Poverty (A 3-part Series)

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty, knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. James A. Baldwin

It is forever unfortunate that where poverty is concerned, the cycle is continuously passed on from one generation to the next. And it is a mean cycle too. We have taken “ghetto” and turned it into a persona with positive connotations. There is no longer a desire to do better; to be better. The future is no longer considered a place where we can live the American Dream. There is no real understanding that other folks don’t endure the often deplorable conditions that we do.We treat our history as if it should be kept secret; denying it as much as or maybe even more than those who continue to oppress us. We accept dumbed down education from dangerous failing schools and we rarely even excel at that.  We look forward to buffoonery like Madea and Brown, gangsta rap and violent video games. We have succumbed to poverty; not only in it’s physical state but sadly, in its’ mental state as well.

Why? What’s going on? Let’s talk about it! Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon…

Until next time.

Peace. 2 Fingers. 1 Love.

Technorati Tags: poverty,poor,ghetto,american dream,blacks,inner city,generational

Awareness 101

Usually, when we think about changes in our lives, we want to feel the ground shift or see bright lights flash to get the feeling we've had a monumental breakthrough. I grant you, you will have aha moments along the way. Sometimes you may even feel the light bulb click on but very few of us have so much changing to do that the ground needs to shake. For me, as I started to become more aware of myself, there was a gradual shift in my thoughts and actions and one day it dawned on me that I was calmer, I was making better decisions and was  less reactive to outside stimuli- and believe me, I used to have an explosive temper.

As a result, I slowly found myself being happier- just happy for no reason. Even though I was not yet in my dream job, I wasn't miserable at my current job. I started savoring my time with my kids as opposed to trying to live vicariously through them. I stopped worrying about if I were making my boyfriend happy and began to look at if he was being good to me and if we were in the same relationship. I stopped wondering so much about what people thought about me; how I looked, what I said, what I did, and started doing what I wanted to do because I wanted to do. I no longer felt like I had to 'put up' with people with whom I had toxic relationships  or who were rude or unappreciative. I reevaluated those relationships and choose to keep the ones that were worthy and salvageable and I discarded the rest. I stopped looking at my finances and my health as something that is nice if you can maintain it and I finally stopped wishing my life away.

As I began to learn to care for myself and take care of myself, I started realizing several things.

(1) That with the exception of young children, I don't owe anyone my life. That said, I resigned my position as CEO of People Pleaser Academy

(2) That it is detrimental to expect other people to consider my well-being more important than their own

(3) That other people are responsible for their own happiness

And (4) That life really is for living.

Slowly but surely I realized that I had to stop taking life for granted. All I can control is my actions and my attitude. I have a purpose. And only then did I finally start taking positive steps toward living MY life.

Every day is a struggle. Some days I feel compelled to revert to my people pleasing ways. But as I fight the urge, I do a lot of things because I really enjoy doing them or I know they need to be done and I don’t mind doing them. But every day is also another chance to get ir right. So I’m living in this moment right here right now because it is what I have. And I am enjoying every minute of it!

The Greatest Love Of All

When I was coming up, my family was a traveling choir. My mom was the director and my siblings, my cousins and I would go to different places and perform. The Greatest Love of All was one of the songs we used to do. We learned it from the original George Benson version which was no less beautiful but a lot less flashy; so more than just singing this song, we got a chance to really understand the lyrics. Through this song, we learned so much about believing in ourselves and having faith in our abilities.

This needs to be a theme song for getting our future back on track. Today’s rap and pop music are almost as bad as drugs in your system; mind and mood altering and very- extremely- especially dangerous. (I have very strong opinions about this) And we as adults are failing to teach young folks their history, their culture, or our values. They are being habilitated by angry, disrespectful music, violent video games and reality shows that should really be nobody’s reality. As a result many, many young people are growing up without a strong sense of right and wrong, no belief in themselves and little hope for the future. It is a truly tragic time.  

The Greatest Love of All was actually co-written by a woman battling breast cancer. The song describes her feelings about her challenges, her strength and her legacy. It is about responsibility to younger generations. For our part, we are failing to do our job so young folks are failing to do theirs and with catastrophic results. My heart is breaking for these children. We’re all wondering why they are so violent; so indifferent. This is what I’ll tell you. You can live for a time with no food; for a shorter time with no water and an even shorter time without air. The one thing that you can’t live for one second without is HOPE, and these young people have very little hope for their future. Folks, this is one thing for which there is no government bail-out. It is time for us to stand up, stand strong and stand together to teach our children well. Let's teach them love and respect. Responsibility and self-confidence. Give them hugs and discipline. Give them faith; give them hope. Help them to believe in themselves. They have so much to live for. 

PS- Whitney should have watched this video every day- just to remind herself that , “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” She might still be alive today.