A True Tragedy



Black woman with a lot of sadness.



Eliza Maria, pregnant April 2012

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." ~ Plato




 

FEAR BASED RETENTION

In the years I've been in the States there are comparatively few Black Americans with libraries in their homes. If I want to go to a home amongst the people I know to read their books on Africa, for example, or Native spirituality, or Oriental medicines, historical fiction, etc. I'd go to the homes of whites. Their libraries typically are extensive, at best, and impressive, but small generally. Amongst Blacks the education and income level doesn't necessarily come with impressive reading habits, or intellectual curiosity. It should given our history, and the enormous power base of intellectual achievement and spiritual development over the centuries in the numerous tribes and nations we come from.

Perhaps it is in the misunderstanding, or the obsession with the word soul in relation to music, or lifestyle, or African retention within the social framework of Black Americans that continues to undermine the long tradition of education and expansion of the mind in today's Colored folk. I don't know. I know how important books used to be for the past centuries, and how deeply indebted the Europeans are to the African intelligentsia.

Plato said, "A house that has a library in it has a soul." Perhaps his words bring to the light the deep fears Black Americans are holding that retard growth, and devalue the soul of a People the Japanese call the 'Ladder People' because one can place a ladder upon the shoulders of Blacks and climb and build fortunes. Perhaps our tendencies to focus on and strive for the approval of White Americans has us focused on how they took and acquired wealth as our measure for success.

If our relationship with Whites is fear based perhaps it creates a desperation that obscures the secrets of the hearts of those who enslaved us, and does not allow us to venture beyond the scope whites viewed us in. Maybe we have imprisoned our goals and imaginations, and trapped our ancestors in dungeons.  Perhaps we are the problem, and the conflict within our freedoms denies, and keeps us from being free. Maybe we don't own our images. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.8.13



How did Jesus become white?

NIECY NASH, actress & talk show hostess

“Niecy Nash exploded, for me, on a show called Clean House. She, as the hostess, led a fix-it-guy, an interior designer, and a woman who is a master of details into houses not too many miles from their studio. Problem solvers led by a Black mother approach to personal problems that breathed dysfunction into the homeowner’s lives, and their awful homes transformed the dirtiest, and most cluttered homes. There was nothing demeaning about her carriage, speech, or demeanor. One hundred years ago the producers of the show would have fed into the expectations of their public and Niecy’s role would have been subservient, and felt good for white audiences. Black artists would be seething beneath their appearances, and Negroes would justify it in short-winded clichés laced with pride, hope, rage, and compliance.” – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

ELDER'S WISDOM

"I love the challenge that tension can bring ...even conflict can be a powerful place from which to transform and strengthen ones self. It is always what WE decide the experience will mean that will mean the difference between seeing a Lifeteacher or a whole range of avoidance and blamethrowing that parks one in ...not yet achieved wisdom.

Conflict can be a powerful catalyst for positive change ...don't always try to avoid conflict ...unless it is dangerous and life threatening." -Mereana Taki, healers, lightworker & mystic 

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato

"... a salesman indeed never gives up the illusion that he has something to sell...of our own we have nothing and yet we are the light of all rainbows...."

-Francesca Milanato

TORCH BEARERS

eye from the sky

“The Souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of Lights; Each takes a Taper, often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls are rare fortune, are detained longer and have time to grab a handful of Tapers, which they weave into a Torch. These are the Torch-Bearers of humanity, its Poets, Seers, and Saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, towards the Light. They are the lawgivers and the Saviors, the Light-Bringers, Way Showers and Truth Tellers, and without them, Humanity would Loose its way in the Dark...”

~ Plato

Marque, recognizing the twinness of ourselves is, in some respects, contrary to and identical to the Christ teachings. The modern church teachings burden us with guilty elements that weigh down our spirits you know. But your poetry seems to divine your individual self from the web of religious perceptions. Am I on the right track, or way off base?

In respect to your comment about our youth culture there is the thin hope that their will be an awakening of fundamental truths, and people will taste the bitter fruit of trying to live in a perpetual motion of immaturity. Immaturity is the element of youth that was designed to stimulate growth. Youth becomes, at some point, contractions in a birthing process from innocence, physical strength, idealism, and high energy into maturity. Life was meant to evolve into depth.

Eldership is a complex process of simplicity going through a series of deaths towards the ascension of souls. I stress the plurality of souls because an Elder will deepen his/her life force in such a way that it benefits others making their journeys from immaturity into the depths of Life’s mystery, and passages into the Unknown.

The divinity of a moment of intimacy can expand life or plunge it deeply into the mysteries of beginnings. ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Wes' new baby - Danda in Brazil 2009

TORCH BEARERS

“The Souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of Lights; Each takes a Taper, often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls are rare fortune, are detained longer and have time to grab a handful of Tapers, which they weave into a Torch. These are the Torch-Bearers of humanity, its Poets, Seers, and Saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, towards the Light. They are the lawgivers and the Saviors, the Light-Bringers, Way Showers and TruthTellers, and without them, Humanity would Loose its way in the Dark...”
~ Plato

LIGHT BEINGS IN ENDTIMES

tattoo bird by London based graphic artist edit magyar

“The Souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of Lights; Each takes a Taper, often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls are rare fortune, are detained longer and have time to grab a handful of Tapers, which they weave into a Torch. These are the Torch-Bearers of humanity, its Poets, Seers, and Saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, towards the Light. They are the lawgivers and the Saviors, the Light-Bringers, Way-Showers and Truth-Tellers, and without them, Humanity would Loose its way in the Dark...” ~ Plato

a Creation Story

“The Souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of Lights; Each takes a Taper, often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls are rare fortune, are detained longer and have time to grab a handful of Tapers, which they weave into a Torch. These are the Torch-Bearers of humanity, its Poets, Seers, and Saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, towards the Light. They are the lawgivers and the Saviors, the Light-Bring..ers, Way- Show..ers and Truth-Tell..ers, and without them, Humanity would Loose its way in the Dark...”

~ Plato