pizza with mushrooms. Since the weather was so amazing, I decided to eat my lunch outside.\The sun was shinning, there was a little breeze in the air, and the people outside that were also enjoying their food was also enjoying their would while giving off positive energy. All of these elements combined set the stage for the perfect atmosphere to be in/around. That food was so good, a young dude like myself had a mouthgaism. Just thinking about the food is making me want some like right now. The food struggle is so real right about now.

After i spent my time outside enjoying lunch. I wanted to check out the local art museum. I had never been to this museum so you can image that i got lost trying to find the museum. After a good ten minutes of getting lost, I finally found the art museum. Now the museum wasn't that big, but want luck in size it made up in content. Before in get into the art, let me talk about the building for a quick minute. The museum is in an old warehouse. you can see the expose, and somewhat weathered look that gave the building character. When you walk inside, the wooden beams separated the museum into different sections. The inside had a high exposed sealing, and two semi big windows that gave a view of the outside while also letting in sunlight into the room. You can tell I watch HGTV a lit. Now the museum displayed pieces from local artist, as well as pieces that were brought by the museum. The pieces ranged from mixed media to watercolor art.The museum displayed work that was abstract art to realism art. Some of the pieces could even be brought. I did see a piece that I would like to own, but at $1000, that mixed media piece of art stayed hanging on the wall. Maybe one day that piece of art will be apart of my future collection.

After that, I really just stayed at the house. I talked to some of my friends, hanged with my family and jsu enjoyed the rest of my day.All in all, i had the perfect day. I really did not do that much, but I truly enjoyed my day.I think the only thing that could have made that day even better is if I could have share that with someone special, but oh well. As I sit here typing out my replay of yesterday, it jus makes me want another day like the one I had. For now on, once a month, I just going to go around the city and explore it. I  will go to different events, go to new restaurants, and discover new things. hell I make even take a mini road trip and just let the wind guide me along the journey. Well folks that about all of for my description of my perfect day. As always, live, be great, and do dope shit.

12 years a slave??? More like 300 plus years a slave

For today's edition of this blog, I going to talk about a somewhat touchy topic.  About a month and a half ago,  I was talking to my brother from another mother khris. We were talking about random stuff as usual.  As we were talking, we were talking about this blog and all kinds of stuff.  During this convo, he made a suggestion about how I should do a post about the Willie Lynch letter and to put it in today's time. Now I was going to do this sooner, but the idea got lost among the many other ideas running through my head.  So instead of putting it off until later,  I thought I will do it now. With all the things that happen in our culture, I couldn't have picked a better time to talk about this because in order to improve the future, you have to deal with the past and the present. 

Now whether this letter was real or not is up for debate. For the sake of this post, we going to say that this actually happened. Now little is known about Willie Lynch, or even if he was real, but what we do know is that he was a slave owner that lived in the West Indies that was brought over to America to help slave owners to better control their slaves. In 1712, Willie Lynch would deliver a speak along the James River, in the Virginia colony, that would affect African Americans of the past and their descendants. The  aftermath of this speech can still be seen and felt among African Americans of today.This speech would be forever known as the Willie Lynch letter.

Now for those who may have never read this letter before, here is a link to this letter. Take a few minutes to read and fully think about this letter. http://www.iupui.edu/~blacksu/PDF%20Documents/Documents/WillieLynchLetter.pdf  Now that you have read this letter, lets continue with the post at hand. What is the most interesting thing about this whole thing is that a lot of these this issues that were that was brought up in this speech is a lot of things that black people deal with in today's time. The ways that Willie taught the masters that he felt would  control the slaves can be summed up into three categories: distrust, a lack of understanding, and not knowing our value.

Now in the beginning of this speech, Wille talked about people going against one another. He talked about the young vs the old, light skin vs dark skin, and male vs females as one way of controlling us. He also mentioned how it was necessary for the slaves to love and depend only on the slave master. We see this played out everyday. One of the biggest vs that goes on with in the black community is the light skin vs dark skin thing, aka the dumbest thing ever. You can go on the internet and see various menes about light skin people be like, or dark skin people be like. Another thing that I see is the idea that light skin blacks are better looking than dark skin blacks. We also see males vs females played out. We hear females say that "niggas aint shit", and dudes say that "bitches anit shit." We also see that theres is a sense of drift between the old and the young generation. It is like the older generation sometimes forget that we are young, we going to be make mistakes on the way, and that they were once young, wild, and free. On the flip slide, the younger generation can learn a lot form the older generation as well. Instead of  thinking we know it all, just stop and listen to what the older people have to say because they could say something that may save you.

Now as far as the part where he mentioned that  it was necessary for the slaves to love and depend only on the slave master, I see this happening as well, but not in the way Willie might have pictured it. The way this happens in todays time is we really do not support our own race. We do not not support local black businesses, whether it be a drugstore, grocery store, or a car tune up place. It seems as we would rather spend our money else where expect for these stores. Now is this done on purpose? I do not believe so. What I believe the root of this issue is that we are so used to other business that we don't support our own businesses. I mean why would a person put there money towards something they do not know about rather than put there money towards a sure fire thing. As much as I see this trend happening, I also see this trend starting to die down. At least where I live at, I see people supporting these local businesses. Th major brand stores still pull in there money, but not as much as what they used to.

Willie would continue to state different ways of controlling slaves, but he would give a warning as well. He told the slave master of the danger of the slaves knowing the language that the slave master were using, but really, he was warning them about the slaves learning. If the slave learn, then the masters can not fool the slaves. The could figure things out, and that would end the slave system according to lynch. Another interesting thing that he said that the slave must forget their language. Now if one looks at this from face value, one can say the reason behind this is so the slave could be easier to control. If one looks deeper into this, one can argue that in order to control someone, you must make them forget were they come from. Why would you want for people to forget where they came from? Well before blacks were kidnapped and sold into slavery, we were a big deal. We were leaders, warriors, and royalty. We had power and were proud of our history. To take that away from the slaves, and break them down was the only way that the slave masters could gain control. A wise person once said "In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you come from."

Is the Willie Lynch speech/letter really happened. To be honest, we may never know. Some people will tell you that it is real, while others will say that it is just a myth. Whether it is real or not, the affects of this letter can still be seen and felt among the African American community. Although we are physically free, there are some who are still mentally bound. How can we break this cycle? to be honest, there is not a clear cut answer to this problem. There are, however, ways that can eventually lead to the solution to this. Two of this these are understanding where we come from, and knowledge. When you have wisdom and knowledge, the world is yours. No one can take that away from you. Then learn about your history. People like to say that we, as African Americans, have come along way. Well to those who say that, all I can say is that you have not looked back enough. We are the descendants of royalty. Once we start acting as such, people will start treating us as such. Thats the end of this post folks. As always, live life, be great, and do dope shit.