SEEN in the interior of the Soul. . .

The outstanding is astounding! In women seeing themselves in the admiration from men is a value system. In fact, memories stirred by looks means something adheres to what people value: worth. Are beautiful women observed, or their beauty perceived? Do beautiful women believe in the ideal from those who admire them, or lie about how important it is to be admired for beauty? Are we wrong needing Beauty, or women needing to be seen as beautiful?

Simple questions, but at the beginning of puberty the question is raised by the consciousness of general society. It is our parents our validation should come from, or at least, the form of family once held that status. Now, with Instagram baby sitting children, and informing them value has become a vague sense of being accepted by strangers, by people a child will never see face to face. Ain't that some shit? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/28/18

naked. Marilyn Monroe.

Art as Woman.

"Modeling style and modeling clothes can be the same, but more often is not because those who try do not know they have to develop the abstract with the practical application of beauty and intelligent forms of analysis to produce a better feel to establish what can be, or is beautiful!..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/25/18

Elizabeth Ashley photographed by John Darko Chapman titled 'The Widow',

body paint by Jon Jon Loveless. (Sept. 11, 2016)

Art in Wonder.

HR Images

What a beautiful moment! It reminds me of the perspective I had, and wondered about as a child: "Capturing sunlight and essence is a work of art from the standpoint of photography, or any visual art. But, the capture of sunlight is a natural event, or capacity in living, and capturing the essence of someone in a glance is an inherent part of being alive, being human..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7/4/18

Colored Woman by Pasckie Pascua. acrylic. watercolor. pens. sharpies. pastels. oil. paper canvas.

Yaniksa Lee

Yaniksa Lee Robles by Roland Dawson. The defiance is on purpose. It is clear as the water reflects.

50 years after Dr. King was killed we got. . .

Millennials. I don't call them that. Naming a group by a time period takes their humanity away. If anything they are the Unawares, and unable to figure out where they stand in relationship to anything around them near or far. Without childhoods of substance in the traditional, or ancient way of developing a child's spirit as their spirit settles into their bodies is the beginning of creating undeveloped adults. The complexity of what I just said, in person, leaves these children outside of understanding; so I as an Elder have to couch many things because these young people's lack of balance tells the story of their lack of substance needed to become human. -

There are remedies, but American culture is into quick fixes based in entertainment. It would be foolish in this medium to share, or teach what I know.  Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/03/18

CHRISTMAS IS BEST INA DREAM!

Dolores Dorn, film and television actress.

a Touch, a Moment

Kiss of Grandmother Moon and Grandfather Sun. A'HO!

I have the fond memory, as a boy flying above the Atlantic ocean, of seeing this brief, but poignant moment. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (Dawn Wolf)  

from Mother's Milk

Jeneen Piccuirro to the left in long skirt with four friends making themselves into small people like the Borrowers!

(June 24, 2012). photo by Melanie Lesick Froemke

Jeneen Piccuirro, these special moments make and are the substance of bonding, the creation of the subtle things that need to take place within the formation of childhood long before the circles of innocence expand into adulthood.

Play.

It is always play that instructs and introduces children to the deep constructs of self, and purpose in life. Without it innocence takes a beating, and the heart struggles to keep ticking its rhythms in alignment with the 'why' of existence.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

9.14.16

Jayne Mansfield and daughter Mariska Hargitay

dancing together !!!!

Natalia Vodianova breast feeding her baby.

Gigi Dowell and her daughter "changing the world through changing ourselves", she says.

INTO the Future WE see ...



Modern reality

This is testament to the unawareness our young people enjoy and are unaware of. It is the gift their parents gave them relinquishing their children to ideas and institutions not remotely interested in the development of the whole child into the fulfillment of maturity.

These are the observations that will be said 20, maybe 40 years from now when the consequences of this way of childhood development bares its unbearable fruit. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (3.29.16)


 

Qui est vous? Who are you?



delicate beauty of a red haired woman in soft light.

"A people without the knowledge of their past, origin and culture are like a tree with no roots." are the words from an Irish person who places emphasis upon being Republican and proud. It is a universal message, a universal truth, a statement logic would decree as a norm. But, knowing who one is is not as common as it once was in older times.

Across the landscape of cultures there were dreams and from the dreams came visions and the visions sought consciously were the simple return to what we knew coming into this world. Vision quests in the traditions that sought them are a returning to a place of knowing from a place one forgot themselves in the social context of their people.

"Who are your people?" is a question my father would ask of people. It is an old question, an important one that is a non-intrusive way of connecting relationships. Without the guide post the griot in West African cultures, and the historian in modern Europe and the United States or the recollections of the storytelling responsibilities held by particular family members so charged with this responsibility families and individuals would not have access to their spiritual and physical lineages.

Popular in American society are the cults of disenfranchised young people without well structured foundations floundering about waving banners supporting what is momentarily trending online. Groundless they express themselves pitifully, from an Elder's view, as Suicide Girls, Gothic chicks, occultists, lesbians, atheists, or join motorcycle 'clubs' heavily influenced by the moodiness of Jimi Dean. I could go on with the examples, but if you are a citizen of most countries you get the gist of my observation.

Older women are increasingly becoming less powerful seeking ways to remain younger and essential outside of the context of the depth of middle age and the powers inherent within the maturing process meant for women. It is a sad state of being. If women are retarding their maturation process towards the Old Wise Woman status, and men are stunting their growth through addictions and incarceration what hope do young people have of ascension into the higher realms of being? Further exploring this tenet of our national ideology what hope has the nation? The level of maturity and the depth of commitment to the higher purpose of serving define and secure the status of being a global force upon the Earth. The tired methodology that served the white man's quest to dominate the world today has the reverse effect upon consciousness.

Unaware of the higher realms of being and the consequences of evil white Americans are pushing an agenda inscribed in death sentences, and death knolls are taking the place of songs of deliverance. In the fear-based quest to remain atop of the world men like Donald Trump are feeding off of the bowels of their being. Feared as a white man, a rich white man many Black Americans are poised to vote for him. So deeply is the devotion to self-inflicted wounds, and submission to dark energies millions across the nation are voting against their best interests. They aren't thinking. They are not strong enough to see into the deep, and they are afraid of not being part of the group that appears stronger than any other upon the face of the Earth.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
3/28/16

Make American Great Again. What a profound indictment in four words!

news paper story of whites killing Blacks in 1898

Madison Washington was an enslaved cook who instigated a slave revolt November 1841 aboard the brig Creole.

Motorcycle gang,

Put Simply

Erykah Badu said, "I think people who vibrate at the same frequency, vibrate toward each other. They call it, in science, sympathetic vibrations."

As a kid and further on into adulthood I could not unsubscribe from the notion it was all magic, just energy lines pulling, tugging, directing and hinting. Following them became a passion and a conviction that they all lead somewhere, and more often than not it was worth the tension of the task and the discoveries along the way. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Jan. 17, 2017

Race, Rage, Revenge

Chicago Code BLUE

Four Black people kidnapped a handicapped white man, who could not protect himself and tortured him, beat him and filmed the assault. The country is in an uproar. When two Black girls names and faces showed up on the news as two of the perpetrators my mouth dropped in astonishment first because they were Black, and at the same time the horror of them being women was shattering.

Brittany Covington (who filmed the felony assault) and her older sister Tanisha Covington and friends were all officially charged with the following: Hill was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery, residential burglary; Cooper was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary; Brittany Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary; Tanishia Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. These are someone's children and grandchildren.

When I look at this I see the reflection of the country. I see what we taught them and what we applaud: violence and taking from others. It is how the West was won and the East was taken: blood, and murder, deception and aggression. When it is our Colored daughters it speaks against and points to what ails not only the soul of the country, but what ails the souls of Black folks!

But, the country is full of contradictions and erratic behavior and white people clamoring for a chance to ring these Colored girls up on charges of a hate crime. It is a hate crime, but the clamor for it puzzles me as much as it did when white Americans clamored for President Obama to say the words: radical terrorism. It was odd. It didn't feel comfortable and it was hard to measure why placing a name upon something was more important than solving a problem, or probing into why something is what it is and so forth.

I will not sign a petition to make this crime a hate crime. It will solve nothing, It is only suppressing an urge for killing the girls that many want to do. Part of the outrage is at the misunderstanding of self, and the individuals left alone in this society. Miseducated children become something in life we are all terrified of and being an American means pretending that what is staring us in the face isn't really there. Why there is surprise that children will be cruel in reverse enrages our young people because they keenly feel abandoned into a system of education that excluded the vital parts of their development. If they aren't surprised at the large numbers of killers and sadists and sexual deviants we graduate each year from high school why are we?

If I do anything, and I will, I will do better at what I am doing in the development of children and young adults in my part of this country: the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Why'd I say that? I opened up a shit storm of reaction from white men!

Jeff Mayhugh  out of his mouth said, "Going to jail for them would be like going to a family reunion. Now they get to spend time with their momma." "gaz chamber please." another said. "Hang um! In the Gas chamber!" "kill them and their families."

"Set them on fire while we all sit around with popcorn and watch!" a married mother of two small children named Anna put out into cyberspace.

"Typical hoodrat trash." another said. In the midst of this one white man said, "This is a horrible thing.. don't make it worse buy going off the handle.. these people will be brought to justice.. don't take things to far... Hold the Liberal PC police to it.."

Things got dicey when a James Kerstetter got involved reacting to my thoughts beginning with 'I will not sign a petition...' He said, "Of course you won't. It's a hate crime and that fucking trash is getting charged with it too."

"James. OK." I replied. "You obviously didn't read or understand what my reasoning is. Can't go far with this discussion."

"Your right running bear. It's a black and white thing. You see black I see white. Just know that my way of thinking just isn't mine. There are a lot of people tired of the reverse racism. Time to defend ours. Try that shit in my neighborhood I dare ya....."

James McMenamy stepped into the fray and said, "Nobody needs your permission to label this a hate crime. A hate crime is a hate crime regardless of class, color, national orgin, religious beliefs, education or any other pathetic excuse of the offender."

This went on for some time until the host pulled it down because it got uglier and uglier. I was sadden by it all because I have been involved in live face to face, fact to fiction conversations with white men in the past over volatile subjects centered around race and regret having them because during it all a sadness overtakes me. There is something in denial and rhetoric that manages to hold their fears in at a check point. Black Americans find it easier to vent rage and require historical retribution or compensation for the evil deeds done upon them by white people.

It only saddens me because of the maturity level I am at. Time was I didn't feel sadness, or give a damn about how deep those emotions came from to frame each participants nightmares. So, if one can change and listen to another does the other one whose ears are closed change, or is the dynamic between the two staring at any hope of resolving the issue at hand? Usually no. But, what would happen if we, on opposite sides of the rage of debate, together sat around a table of food, played games and looked at our families and sought out ways to make our children's lives easier?

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Jan. 5, 2017

Artist rendition of young Black womanhood. artist unknown.