Life Is A Continuous Test-Taking Journey Of LogicUnity Consciousness #912

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Life is a test.
A test is a disconnected solution that requires understanding to re-connect.
Understanding consists of logic. All forms and levels of understanding are based on logic.
A significant portion of human logic links are broken, enough to swing us to the weak side. These connections must be fixed through understandings that come from the original double source winged disc.
Logic consists of entries, pieces of information, data and instructions, definitions, contexts, worldviews, utamawazos and understandings on what the information means and how the bits and bytes of information relate and connect to each other.

All Tests Are Common Tests In Different Forms

It is a common experience to have been in a classroom with other students. Test day arrives. Papers are passed out and, for some students, they themselves are trying not to pass out. The test is taken. Time expires and papers are returned to the test maker.

When an instructor tells you there is going to be a test, you should be more excited than nervous or afraid.
The test is an opportunity for you to:
1. use creative genetic potential genius (express yourself) and
2. demonstrate you now understand more than before (manifest yourself).

Living is taking tests in order to acquire and demonstrate greater and greater levels of understanding.
This fulfills the need incentive.

Test-Taking Truths

There are always two test-taking truths: (1) you know and (2) you don't know.
Both are always true. What you already know is the First Truth. What you don't know is the Second Truth.

Knowing something does not mean you always know something immediately or clearly or completely.
Knowing something means: using what you already understand about yourself to help you understand more of what you don't understand about yourself.

For instance, as a baby you understand how to listen. You also understand how to make sounds. You then use those two understandings to help you make specific sounds to express yourself and to get a desired result. You practice a lot. You continue to build on those understandings and that process. You listen and mimic the sounds of others. You understand more and more how to use sound to speak the language you are exposed to. During every stage of this process you are in possession of knowing and are also seeking more knowing. You know and you don't know.

Knowing (understanding) something is just like living. By necessity it must be a continuous process. Just because you have grown into your current age, does not mean you are more alive than you were. Just because you have grown into your current understanding does not mean you understood less than before.
Every stage of life and every test is appropriate and sufficient for the moment, level, circumstances, situation, conditions, potentials and opportunities available.
Life and knowing and living are all based on the level you begin with and what you do with what you have, even as you and everyone and everything continuously changes.
You must use and demonstrate the understandings you already have. This is why you are alive.
Life is a continuous journey that tests the logic of your understanding by making it necessary for you to demonstrate that understanding in order to pass the overall test of this stage of life and its mini-tests. When you do not, your next stage of life will be at the same or lesser level. This must be so. You cannot skip the stage of learning how to handle your “terrible” toddler two-behavior and then expect to behave maturely for the rest of your life. A whole lot of adults are still in the stage of their terrible twos. Likewise then, you cannot skip spiritual growth and then get promoted to the next level in the next life.

When You Know Better, You Do Better

The real test of a test is to use what you already know in order to demonstrate you are a good steward of the understanding you already possess so that you might develop more understanding.

In the form of metaphors, you have experienced and witnessed understandings that allow you to know:

Moving from level to level of physical growth requires you to take in nutrition, process it, integrate some of it, and eliminate some of it. Each birth of a new developmental stage requires the death of the previous stage.
It is also exactly this way spiritually, mentally and emotionally.

Every test is specifically designed to test specific logic – not just one piece of logic at a time, but multiple pieces of logic simultaneously. Your body, mind, spirit and emotions exist simultaneously and are integrated and inseparable; therefore, so must be their understandings and so must be their tests.
In other words, what you might perceive as a test of one aspect of self, is actually and always, a test of all four aspects of self. This is a reason why many people struggle with being overweight or underweight.
Also, your unhealthy relationship with candy bar religions is due to the overall health of your spiritual-physical-mental-emotional being. You do not remain in a bad relationship because of weak mental logic. It is also due to the logic of the other parts of self and how you have ordered, prioritized and integrated all the logic you possess.

If any test was simply a mental test, then people would not get emotional when taking, failing or passing a test.

It is not ever never enough to possess understanding mentally.
You will fail the test.

Why?
Because inattention to the other three aspects of self will prevent you from demonstrating the understanding you mentally possess. You will stick with logic you know you need to change because you are unable to overcome self.

Your tests exist in their present form because your logic exists in its present form.*
Your tests exist to help you bring your physical-spiritual-mental-emotional understandings into balance and agreement so you may live as intended.
Your living as intended is necessary to fulfill the need incentive.
This is why you are continuously being prepared for the next stage of understanding and living.

Life is not intended to defeat you.
Life is intended to complete you.

Get understandings, reconnect them, fix broken logic and the test goes away as living and creative genetic potential genius move to the next level.

*You must not forget you are part of a collective and are not an island and are subject to be affected and influenced by all tests taking place. This must be so, otherwise, you will care about one aspect of self to the detriment of other aspects of self. Likewise then, the rights of all creation must be respected so they too may pass their tests in order to positively influence the rest. There are some tests that are mostly for you to take as an individual and some tests that are mostly for you to take as part of different types of collectives. This changes throughout the course of living where at one point the same test fluctuates between being mostly individual and mostly collective.

Conception, Birth & UpbringingUnity Consciousness #124

Many are entombed just outside the womb.

Perception Of Conception

No matter how a person is conceived, the result is the same. The coming together of egg and sperm happens the same no matter the circumstances of conception.

No one can choose their parents or whether their conception happened when their parents had sex, “made love,” had forced sex or were married. The parts about parents a child cannot control, which is pretty much everything, does not change the child into something less than a child, a full person and a human being.

Control Yourself, Leave The Rest Alone

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I should;
And wisdom to know the difference.

At a minimum, every person is responsible for self-control, self-study, decisions made and self-correction.

Control Who You Are By Knowing Who You Are

Every person is a child of Creation born with purposes and promises. Who we are is not determined by human standards. We are divine beings. Life does not come “from” parents. Life comes from the Creator and “through” parents. Our main parent is the Supreme Being of the universe.

Appreciate Life Itself

If parents did nothing else except help the Creator get us here, it is more than we can do for self. We must be appreciative of this in order to be appreciate the preciousness of this life on Earth. Even if our parents are not unified after we are born, we must not allow that to overshadow the most important unity they did achieve – union of egg and sperm that brought us into being.

Substance Is Greater Than Circumstance

Truth is, everyone is born of imperfect circumstances. Everyone has multiple things to deal with and overcome from start to finish of this lifetime. There are no exceptions. No person has ever been dealt “the perfect hand.”

Even so, nothing is placed before us or upon us that the ability to overcome it has not also been placed around us and within us. We must go through the journey and complete the tests if we are to be our best.

Circumstances outside a person are not greater than substance within a person. If anything, a person is stronger due to their circumstances, not weaker. The very presence of the circumstances themselves prepares the person to be able to handle the circumstances. Nyame is faithful.

Whatever comes through or survives any set of circumstances is only able to do so by making the necessary adjustments. We must use the ability to adjust to help ourselves and not use our uniquely tuned abilities, that are specialized to fit our circumstances, in self-defeating, self-destructive ways. We must turn perception around, energy around and life around.

Stop Wishing Things Were Different And Make Them Different

A person who thinks they would be better off today if their conception, birth and upbringing were different is mistaken. What we control is what makes the biggest difference. Everyone has this same ability and opportunity. Even though we might have a different set of circumstances, as long as we control what we should, we determine the way our lives go.

A person who does not control what they should, squanders resources because what it means to be wealthy and fortunate are misunderstood. A person who controls what they should, lives fully rather than foolishly.

Conception, birth and upbringing only become obstacles when we misunderstand their purposes and our purposes.
As we grow in knowledge of self, we re-conceive ourselves and are born again in understandings. With consciousness now rising, we are able to rise out of circumstances and overcome encasing ourselves in a tomb outside the womb.

Example-Based Definitions | Open-minded, Closed-Minded

Consider these example-based definitions of open-minded and closed-minded.

Open-minded means: Come on in. Stay a while. Sit down. Let's have a conversation. The open-minded entertain ideas and reflect on the experience. They do not make snap judgments. They explore evidence. They invite ideas.

The open-minded understand and acknowledge that their opinions are either substantiated or invalidated by the information and instructions used in their thought processes. The open-minded will adjust as they learn. They will change as much as they need to in order to get to where they are supposed to be. They understand the goal is what can help them grow. Open-mindedness includes the spiritual mind.

The open-minded never make final decisions or draw conclusions. All decisions, no matter how certain at the moment, are ongoing decisions subject to revision.

For the open-minded, their identity is tied to the truth. They fear not knowing the truth from never encountering it or encountering it and not recognizing it. This is why they will investigate ideas they encounter to hone and develop their ability to recognize truth. A different idea is a chance to get better by practicing their recognition skills. They do not recognize truth solely by how the idea feels.

The open-minded tend to be children who have not fallen prey to misconceptions of adulthood. The open-minded also tend to be adults who embrace the child in themselves rather than try to erase or replace it. They understand the essence of childhood supports adulthood. (See “child, children, childhood” this blog)

Closed-minded means: I'm busy. What do you want? I don't want any unsolicited ideas. No, I don't have time. My life is fine. Quit talking crazy and don't come back. The closed-minded shut themselves off from the world of ideas. They do not allow anything different to enter their personal space so there is no chance to meet an idea on its own merits. This limits opportunities and growth.

The closed-minded fight ideas. They usually stick with something because they have for so long. There are other reasons, but “how long something is believed or disbelieved” is a top contributor to closed-mindedness. The closed-minded believe it's about who's right and who's wrong.

The closed-minded barricade themselves inside a mental and emotional house.. They ignore evidence. The closed-minded do not understand or acknowledge facts or other sources of information or other contexts that invalidate their opinions. They believe their audacity trumps veracity. As a result,the closed-minded say one thing and do another because there is no continuous reconciliation process between thoughts and actions because there is no continuous learning, adjusting and self-correcting process.

For the closed-minded, their identity is tied to the idea. A different idea is a threat to their identity and creates an identity crisis, because if they, for one moment, consider another idea or portion of it to be a better choice, insecurity about who they really are rises up to protect them. This is fear in disguise.

The closed-minded tend to be children and adults who think being grown means they can make decisions on their own. In other words, they don't have to listen to anyone, not even their spirit. In other words, they can restrict or shut off the dynamic flow of information and be self-assured it's the best thing for them because they have the right to make their own choices. This comes from the fallacy of individualism in many societies that misinforms people their choices only affect them.

Related: Healthy Mind, Unhealthy Mind

Television Writers Influence Brains & Mental Illness

Self-Control, Self-Determination | They Threw The Books At Me So I Threw Too

Imprisoned Then Booked

Shortly after I learned the local vernacular I began a lengthy incarceration. DNA prevalence gave me away. Can't have none of that Divine Natural Advantage run wild and free. I suspect it also had a lot to do with an inherited instinct for reading periods as question marks and sensing that synonyms for nonsense filled the great national divide between belief in word and belief in deed.

Before I could turn around and even before I had to go to a classroom, they threw books at me. I recognized the sound from the ones that hit me in the womb, the generational echo chamber. The shock waves from the concussion cut into the timing of my people's percussion.

Each book contained the kind of stories, if I had told them, I would have gotten a whooping. The stories, woven lies, stung like lashes sentence by sentence and made more than my head ache. Though I dared not yell, the Constitution hurt like hell and I still get daily bites from the Bill of Rights. Only natural law is on my side. When I was into trivial pursuits, I kept slipping on them as I tried to cross the divide and rise from the crevasse back to familial ground.

Whenever the text asked a question, the text answered it. I didn't stand a chance against cooked books filled with recipes for mis-education. It was my punishment to sit, listen, read, recite and try to live like everything's alright. Information was presented as the irrefutable writings on the walls. This, even as the ice castles melted. I instinctively tensed and my hands fell into the indents of previous fingerprints. Silenced youth placed themselves in my hands.

I carried them easily mitochondrially yet labored with worldview philosophies that seemed to be milled from frozen sandstone.

This punishment lasted until my late teens, yet I volunteered for more mis-education because the illusion had leapt from the pages or perhaps it was the other way around.

Booked Again And Again Breaking Free

Now many suns and moons later, son and daughter have given me combined day and night vision. I realize, just as an athlete serious about getting better must become a student of the game, if I am serious about getting better I must become a student of life. In order to find that “better place” I must search for it in all the places it was originally and still should be – especially spiritually and in the rest of the natural world.

One of several tools I must use is reading books and articles that are specifically aimed at helping me learnderstand.

Since books were used to straight knock me out of perfect spiral, I used different books to re-twist back into alignment with my DNA. I threw myself at books and read many texts by authors unlike those before.

To throw books at myself is to introduce what frees all from prisons - self-determination through self-education. If I don't determine what I want to read and if I don't study what supports my emotional, mental, spiritual and physical needs, then I am allowing someone else to determine it for me. It is this way. If I don't take control of my own education, I will continue to be imprisoned by what I had no choice but to learn. If I don't take charge of seeking what I need to read, I will only read what is offered up in a daily soup of media and entertainment goop. I will sacrifice the spiral for the viral.

Reading that requires thought and further reading and discussion is one of the most avoided self-determination resources. I throw books at myself to expand so even foolbooks on launching pads can't reach me and no prison, not even those issuing caps and gowns, can contain me. I throw books at myself for those whose hands never touched the opportunity yet rescued me.

Nakupenda jamaa.

History Poem | Education Rights To An Honorary Doctorate Edumacation
Expanded Definitions: Prehistory & Prehistoric Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 3)
Study Perspectives: Later Stone Age, Upper Paleolithic & Hate Crime Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 5)
Poetry Included: Right By Default of My Own

Family Planning Developments, Self-Esteem And Abuse & Neglect Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 7c)

Food Fight #50

Read Part 1 - ”All Ways To Communicate Begin With Definition & Context And So Begins The Meaning Of Life & Existence” (Part 1)

No Child Left Behind Begins At Home

Children cannot be left behind if they are sent to school with self-esteem.

Children can borrow books, pencils, paper and even lunch money but they must have their own esteem. If mature adults could go back in time, all of them would trade in many of the things their parents provided if they knew those un-necessities were drawing parental resources away from “child-supporting” self-esteem.

What Is Self-Esteem?

Simply put, self-esteem is knowledge of self. The four basic inseparable aspects of self (emotional, spiritual, physical, mental) have been addressed in Expanded Definitions: Reality, Illusion & Delusion For Everyone and Part 1 and Part 7b.

Of all animals, humans have the longest instruction period before their offspring must fend for themselves. Disgracefully, after several years of instruction, many human children still do not possess the knowledge of self they should and therefore children cannot possess the esteem for themselves they are entitled to by birthright into creation.

Family Planning Development

For parents and prospective parents, your personal health must be the only priority. Because the health of parents extends to children, taking care of children by parents taking care of themselves is the latest development from ancient times. This model hinges on remaining in a state of reverent apprenticeship to natural world teachers.

Their Upbringing Is All About Yours

Upbringing means bringing up children to higher and higher levels of self-awareness. This is “raising” children. This is the same definition for self-esteem. Throw away all other notions about parenting. Graduate from knowing more about micronutrients for plants via slow-release fertilizer to a higher degree of attention on the macronutrient needs of children via a steady diet of parental “watch me, now you try.”

Parents who realize, “raising” children “properly” is a redundancy are in the zone - that sweet flow of instinctive living and guidance. They realize children are either raised or not. This is why parents must focus on raising themselves so their children have no other outcome but to be properly prepared.

Parents must grow if children are to grow and learn to keep growing. Far too many parents operate under the illusion they can raise children without continuously maturing themselves into the healthier people they are intended to keep becoming. Parenting without personal growth will result in developmental delays in the growth of children. The only possible saving grace are others whom children come in contact with but parents who rely on chance instruction for their children obviously have not learned to feed themselves and are therefore reliant upon others to teach them as their primary method of knowing anything. In broader terms, the biggest hindrance to raising children is parental immaturity in areas they have yet to consider essential to the success of their children.

Who Cares About This Kind Of Stuff?

Children want to learn who they are and what they are capable of. Learning is their default mode. They want to learn about their relationship with the natural world and with all existence. I suspect this is where self-esteem suffers the most malnutrition. When children do not learn unifying concepts of themselves, unnecessary difficulties ensue as they try to find balancing points within themselves, relationships with others and with the rest of the natural world. Thus we have identity crisis, bullying, disinterest, learning difficulty, children straddling societal cracks that emanate from home, some falling through and a long list of problems that clog the passageway to love & happiness. Family planning can save the children. It can preserve their original state of promise or restore balancing harmony so children may flourish during their turn in this world.

Commitment To Children

What children need is simple - parents who are the best people they can be. This is why those who are not the birth parents are able to raise children. This is also why children who are absent one or more birth parents must be reassured from this perspective so they do not lose awareness of their ability to develop into their fullness.

When parents put love into an action plan, dynamic children are the result because the family plan is dynamic because it is principled upon independent and joint learning of self. Self-study means more than just studying on your own. It also means studying self. This is sometimes collaboratively, and frequently with the natural world but never alone because spirit is always present. In this manner, self-esteem becomes one of the few measurements that validly assesses the quality of life.

The Necessity of Male & Female Forces

Family planning goes beyond feeding, housing, clothing and schooling. Those things only address a small portion of the physical and mental aspects. This alone has no chance of supporting the level of self-esteem individuals need in order to have the best opportunities. Self-esteem requires nutrition for the entire self. This includes both feminine and masculine guiding energy for all children and adults. The importance of these counterbalancing complementary forces must not be overlooked. These different influences are as essential as the two types of DNA we all have. DNA comes as two halves to a whole set of instructions. Neither can function on behalf of the cell independently of the other. This brings us to the fundamental form of abuse & neglect. Separating children from access to these nutritional energies on purpose is abuse and not ensuring children get this energy, regardless of why it's not there, is neglect.

So-called single parents get no merit badges if they are not doing what is critically necessary for children by bringing all resources to bear on their behalf. Parents operating under the living martyrdom syndrome that they are going it alone are going about it all wrong. There is a universe of possibilities. This is why the Supreme Being put the same nutrient in several places – to give us more than one option to get what is necessary. When we combine this benevolence with our intelligence of body, mind, emotion and spirit, we remove debilitating hunger physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually from ourselves and our children.

Growing Home

Children will get bigger and older with very little effort. If parents want to take pride in providing a good home for their children, they need to plan a place that accommodates lots of fertile growing space indoors and out in the world. A place that allows children to learn the strength of their spiritual will and determination. Critical to self-improvement is allowing and encouraging children to work through adversity so they will never quit or retreat and sacrifice the abundance on the other side of overcoming for a comfortable hideaway. Each time anyone faces adversity and overcomes they have gained the benefit of another reference point to recall and use when faced with tough times again.

A good home is a place where individuals are seeking their fullest selves and supporting each other in those pursuits. It is a foundational place based on knowledge of self which helps clarify self-worth and all else worth having.

Share with children the self you are growing to know and when they are young, they will continue your story by developing their own.

Related:
Day 10: Rhetorical Learning Demands A Recount
77 Mini Self-Assessments For Better Nutrition & Health
Expanded Definitions: Prehistory & Prehistoric Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 3)
Overall History Context & Human Rights Violations And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 4)
Study Perspectives: Esperanza Spalding, Spirit Motion & Intended Greatness Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 6)
Health Information Simplification, Nutrition, Sunlight, Iron Deficiency & Comprehensive Approach Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 7b)

Read Part 7d - Definitions: Communing, Sustainability, Descendent, Family Values & Spiritual Genetics Context And So Continues The Meaning Of Life & Existence (Part 7d)

Segregated Black History, Segregated Outcomes For Children - While Christians Are Saving The World A Lot Is Changing But Nuthin's Changed

As Black History Month in America draws to a close, the need to restore this nutrition to all humans, remains. If it were possible to remove every trace of Black History, all humans and their footprints would also disappear. As it stands, the degree to which we have attempted such removal is the degree to which we wander aimlessly from a well-marked path and the degree to which children, following in our footsteps, suffer.

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The following article is from "Forty Acres – Power And Justice" (Dated approx. 1983-1985) by Dr. David deBerry

The results of our thoughts confess our religion. - - Usiku

The freedom of our children is dependent upon our political engagement in the struggles for justice. We cannot ignore the world and still retain the ethical credibility of the Christian faith. To be a Christian is to love one's neighbor and that means making a political commitment to make the world a habitable place for one's neighbor. Gustavo Gutierrez said: "To know God is to do justice, is to be in solidarity with the poor person." And it is to be in solidarity with that poor person as he/she actually exists today -- as someone who is oppressed, as a member of an exploited class, ethnic group, culture or nation. This being true, a relationship with the God who has loved me, forces me to divest myself of my possessions. It universalizes my love for others and makes it gratuitous too.

Thus in 1863, [some of] the slaves were made legally free, as individuals, but the real question regarding personal and group power to maintain that freedom was pushed aside. Power at that time for a mainly rural people meant land and tools to work the land. In other words, power meant "forty acres and a mule". But this power was not made available to the former slaves and we see the results today in the pushing of landless farmers off the farms into big cities where they come mainly in search of the power to be free. What they find are only the formalities of unenforced legal freedom.

So we must ask, "What is the nature of the power we seek and need today?" Power today is essentially organizational power. It is not a thing lying about in the streets to be fought over. It is a thing which, in some measure, already belongs to Blacks and which must be developed by them in relationship to the great resources of this nation. Please note Black America, that your country has asked you to fight for opportunity as individuals whereas at a certain point in our history, what we have needed most has been opportunity for the whole group, not just for selected and approved Blacks.

Getting power necessarily involves reconciliation. Both the anguished cry for Black power or freedom and the confused emotional response to it can be understood if the whole controversy is put in the context of American history. We must especially understand the irony involved in American pride regarding their ability to act as individuals on the one hand and their tendency to act as members of ethnic groups on the other hand. In the tension of this part of our history is revealed both the tragedy and the hope of human redemption. No one achieves freedom through a mere moral demand for justice. [My emphasis] Whites knew that those demanding drastic reforms (radicals) could not force them to divest themselves of their own great wealth or even force the transfer of the necessary requisites to obtaining power to the oppressed.

In as much as, the assumption behind choosing the method of moral persuasion was that the oppressor was unaware of the depth of the evil of [human]racism. Also, that if its demonic consequences were revealed and acknowledged, the oppressor would be morally embarrassed and stop being racist.

Unprogrammed radicalization is this: Vincent Harding has correctly analyzed the Black problem and reminds us of how nearly impossible it has been for Afro-American rhetoric to be transformed into racial action. This action reminds us that those who control the systems of American oppression have consistently found ways either to cajole, co-opt, threaten or destroy a frighteningly large portion of those Black leaders who move against the status quo. They remind us that the system itself has managed to absorb just enough changes demanded to assuage the immediate hurts. Perhaps most importantly, they remind us that a rhetoric has not often been turned into action, because rhetoric did not become analysis and analysis did not develop program and program did not lead to insistent careful organizing of our people to effect radical change.

If Blacks, in their pursuit of drastic change had studied history, analyzed the reality of the situation and/or developed teaching and organizing styles of leadership, mistakes and nonachievement in regards to power sought could have been avoided. The same critique that Malcolm X made regarding Whites and their support of Dr. King is applicable here. To state the facts further, any movement of freedom and power that is dependent upon the oppressors support for its survival is doomed to failure.

Change is a force without ability or allegiance that merely follows the intentions of the strongest current. - - Usiku

Related:
Separation of Church & State: No Escape
Socialism Is Really Being Social
Extremists For Love – President Obama's Second Inaugural Address, Dr. MLK, Jr., Sister Souljah & Jesus
Day 9: Harmony Is Energy Conservation
Day 4: Organized Religion & Nutrition
Expanded Definitions: What Capitalism Is – A Vampire In Transfusionist's Clothing

Crime Defense 101: Inherent Rights - Doing The Right Thing

Often the best defense is doing the opposite.

Definitions

Inherent rights are natural laws established by powers greater than humans. Second are freedoms humans expect for themselves and extend to others. “Live and let live,” as the saying goes.
Crime is a violation of an inherent right directly or indirectly, immediately or eventually.
White collar crime is committed by government, business, individuals. It includes a lot crimes occurring daily but not covered by daily media; thus, not vilified as other crimes and neither are those who commit white collar crime.

Many nations, countries and states, despite claims of civilization are not civil. Crime is built into society. This white collar crime is evidenced by:

1. Physical harm from food and water systems.
2. Mental harm due to misrepresented history which fuels superiority, hatred and disparities.
3. Loss of life, vitality and opportunities due to destruction of habitats.
4. Laws against growing food on land you “own.”
5. Advantages taken of children, elderly and the sick.
6. Harmful products sold with legal blessings.
7. War, abroad and at home.
8. Unequal access and provision of public services, i.e. taxation without materialization.
9. Needing a permit from the government to protest against the government.
10. Reducing public funding of medical care for the poor, poorest of elderly and food for the hungry.
11. Suffering, deaths and wasted resources from cancers while many governments, businesses, doctors and scientists ignore the most probable causes of nutrition, toxins and rest.
12. Education that trains people to work for others instead of learning themselves, their purpose(s), being their intended best and optimizing intelligences and potentials. Per Dr. Bobby Wright, [true] education is a liberating force, ie. It doesn't tie you to a life where basic needs hinge on economy, jobs, stores, utility companies and other man-made dependencies.
13. Individuals tricked into paying for job training (college) which is supposed to be a business expense.
14. Unequal education for children.
15. 13-14 years of education (High school diploma) that is not good enough. In other words, not only is free education unequal, it not enough. Then, access to education that gives you a “real” chance (college), is based on money and based on achievement in the unequal free public education system. A partial solution is for anyone with a high school diploma equivalent to get free college education so opportunity remains equal and differences result from individual ability not system bias.
16. The power of individual voice, protest and vote are diluted in various ways.
17. Mental harm that prevents a spiritual connection to natural law, thus awareness that crime has an inverse relationship with inherent rights, i.e. crime goes down when inherent rights go up.
18. Property damage (environmental degradation).
19. Harmful medical products, treatment, drugs and vaccines.
20. Police who function as the interior military against those perceived to be the enemy of the State.
21. Taking from the young and working but not returning what's promised in wages, social security and pensions.
22. Voting for discrimination by voting for those who discriminate.
23. Children taught societal virtues that are counterproductive to health.
24. Racial categorizations.
25. Psychological manipulation that causes fervent belief that all the above adds up to patriotism and liberty and justice for all.

Many sovereign nations need renovation - no lower, middle, upper or elite. The house must be one inherent level using an open floor plan. Since similarity/commonality is the essence of inherent rights, the largest portion must be common area - shared space and resources.

There are far too many religious people in the world for wrong to exist to the degree it does since “doing the right thing” is supposedly the predominant disposition of most religions.

Though we dutifully defend various ideologies and ways of life, until we defend inherent rights, there will be no defense against crime.

Related:
Socialism Is Really Being Social
G-8/G-20, Groupthink, Morality Crisis
Separation of Church & State: No Escape

Outlook, Outcomes, Greatness & Everything

The stories of the London 2012 Olympic Games are as numerous as the almost 11,000 athletes. Elation, disappointment, heartaches and hearts vindicated still flow from these varied experiences. Instead of limiting the view of achievement to outcomes, a broader perspective of what it takes to perform well provides opportunities for learning. This starts with gaining a fuller context of what an Olympian is by asking, “How do they get here from there?” Is it perseverance, heart, training, support, drive, giftedness, determination, passion, belief, overcoming fear, avoiding what doesn't contribute or having the will to find the way?

Do Not Run Aimlessly

Who didn't see or hear of Oscar Pistorius? A double, below the knee amputee, whose mother refused to treat him like he had a disability. He qualified to run in the Olympics, plus had to fight for the legal right. This approach is similar to the Ray Charles story and others. Oscar is a champion in the Olympics, Paralympics and in life. He has a tattoo of I Cor. 9:26 that reads: “I do not run like a man who is running aimlessly.”

Preparation

In an interview, Michael Phelps spoke of not winning the gold medal by five hundredths of a second in the 200M Butterfly. “The most prepared person wins,” he said.

Strengthening Weakness

After winning gold in the 110M Hurdles, Aries Merritt explained how he changed his starting foot in just eight months, a feat similar to switching writing hands. “Diligence. It took me a long, long time and a lot of hours that I put into, to building power on my weaker side, to balance it out. I think that's why I've had so much success this year because I focused so much on my weaker side and it balanced things out so now I have equal power in both legs so I'm able to apply equal force.”

Champion The Hard Way

"It means so much, all the hard work and dedication and effort put in the gym and hard days. "And hard days are the best because that's where champions are made, so if you push through the hard days you can get through anything," Gabrielle Douglas, All-Around Gymnastics Champion at age 16, reminds us.

Almost Out-Never Down

a. The Russian Men's Volleyball Team was one point away from losing the match. They then scored the next three points to win the set. Russia then won the next two sets to win the match against the USA. Individuals centered themselves on core beliefs and made the same kind of comeback in the championship match against Brazil.
b. The Brazilian Women's Volleyball Team, the favorites against Russia, facing six match points and elimination, stayed true to the game of focusing on each point that could be won and not those already lost. Brazil won the match. They steadied themselves with this same wisdom in the championship match. After getting blasted in the opening set, they won the next three.
c. Brittney Reese, the favorite to win the Women's Long Jump, fouled on several jumps and was not in medal contention. With pressure building and time disappearing, she pulled herself together and did what she came to do and was capable of doing.
d. Manteo Mitchell, in his first Olympics, continued running after breaking his leg partway through his portion of the 4x400M Relay Preliminary Round. Without coming in first, he won because he kept going. He said he couldn't let his teammates down. “Faith, Focus, Finish” helped him succeed.

During every Olympics, there are far more winners than medals awarded. There are also far more winners in everyday life - those striving to become better. Though unheralded nationally, millions are reaching personal bests, even though they have not touched the pinnacles they pursue. This is true because greatness is not determined by outcome but by outlook. Outlook answers the question because it goes with everything.

Related: Mental Preparation & The Basics Of Performance

Home Ownership, First-time Buyers, HUD/FHA

”HUD” is the acronym for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There may be similar departments and programs in other countries.

Anyone 18 years or older who has not purchased a house in their name should consider looking into HUD-owned property. This does not necessarily mean the house is of lower quality, it only means that HUD owned the mortgage and now owns the home.

Many of the homes will need some work just like any other home when it is purchased.

Visit these websites and/or call HUD to find out how you can qualify.

Do not assume that you do not qualify, even if working for minimum wage and/or getting food assistance. Call HUD.

HUD website to search for homes and other properties

Information on Buying A Home

Let FHA Loans Help You (FHA is a part of HUD)

HUD Homepage

You do not have to buy a home from the HUD Home Store website. Also, you do not have to buy a HUD home. If you qualify for assistance, your choices are greater. Investigate and ask.

A husband or a wife might be able to qualify by themselves if they are not on a mortgage.  Ask.

President Barack Obama's Job Evaluation

I applied for a job. They interviewed me, believed in me and hired me for the position. I went to work and was given lots of tasks to perform right away. I had a lot of broken things to fix. Every time I tried to do something my coworkers got in the way. They ended up telling me the way they wanted me to do my job. The people who hired me, my absentee bosses, didn't back me up. They gave me fewer tools and resources. “You're not doing your job,” they said and threatened to fire me every day.

The president of anything, needs the support of the people who hired him and the support of coworkers in order to do the job.

Truth is, the citizens who hired the President of this USA, abandoned Obama in the November 2010 midterm election.

Truth is, a significant portion of congressional coworkers have been more disagreeable with this President than has ever occurred with any Democratic President. In fact, they have outright refused to work with the President and boldly said so. What kind of people will put a company out of business just to make the president look bad?

Under these conditions, for an American citizen to say, the nation's President is not doing the job, is to not understand the political process at all, not understand the extreme working conditions this time around and not understand what it can be like trying to work with people who don't think you are worthy of the job. If voters can't comprehend this, then America will go back to losing to the greater of the evils.

It was the American business/financial industry that threw the economy into this recent recessionary tailspin which also caused the global economy to spin out of round. How does this become the President's sole responsibility and single-most critical criteria to assess job performance?

If the President had the power to fire, or at least transfer, uncooperative coworkers, I guarantee you we'd see the change you can believe in. If fact, the only reason health care legislation passed is because Democrats had more members in Congress.

Currently, the American people are signing off on a media-written performance evaluation. Before we put someone's job in jeopardy, the decent thing to do would be no less than what we'd want for ourselves – give the person a reasonable opportunity to do what they were hired to do, especially when there's a lot of catch-up work to do. Even if we can't be fair-minded, we should at least evaluate the process and information we use to make hiring decisions.

Americans, when we vote for a President, we should also vote for and keep the same Party into the majority in Congress. This will make the job evaluation process straightforward and all the campaigning and reporters in the world won't be able to disguise who did or didn't do their job.

Related post:
Individual Responsibility For Oil Spills

Stocks Fall, Self-Esteem Fell

Before the downgrade of the US credit rating was announced Representative Barney Frank, said ...I’m just puzzled that people pay attention.

Well Barney, there's no reason to be puzzled. People pay attention for the same reason they pay attention to the claims and counterclaims of politicians.

The public has a malleable mind that can be shaped by a whisper, shout or suggestion. The difference is how quickly a reaction is needed. The mind of the people has been trained to trust sources who portray themselves as thorough, and objective and knowledgeable. The main culprits are popular media, politicians at every level, Wall Streeters and business bigwigs.

If we are to ever experience significant personal growth we must acknowledge the nature of this multi-headed beast.

All the tongues from Washington to Wall Street are permanently forked and tangled together so the sounds they make are like the ones we made as kids when we held our tongues and tried to talk.

We don't have to give meaning to this gobbledygook. Just let 'em keep talking and telling lies. We should mostly do nothing or the opposite.

We don't have to allow media to instigate us to make ill-advised choices. Let them work each other into frenzies. Do not allow this Medusa-like creature to turn you hardheaded in the wrong direction.
BTW: Why do all these news sources all talk about the same things each day in the same way if they are “independent and objective?”

Barney, be not confused as to why people are freaked out and stocks are falling. We are doing as we've been trained and educated. We turn to you to tell us the important things. We need you to explain what we've heard. We need you to help us focus on information that we hope will help us make the best decisions for ourselves and be the best we can be.

You need us too. You need us to keep trusting you and believing we need you. You need us to wait to be told what's going on. You need us to doubt and diss-believe anything you don't say. You need us to lack confidence in our ability to be the discerners that is supposed to come with the developing cognitive ability of adulthood. You need us to trade the fullness of our capabilities and purposes for a life of gobbledygook.

Even though most of your information is either late or of no consequence to us, we continue to stay in a relationship with you believing we can't make it without you, just like those with no or low self-esteem. This has a lot to do with why, the wealthiest one percent has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. All information, no evolution. Stocks are falling now because self-esteem fell long ago.

People, take this into consideration: When stocks fall, someone is shaking us like trees trying to shake them loose from our hands. Someone is also either catching the stocks or picking them up. There are no stocks left lying around on the ground because in order for someone to sell a stock, someone else has to buy it.

In other words, every time you hear there is a sell off in stocks, there is also an equal buy in. The difference is, one side is shaken and scared while the other is certain and salivating. One is panicked, the other prepared. The rich get richer when we simply listen to the news they own because information is more valuable than stocks.

Additional Reading:
30 Lessons from Warren Buffet & Bill Gates

30 Lessons from Warren Buffet & Bill Gates

As earth turns clockwise, I ease into a counter move for the day as the promise of rain is close to returning to watering duty. The phone rings. I am pointed towards a program where I discover some useful lessons from an unlikely place - two of America's diehard capitalists.

Quotes, paraphrases and pieced together comments from the April 22, 2011 CNBC program, Keeping America Great, A Town Hall Event With Warren Buffet and Bill Gates facilitated by Becky Quick on the campus of Columbia Business School. [My comments are in brackets].

1. Marry the right person. Who you marry will change your aspirations. Who you marry will change all sorts of things. [Everyone you have relations with, affects you. Every person you interact with regularly will definitely have a significant impact on your life for better or worse. If you can't tell which it is, it's for the worse.]
2. Hold enough cash so no one can determine your future. [After that, invest the rest.]
3. Best place to learn ethics is in the home.
4. Do what turns you on. Do what you have a passion for. Figure this out as early as possible. You should choose your first few jobs that can expose you to the most to help figure this out, then pour yourself into your passion.
5. Try to live your life so nothing keeps you up at night.
6. From a long-term investing standpoint, a crisis can provide value opportunities.
7. It is a mistake to decide whether or not to buy or sell an investment based on what's happening today only. [Look for the long-term value potential.]
8. If you're a long-term investor, a terrible market is your friend. [This includes real estate and any other asset.]
9. K-12 education has not improved.
10. K-12 education is important to our economic strength. [To graduate a steady flow of workers to do the grunt work for capitalism.]
11. It is good for the world that some countries are not as dependent as they were on the U.S.[The U.S. has always been dependent on other countries.]
12. With great wealth comes great responsibility. [Remain aware of the true source of your wealth.]
13. His parents let him buy as many books as he wanted. [This is a good way to give your child a better life than you. Give them access to a means of learning so children can get their own better life.]
14. The most important thing to do everyday is to learn.
15. A mentor helped him gain confidence. People that believed in him provided a tailwind in life. [A mentor is anyone with your best interests at heart.]
16. He was lucky in terms of some of the people he met. [Meet, people.]
17. Every life is equal in value.
18. A group decision is to look in the mirror. [Look into yourself.]
19. Do what you would do without regards to money. [Money is just one of many resources. Most of us get money by trading one or more of our other resources to get money.]
20. Don't chase where the last dollar is being made. [Beware of making choices based on articles about the fastest growing careers or the best paying jobs. This leads you deeper into the neck of the capitalistic funnel. There is no light at the end of the funnel.]
21. [If you must work for someone,] work for someone or company you admire and that turns you on. [You agree with what they're about.]
22. Active investors, those willing to spend time learning, should look at as many things as possible to uncover opportunities and when value is found – act. [This applies to stocks, real estate, self-employment, someone else or any type of appreciating, life-freeing asset.]
23. You must find great investment deals yourself. The world is not going to tell you.
24. Don't pass up anything attractive today hoping there will be something more attractive tomorrow. [A bird in the hand...][Don't keep waiting for stocks and especially real estate to go lower. Don't keep waiting for next year, another election, political decisions or the unemployment rate to go down. Don't wait for those around you to agree with your decisions.]
25. If the reason for doing something is everybody else is doing it, you don't have a good reason.
26. Do not allow yourself to be influenced by what other people think. [Unless they are like-spirit driven.]
27. Have great people around you, think long-term and read a lot. [Read mostly what benefits you not simply entertains you.]
28. Seize the moments when you can. Doing so will significantly shift your life because not many of these moments come along.
29. Having sound principles takes you through everything.
30. He is able to make quick decisions now because of years of preparation. [Sooner or later we should be able to make quicker and better decisions due to experiences, continuous learning and greater reliance on the intuitive self. You can make better decisions by bettering yourself.]

A soft light rain nurtures the living. Some, long asleep, are being resurrected.

Curb My Appetite - What For?

Food Fight #20

Weight loss efforts often involve attempts to curb the appetite. If I eat fewer calories, I will lose weight. Even better, if I can avoid an appetite in the first place. This usually works in the beginning but is not sustainable and, in many cases, unhealthy.

To have an appetite means to have a desire. An appetite for food is natural. A problem occurs when I respond to my appetite foodlessly.

The desire to eat is an opportunity to address a nutritional need. If the need is unmet, the appetite will resurface quickly.

Cells need a consistent supply of nutrients just like a car always needs several fluids. When something is running low, a signal is sent. A light comes on. My cells also need numerous nutrients to keep me performing at an optimal level. This is the only way I can be the best I am intended to be. When my cells are running out of nutrients, they send the signal for more. The neurons light up and a message flashes in my brain that it's time to eat. Rather, it's time to add nutrition. Just like a car, it needs what it was designed to receive to keep it functioning properly, otherwise it will definitely malfunction. I dare not try to operate my car with a low level of antifreeze, oil or brake fluid – not even for a day. Why shouldn't I treat my more complex and more important body with even greater immediacy and care?

Would I want to interfere with my car's ability to let me know that it needs more gas or oil or brake fluid? Nope. Likewise, why interfere with the appetite that there to tell me I need something important?

My appetite will vary. Why? Because my experiences vary. They are not exactly the same every day and I do not eat the same amount and variety of food every day. As a result, my appetite will be more or less from day to day. My appetite is the perfect flexible mechanism to tell me what I need and when. All I need to do is tune in to what it's telling me. I need to eat with a nutrient focus. When I do this, I get energy, healing and health. When I eat with any other type of focus, I get quickly fading energy, toxins and disease. I am lucky to get any nutrients. After this happens, my body still needs those nutrients it asked for in the first place and therefore continues to send the appetite signal as soon as the stomach has room. This cycle of filling the stomach but not feeding my cells is the problem. This is a major reason I overeat. I have responded to my appetite the wrong way. I need to curb myself instead of trying to curb my appetite.

I must first make sure I am eating food and not non-food. I must continue to add variety. I must drink water. I must have renewing sleep. My cells have a desire to do their job to take care of me. They need me to give them the rawest of materials. Once I do they will stop asking. My cells never want more nutrition than they need. This means my appetite will not cause me to eat too much or want to eat too much.

Here's the thing. I must reacquire awareness of myself as more than who I am and expand it to all that I am. I am more than name, rank, serial number and such. The cellular is another level of my being. The spiritual is yet another level. I am more than the mind and macrobody I tend to focus on. I must eat to fulfill every aspect of my being.

Contrary to popular notion, a “healthy appetite” is not “eating a lot.” Instead it is meeting the desires of the body in a multiple, beneficial way. When I respond to my appetite and eat as intended, food will taste good, fill the stomach and supply nutrients. It will also supply spiritual energy. My enthusiasm is rising toward my next appetite.

Drop It Like It's Not - Right!

“What was the most popular name in the US for baby boys in 2009?” As I recall, this was the final question on Million Dollar Money Drop a few days ago. The choices were “Michael,” “Jacob” and “Ethan.”

The contestants were mostly certain it was “Michael” but I, the knowing one, was more certain than them. They and I reasoned 2009 was the year Michael Jackson died and the world loves Michael. I also figured I know a lot of Mike's and rarely ever hear the other two names. Jacob sounds Jewish to me and not everyone is Jewish. I could feel the heat in my cheeks, breast and forehead as I tried to send this instant message loudly through the TV.

The correct answer was “Jacob.” It turns out Jacob has been number one for the past ten years.

Here's the reality. It is possible to be certain you are absolutely right and that there's no way you could be wrong and be completely mistaken. Luckily this was just a game show. I wondered how often this could and does happen to me and others about things that really matter. I must be more careful, diligent, vigilant, aware, receptive, introspective and more open.

After coming to terms with how I convinced myself to be wrong, (luckily there were no witnesses) I reviewed how I ended up on the righteous road to self deception.

1. Yes I know a lot of Mike's but evidently I don't know everyone in the US and evidently not any of those born in the past ten years.
2. Not hearing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
3. Jacob is more Christian than it is Jewish and Christianity has a long history of influencing baby names.

With these additional considerations in the mix, objectivity rises and the wrong answer becomes less of a certainty, less of a possibility. When it comes to real life, this makes it less likely to fall flat and hard when the richness of life is at stake.

Do you want to be right from the start or finally get it right? If you choose the former, you only give yourself one chance and even when it's time to move or change position, refusal to do so is as a stubborn mule – the bewitching of oneself into believing that resisting and holding fast to the spot is progress. I prefer to finally get it right no matter how many times I must change position.

When it comes to thinking we know something, we should regularly consider, what if we're not right? What are the other possibilities? Sometimes that raging fiery feeling of certainty we get when we reiterate what we think we know might just be a warning burning sensation telling us to drop it like it's hot. Additional information is an opportunity. The same instinct that minimizes physical harm by telling us to let go of something hot must also be allowed to save us from a longheld belief. We must reflexively and swiftly, drop it like it's not – right.

Friend or Foe or Shoeless Joe

This is a good article for combining perspective and reality, 30 Reasons Why You Should Be Really Nervous About The State Of The U.S. Economy by Michael Snyder.

What we have is classic self-fulfilling prophecy coming home to roost. America, from jump, has operated from a single core principle/fallacy. We can do anything, anytime, anywhere and use deception and wars (of all types both foreign and domestic) to fix it/hide it/cover it up/deny it. In other words, this is the fallacy many parents warn their immature teenage children about. "You're not going to live forever so quit behaving like you can act now and consider the consequences later and then dodge them." America suffers from the selfish dementia known as Daffy Duck Syndrome: The world is mine, mine, all mine.

America, by way of Europe, is the quintessential pathological liar and needs help. It's coming in the form of forced rehabilitation by the emerging, converging and surging markets led by China. (Fasten your seatbelts for a different kind of turbulence other than the one you've become accustomed to. Americans will have to re-balance their common and normal-seeming off balance understanding.)

If America was a person, it would be a poor choice for a friend.

The linked article above does not take into account basic problems that says everything about the nature of America. Despite being the mis-conceptualized but properly idealized "land of opportunity" it does not adequately provide such for its children and elders. Not good. There is much to be said here, but by simply looking at public education and services and assurances afforded to its senior citizens you can tell that America is not a good parent or a good Uncle or a good person despite how many of its patriots obligatorily parrot the phrase, "America is a great nation."

Sadly, many will still continue to be offended by the truth and want to hear something different and ask, "Say it ain't so, Shoeless Joe."

Quotes & Proverbs To Live By

1. Fear and opportunity use the same window.
2. Feelings can only be hurt by your own thinking.
3. Winning is only possible when losing is possible.
4. Before children can achieve their own dreams, they must sleep in their own beds.
5. If artists starve, they don't do it alone.
6. The more time I use hiding things, the less time I use finding things.
7. Silence strengthens the status quo.
8. Money cannot change your standard of living.
9. Reinvent instead of lament.
10. Instead of looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, look for the light in the tunnel.
11. Losing can't exist in the same place as trying.
12. The only thing performed with 100% accuracy is waiting.

Personal Growth: It's Your Job!

I need a job. I have to go to my second job. I have two or three jobs. My job is... None of these statements are talking about working on personal growth.

Time used working on personal growth is often relegated to “if I have” time. That's like taking care of personal health or personal hygiene at random or when it's convenient or when prompted by talk shows or only around New Year's Resolution time.

You won't fall into this spare time crime if you love yourself. When you love yourself you will not only take care of your health, nutrition and cleanliness, you will also take care of your growth. This means there is only one resolution you'll ever need - a commitment to personal growth. This means all that stuff you think about doing or know you should not be doing or that you ain't happy about will each get more consistent attention simply because you're devoting more time to personal growth.

It's no secret working on your inner self will give you the most opportunities and best chances to fulfill whatever you seek in life including dealing with all the unfairness. But you ask, “What about all those fudged up people doing and having what I want?” I say, If you are willing to trade that for spiritual satisfaction, go for it. Then you say, “I'll fix that once I get all the fame and fortune they have. I'll be able to afford it.” I say, They don't, you won't and you can't. Finally you say, “Eat, Drink and be Merry for tomorrow we die!” I say, We reap how we think so be wary for what kills is sorrow and lies.

In reality, personal growth should be simultaneous with breathing. Personal growth is one of the essential functions. Although personal growth is not required to be alive, it is critical to feeling alive; therefore, make personal growth your job.

Most people say, “I do my job.” Really?

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Beyond Thanksgiving Towards Personal Growth

Now that we've allowed the thanksgiving Holy Day to become the slingshot into the christmas shopping season, complete with the maniacal black friday opening act, I wonder if thankful is how we're really living?

I am thankful for my portion of the Spirit.
My appreciation lies with my children.
I have much gratitude for those I've never seen but extend their self in order to extend a helping hand. Jeisea is one of those people whose kindness, courage and strength epitomize personal growth and perseverance.
I appreciate those who get up or help others get up.
I am thankful for opportunity more than attainment.
I am thankful for not wasting natural resources.

As I considered what to write for today, I received a call from my sister. I am thankful for conversations. She just turned 50, started her renaissance in her early forties, maintaining rhythm and progressing.

I appreciate having the daily choice to celebrate thankfulness and in my own way. Especially in much smaller, simpler, less overindulgent ways. Can we really be thankful if we're not reaching for our better selves? Any day towards personal growth is a Happy Holy Day yet days we fail to celebrate are just as sacred. Anybody for an everyday celebration or a Personal Growth Party where we eat enrichment, not entertainment, and drink wisdoms and enjoy the desserts of diversity and dreams?

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Shakespeare: Nothing Compares to You

Don't compare yourself to Shakespeare. That's what I was told but why not? Who should I compare myself to? Perhaps someone who doesn't embrace their gifts. Would that satisfy those who find it incredulous that one less esteemed, or so it seems, would consider any similarity with one of great esteem?

Relax. I don't want to be William Shakespeare and I don't want to write or create like him. What I want is breathing room to let creativity take shape unencumbered and to let creativity unencumber shapes already taken. We all have a measure of talent and attributes that help or hinder. What makes the difference? Why don't opportunities, their type or their absence always lead to obvious outcomes? For these and other reasons I compare myself to everyone well-known, lesser known, on point, near the point and off point.

I can't be Shakespeare, although we have more in common than in contrast. Thankfully there's a third component: divine differences that make it possible for nothing to compare to you, me or Shakespeare.

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creativity, gift, opportunity, Shakespeare, talent

Image Award Opportunity, Experience & Acceptance

And the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry, goes to Nikki Giovanni.

Participating in certain events specific to my field are experiences only possible by making my dream an integral part of life. That's my part. Other forces often intervene; therefore, I am grateful and fortunate when opportunities materialize. Being nominated awarded opportunities that would not have been possible without being in full hot pursuit.

Yes, I met some celebrities. Many were decent, gracious and unpretentious if you were. That was the minor experience. The most important things were things with greater substance that don't sit on a shelf. Things like...

Allowing my mother to experience the experience.
Meeting person after person whose personality is their celebrity.
Receiving a boost of energy to work with as encouragement.
Realizing life is not about any single thing. Only the spirit it contains.
Being able to personally place my book into some hands.
Being blessed by having the poem "Eloquence" placed in the souvenir journal.
Learning to listen for more than a knock because today's opportunity uses many methods, including email.
Understanding the NAACP, our image and I have come partway down previously prepared paths and now we must press forward to secure the extension of these paths for others.

---

Here's my acceptance speech for the opportunities and the experiences.

Thank you momma. Thank you NAACP and thanks to all those cool people who support others as they extend their reach in search of their better selves.

We were told at the opening luncheon to expect to win. It is a far better thing to expect to dream.

This moment is not mine alone. So be encouraged to, dream big, dig deep and let the Spirit of Truth direct your feet.

Take your gifts and your talents. Combine them with purpose, passion, courage and stamina. Stand Up and Be Counted.

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