From The Front Lines of Niggardom
My assault on niggardom has not achieved the desired results. (Yet.) While me relentless positivity(Can you believe that’s not a word! Yet) has influenced many and my blessings have grown, my focus on niggardom has attracted too much of the same. Like a trying to catch an evening breeze and turning the porch light on… niggahs and flies! With so many blessings it’s easy to get distracted and lose focus. All the while, negativity is building. (Like that rapid accumulation of bugs to porch lights.) Once you lose focus, there it is!
I was feeling myself. I had a good cash flow. I had a growing business. I had the attention of quite a few beautiful women. And I was patiently eager in anticipation of attention from one of the most beautiful women I have been blessed to come in contact with. I started slipping. Church went from weekly attendance to online to barely catching one podcast a month. Daily words became weekly and my meditation was way WAY off.
Niggardom crept up and fit itself into one of those often overlooked aspects of my life. I felt it coming. I knew I was slipping. I tried to stay calm. I panicked. What could have been a slip became a trip, stumble, fumble and a huge fuck up. And now, I’m smack dab in the middle of niggardom. Everything I said I was against, I ended up promoting. And here I am with Amos and Andy. I started out reporting from the field, now I’m on the front line.
And it is everything I said it was. Except, I never mentioned, there is still a light. In the deepest darkest dumberest recesses of niggardom, there is still a light. I had to lock in on it. I had to regain my focus. One of the best things about being in there is I have plenty of time to read, write, meditate, pray, help and teach. The light can grow. I can still grow.
I can regain my focus. I always had the time. God forced me to take it. He showed me light. While the devil had “Amos and Andy” telling me it could get darker, God sent me a light. He spoke and said – find the time and space to be quiet. Only when you are quite can you connect/reconnect to your holy spirit. The holy spirit will focus your energy and attract what’s best for you.
The devil is all about noise. Niggardom is loud! The noise is just distraction. Distraction can be attractive but it is purely nothing. The devil likes you to be filled with nothing so he can replace the space with negativity. So I practice tuning the noise out.
I have been blessed with the ability to tune it out for years. I realize it now. It takes focus and practice to master any skill. I can think in the loudest and most ignorant noise. I can sleep on top of the loudest bass speakers. If I can sleep and I can think, I can meditate. If I can meditate, my light can grow. If I can meditate, I can see the light in the darkness. Any darkness. Because every darkness has a light. (Even Charlie Murphy!) How do you even recognize darkness without light.
So I stay quiet in the midst of the noise. I focus in the midst of confusion. I let my light shine fearlessly in the darkness. Where I once trusted light to be a hiding place of dark, I trust darkness to have plenty of room for the light. I taught Amos (Or Andy, whichever one is the skinny one) algebra. The light grew in both of us. I can see now that a fuck up become a fumble then a stumble to a trip and then a slip and we can all bounce back! So I just stop now. I may have to do it often but “the rush” will catch you slipping. And I’m not the gingerbread man, I’m a juggernaut. Just building momentum as slow as I choose. But building. And once I get going, I’ll never be stopped again.
Life is good. I'm sharing it with the world. So this is life the way I see it...
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
School vs Jail
For $14,000 a year I got …
For $30,000 a year I got …
The Federal government will give you up to $10,000 a year, you can easily earn or borrow the $4,000 or $100/week for school. Local, State and Federal governments will spend $30,000 a year, you or your family/crackheads can add/donate an additional $5,000 a year for phone calls or overpriced ramen noodles and cookies. As responsible individuals, we must accept that this is our choice. (Regardless of guilt/innocence) Which would the government choose? The government would choose “C”. (Militarize everything and everyone) We’ll explore that more later.
Let’s examine the first two options.
In school, you get to share a room with people who “match” your interests. Later, for an additional $3,000 to $8,000 a year you can share a room, apt or house with people who match your “real” interests. For some, prevailing interests may lie with home cooked meals. Let’s just focus on on-campus housing for now. You get a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner with selections that valiantly mix attempts at blending home cooking with local cuisine at its blandest. If you still want sustenance beyond the cafeteria you can supplement that with whatever will deliver late, wherever you can get to or whatever a mini-fridge and microwave can support.
In jail/prison you are provided with strategically portioned breakfast, lunch and dinner. You share a cell and dorm with people who “match” your interests. The higher up you go, the more similar the interests you share. (It’s like that in school as well) If three hots (room temperature) is not enough, you can supplement your meals with the aforementioned ramen noodles and cookies. Did I forget to mention the choice of meals? Why you can select from “dietary” (which consists of a cousine derived from the grouping of diabetic, vegan, and religious diets) or nothing (just don’t eat [But then they’ll come and make you]).
In school, health care is included. In jail, health care is extra. (Not very much at all, but still extra) And what you get is significantly different. Significantly! You get treated in school by the best and brightest up an coming PAs, surgeons, dentists, nurses, dermatologists and whatever else as well as very dedicated alumni. And I’m not talking about walking into the dental school to get your teeth jacked on my some C student. That’s what prisoners get. In jail/prison you get attended to by pay check chasers, bleeding heart morons, people who had nowhere else to go and those same C students from before. A broken finger in both places will get either a finger cast or a Popsicle stick. In one place, you’ll pay for a finger cast and get a Popsicle stick.
Schools gain notoriety and prominence by preparing individuals to enter and lead various workforces across diverse industries. Prisons gain notoriety and money by preparing and providing the most remedial and scary of workforces.
Surpisingly, both can become somewhat of a fashion show. Obviously school provides you with more options. It also provides you with alternatives for achieving status. In school intelligence is an easy road to status. In prison intelligence is also highly regarded however intelligence is simultaneously violently feared. In both the entrepreneurial spirit can thrive. The only difference is the promotion and reward. In prison, entrepreneurs risk being rewarded with The Hole. Both take a little work and dedication to get in. Getting out is where the difference lies, by FAR. Statistically, the more difficult task of getting out goes to prisons. Both can be coed. In school… (hmph! Nuff said.) In prison/jail you won’t even get to see your coeds (and you better not look!). I’ll end the comparisons there.
And then there’s option C. For approximately three weeks you will share quarters with up to twenty random individuals. After that, you get options. You can continue that type of living or you can upgrade to apt/house/cave living. The cuisine is better than school food but at times worse than jail/prison food. Supplementation is vastly improved by commissaries. Military healthcare rivals school health care. Ex-military can expect to prepared for success at any level. (Provided you don’t go crazy/crayish or get hook on drugs first) Any fashion/status will be earned by hard work (Or going to school). Intelligence is highly regarded provided you are smart enough to know when to speak and when to listen. The entrepreneurial spirit thrives similar to school and prison/jail. (I may note that neither of the three actually encourages entrepreneurial-ism) Promotion and reward can rival that in school. It takes a lot of work and dedication to stay, leaving is a little easier than prison/jail. The Coed status doesn’t rival school (nothing does-not even the NBA) but at least you can see them. And money. The government will spend over $30,000 a year on you for as many as 20 years (in rare cases, more). Again, governments will choose option C.
Unfortunately, it’s ultimately an individual decision. Larger numbers choose jail/prison. The majority chooses nothing. The decision is left to taxpayers and the government. Left to taxpayers to choose, they choose jail/prison. As an investment, school offers better returns by a landslide. Often, returns are seen with as little as one year’s investment.
This may seem like common knowledge but just take a look around. Everyone knows candles cost more than electricity. Yet, Americans are still paying for candles and not investing in electricity. Believe me. I’ve spent more money being primitive than I have being/becoming evolved. And I don’t think I’m alone. Am I?
For $30,000 a year I got …
The Federal government will give you up to $10,000 a year, you can easily earn or borrow the $4,000 or $100/week for school. Local, State and Federal governments will spend $30,000 a year, you or your family/crackheads can add/donate an additional $5,000 a year for phone calls or overpriced ramen noodles and cookies. As responsible individuals, we must accept that this is our choice. (Regardless of guilt/innocence) Which would the government choose? The government would choose “C”. (Militarize everything and everyone) We’ll explore that more later.
Let’s examine the first two options.
In school, you get to share a room with people who “match” your interests. Later, for an additional $3,000 to $8,000 a year you can share a room, apt or house with people who match your “real” interests. For some, prevailing interests may lie with home cooked meals. Let’s just focus on on-campus housing for now. You get a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner with selections that valiantly mix attempts at blending home cooking with local cuisine at its blandest. If you still want sustenance beyond the cafeteria you can supplement that with whatever will deliver late, wherever you can get to or whatever a mini-fridge and microwave can support.
In jail/prison you are provided with strategically portioned breakfast, lunch and dinner. You share a cell and dorm with people who “match” your interests. The higher up you go, the more similar the interests you share. (It’s like that in school as well) If three hots (room temperature) is not enough, you can supplement your meals with the aforementioned ramen noodles and cookies. Did I forget to mention the choice of meals? Why you can select from “dietary” (which consists of a cousine derived from the grouping of diabetic, vegan, and religious diets) or nothing (just don’t eat [But then they’ll come and make you]).
In school, health care is included. In jail, health care is extra. (Not very much at all, but still extra) And what you get is significantly different. Significantly! You get treated in school by the best and brightest up an coming PAs, surgeons, dentists, nurses, dermatologists and whatever else as well as very dedicated alumni. And I’m not talking about walking into the dental school to get your teeth jacked on my some C student. That’s what prisoners get. In jail/prison you get attended to by pay check chasers, bleeding heart morons, people who had nowhere else to go and those same C students from before. A broken finger in both places will get either a finger cast or a Popsicle stick. In one place, you’ll pay for a finger cast and get a Popsicle stick.
Schools gain notoriety and prominence by preparing individuals to enter and lead various workforces across diverse industries. Prisons gain notoriety and money by preparing and providing the most remedial and scary of workforces.
Surpisingly, both can become somewhat of a fashion show. Obviously school provides you with more options. It also provides you with alternatives for achieving status. In school intelligence is an easy road to status. In prison intelligence is also highly regarded however intelligence is simultaneously violently feared. In both the entrepreneurial spirit can thrive. The only difference is the promotion and reward. In prison, entrepreneurs risk being rewarded with The Hole. Both take a little work and dedication to get in. Getting out is where the difference lies, by FAR. Statistically, the more difficult task of getting out goes to prisons. Both can be coed. In school… (hmph! Nuff said.) In prison/jail you won’t even get to see your coeds (and you better not look!). I’ll end the comparisons there.
And then there’s option C. For approximately three weeks you will share quarters with up to twenty random individuals. After that, you get options. You can continue that type of living or you can upgrade to apt/house/cave living. The cuisine is better than school food but at times worse than jail/prison food. Supplementation is vastly improved by commissaries. Military healthcare rivals school health care. Ex-military can expect to prepared for success at any level. (Provided you don’t go crazy/crayish or get hook on drugs first) Any fashion/status will be earned by hard work (Or going to school). Intelligence is highly regarded provided you are smart enough to know when to speak and when to listen. The entrepreneurial spirit thrives similar to school and prison/jail. (I may note that neither of the three actually encourages entrepreneurial-ism) Promotion and reward can rival that in school. It takes a lot of work and dedication to stay, leaving is a little easier than prison/jail. The Coed status doesn’t rival school (nothing does-not even the NBA) but at least you can see them. And money. The government will spend over $30,000 a year on you for as many as 20 years (in rare cases, more). Again, governments will choose option C.
Unfortunately, it’s ultimately an individual decision. Larger numbers choose jail/prison. The majority chooses nothing. The decision is left to taxpayers and the government. Left to taxpayers to choose, they choose jail/prison. As an investment, school offers better returns by a landslide. Often, returns are seen with as little as one year’s investment.
This may seem like common knowledge but just take a look around. Everyone knows candles cost more than electricity. Yet, Americans are still paying for candles and not investing in electricity. Believe me. I’ve spent more money being primitive than I have being/becoming evolved. And I don’t think I’m alone. Am I?
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