What We Can Do Can Be Done.

Balloon Ark created by my cousin, Marcia Liggett at First Church of God, for Amber's Amazing Balloons. Sept. 9, 2018, which is her daughter's business. Amber, a new college graduate in grad. school right now, has been in business since elementary school. It is a successful business. 

Parenting is an art. In today's climate it isn't acted out this way. With so much of American thought and practice as parents under duress one would logically believe it not possible given the wealth and advantages of this culture. For people whose ancestors are indigenous to this land, and from the Land of the Blacks there are ancient ways of being a parent, and a part of community that is foreign to European thought, belief and practice. This is important to fathom because the fact is white Americans have created chaos where they know order belongs. Why they do this instinctually requires deep study.

I mention this in the context of acknowledging my cousin Maria Liggett, and her husband, Lamont, who have retained and mastered an ancient way of raising and developing their children that outsizes the puny thought process common in American life that develops the lowest impulses within children from suicide to gang warfare and truancy. How a nation underserves its children is based on the belief systems held during the long periods of European life in their Dark Ages.

They raised their children in a white community on purpose in Western Pennsylvania, which is significant because the climate there is seeped in the self-destructive dynamics of racism, as a social construct. The two of them set their standards of expectation high, and humbly influenced a white town towards a higher awareness outside of, and away from the primitive outlines they feel special within as 'superiors'. Their two children had struggles within what is typical of white American resistance to the challenges to their assertions of superiority in terms of intelligence, capacity to learn and exceed. The two children started and developed business in elementary school that have grown. The boy, Rob, has a successful photography business. He is in high school. His sister, Amber's balloon business afforded her opportunities too numerous to mention in the small space of an article.

The point is one of excellence. It is not a target point of the majority. For those on this trajectory there is a special consideration: they will find a way to learn the secrets and the techniques of the best from the best of the best. The rest?

Well. . .


- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
 [September 8, 2018]

To Point This Out.

An ideal of a teacher, Darla Crane. She isn't ideal in the strict sense of the word; in another sense she teaches from a socially unaccepted way of living as a woman! By way of the Cross (of Jesus) she is a whore, as employment her livelihood is made by sex in cultural consciousness shared worldwide as an option of survival specific for girls and women! It is justifiable in a world subjugated by low under developed spirits, but the outcome has no justice to it at all. None of that matters because the movement of life lived like this is more important than the counter to its movement. Special people change the nature of prophecies and trends. Normal people say they'd like to, but won't. 

It's like this: People say they'd love to raise exceptional children, or do better raising their children, but in the presence of those who have at high levels of skill, they realize they cannot because they won't accept the 'how'! Why this is, and they are like this, rest in what they don't know about themselves and face from within. They'd rather wait until regret is their guest, and their death is imminent. This is belief in the reverence for the deathbed confessions. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/20/18 

the Kardashian technique

Kim Kardashian in the business of being in business.

I've said it a lot about the profundity of her beauty, and written about Kim Kardashian's technical facility in the corporate world as others have, but somehow the genius of her mother's engineering keeps her daughter's fan base focused on, what I refer to as: trivia. Trivia, their reality star personas', is their basic bread and butter as they expand into men's world of international corporations!

Theirs is an intelligent usage of trivia, but it makes for a pitiful analysis, in retrospect, about their fan base, who from what they say and do, are either oblivious to, or ignorant of the larger game the Kardashian family plays, and uses to the benefit of their lives, and their complex legacy.

"Legacy?" you ask.

They've created hundreds and hundreds of jobs; nay, I say thousands of jobs, which is no small feat! They have inspired hundreds of entrepreneurs to do, and be better! That is legacy creation, which is a concept and practice foreign to the mundane.

Their magical trick is their beauty and the emphasis on trivia and gossip. It needs to be studied, and paying attention makes the naïve wiser learning more about how a male world is being manipulated into the form fitting dresses of deliciously beautiful women playing against the paradigm of desire and envy.



Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
January 19, 2018

Kim Kardashian's exquisite beauty simply expressed.

Girls Just Wanna Talk!

Hilda by Duane Bryers. on the phone.

In the decades preceding now parents complained about girls, their daughters, on the phone constantly talking to their girlfriends. A lot of movies had that theme in their favor. It was such a concern, and disciplines were enforced because parents had to ensure their children's futures, and without discipline or focus they could not go far enough in life to have a good one.

Times are different in respect to the development of the phone over the last 100 years, but not in the sense that would give a recipient of Life today a feel of being better than our yesterday! The difference is simple: parents have given their children into what they do not understand. A whole chapter is being written about how disconnected from the source of Life parents have allowed their children to be led away by a technology unaccompanied by maturation of the emotions, the spirit. For that we will pay dearly. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/7/18

in the Beginning of our lives...

Father and child 

Black motherhood. If white women are as strong as they say, they'd answer the question snickered behind their backs. "Why did our grandmothers take care of their mother's babies?" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10/19/17 

Father's spirit to his son's spirit.

the PATH down!

Cactus can absorb radiation from a computer monitor, some say. I use crystals.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

There are two seemingly different trains of thought or arenas of concern areas an older person (an Elder) in first: "Love our babies, who are not afraid to speak up!" and another verse that says: "You don't recognize me in real time, so our phones have become our #RealWorld!" Confused together the author of this 'observation' left this text to become (I surmise) a saying of encouragement. But, the first sentence is profound for a young person to hear who has found his or her voice in times of conformity! On second read, the second sentence does not have the bridge to connect the two subjects! The voice of the second sentence is the voice of the current generation's naivety; the first one of maturity.

We can let the first sentence go its own way because youth needs the fundamental support from Elders, in the true form and potency of that role. The second one is troubling. The implication is the children are proud of what they believe is their creation and firm in substance as reality: their disconnect from the world as it is, and has always been: multidimensional and complex by virtue of their connections between all life forms. 

The marketing started decades ago. In my lifetime I've had the pain of knowing it and learning its mechanisms. At this point momentum carries the ungrounded, and ill-informed children down a yellow brick road they could not tell the color of because the goal of disconnecting people starts during infancy. If a people without a common origin story, belonging to the same nation can not know the roots of their nation; their own understanding of self and the surrounding world is simply skewed, and they are no more than cannon fodder programmed to be victims of whatever someone else chooses. Without predators they would not know their vulnerability; without Protectors trained from the spirit to the mind millions of these children easily remain in a continued state of not knowing!

It is a chilling observation from my place understanding how and why American culture separated children from the tools they need to become impeccable, and became indifferent to teaching children's spirit has hosted the spirit and attitudes of the times, the children; and now the adults who are starting fires with their disconnected sense of space, time, people, culture related to the how of their existence, as parents!  

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

July 28, 2017 

Cell phone usage replaces so much of instinct; and intuition takes a backseat to the assumptions of access and power.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

a Man speaks of being a Father.

Lemuel and his father (me) Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories. November 19, 2017.

The men who reflect their fathers are all alike in one sense; in a deeper way it differs in the substance of things planted within the body of soul, and the soul of the mind. In the developmental process of father teaching son's spirit, there was a deliberate and exacting science fathering my son. It was different from the girls, and my youngest son...

But, this is but a glimpse of fatherhood at the levels beyond glib comments passing as sage advise popular today! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/5/17 

Father and son. Lemuel and I at Jamala's second wedding November 2017.

Outbreak: LAW against Sense

Eight employees of the Netflix show, House of Cards, accused actor Kevin Spacey of sexual harassment, and assault. One of the young men said: 

"The low-level staffer recalled being assigned to pick Spacey up for an on-location shoot outside of Baltimore. As they were approaching the set, Spacey while behind the wheel “put his hands down the production assistant’s pants.”

“I was in a state of shock,” he said. “He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there.”

Once they arrived, he escorted Spacey to his trailer with his belongings. In the trailer, the production assistant alleges that Spacey cornered him and blocked the exit.

“I told him, ‘I don’t think I’m ok with this, I don’t think I’m comfortable with this,'” the production assistant said. That’s when the actor became “visibly flustered,” fled the trailer, got in his car and left for the remainder of the day, according to the production assistant." 

Part Two

This narrative of a male victim of the sexual advances of a predatory homosexual man is typical. The advent of the Gay Rights movement at the height of its agenda manifesting as law, devoid of its moral contradictions, has created an acceptance of weakness supplanting decisive actions to protect boys from these men. The men who prey now have an out: denial. They have been relying on the naysayers against the relationship between pedophiles, and homosexuality, as a way of being 'afraid of homosexuals'. In the real world, this has foolish a belief to intake. It is a deadly mistake. The victims are everywhere lost in the mess of being compliant, of being accepting, or pretending.

The hard question: "how do we protect our children?" is lost in the Western quest to be tolerant, as the potential victims are being persuaded to allow almost anything, thus creating more vulnerable victims unable to protect themselves effectively.

Part Three

Shamed on national television, one of my favorite actors, is being told on by the young boys, and men he was used to getting his way with. This narrative of a male victim of the sexual advances of a predatory homosexual man is typical. With a populace pretending there is no connection between pedophiles and homosexuality and the national fear of Gay activists, the responsibility to protect virginity and vulnerability is without the question: "How do we protect the innocent?" This edict is far from the lexicon of adulthood, of parenting.

"How do we teach children to defend themselves against predators looking for boys to have sex?"

What is currently passing for sage advice is fundamentally unstructured with no strength of character. It is all in the words of one of the victims I've laid before you to read and ponder:

Part Four

The above mentioned boy's way of getting out and away from Kevin Spacey worked, but it reflected the very weakness of men like this, and centuries ago in ancient Greece and Rome with a similar climate, men like this could manipulate feelings and fear, and have their way. But, many men, true men, would have taught their sons deadly arts that would have left Spacey with a pencil in the soft tissue of an ear, or worse. The father of a boy who'd defended himself thus would step in, at this point, and take on the law in the most logical of ways to protect his son from the system of thought that pretends this reality does not exist.  

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/8/17 

African hunter in the wilds of her Motherland!

Raisng a Son

Right size white woman on a park bench is an invite for one type of man, for another a cautionary tale of woe: "Pull back!" If I am not clear, this riddle is the clarity needed to surviving racial discrimination in a court of law, from the perspective of Black parents talking to their sons about white women.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
August 4, 2017 

A Father's Wisdom is a boy's insight into women.



A wife a man trusts is in the sacred place of the home she created in his heart!
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6.20.16

The closeness of beds to walls in bedrooms, and the close intimacy of bedrooms are an underappreciated and appreciated source of energies that evoke powerful unions into value systems children can assess watching their parent's lives. Bedrooms are meant to be sanctuaries, and holy places where the family grows, conception takes place, prayers are said, pain is spoken of, and shared in the close proximity of heart to heart.

 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6/20/16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some women are so fine, & sexy you will overlook the mess around them. It gets in the way of getting some. It isn't wise to not pay attention to warning signs. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6.20.16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfectly formed by way of the transatlantic journeys made over the last few centuries is the body of this Latina, of the red & black people who were overcomers. It is a powerful series of stories she embodies.

It behooves a man courting her, a man getting to know her, a man wanting her, or a man developing a friendship with her to understand how she came into being by talking about and to her ancestors.

 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.20.16

 

Feel this . . .

Reflecting in the morning with roses is its own prayer.

Yesterday

Reflecting in the light of morning is its own prayer set in motion by touch, by color, by the presence of roses. Roses have their own power stories. Creation gave each its own place and each plant its own story to begin. It is a mystery being needed by who created you, but creation as its own mystery left us within our mysteries to explore. How we do it is a mystery our parents made into prayers for us to become, to be. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.18.16

Dialogue Back and Forth

"IF your daughter could joke "Dad, my mom still have feelings for you" that means dad and daughter have a good friendly relationship. We could throw jokes of that sort to each other. Good, right? Well, I hope that those feelings aren't ones that border on something like "I hate Trump!" or "I hate your Communist friends!" LOL! Lookin' back three decades, I'd admit, yes; politics, hardline politics figured in my past and how I waded around it as I held on to fatherhood. Remembering heals. It is surrender. Humility. My life was as far (or close) as I made it myself. There were many pieces and people around, a hard and dangerous time--but it was me who made it, good or bad." - Pasckie Pascua Jan. 12, 2017


"Thanks for posting this Pasckie Pascua. There's a ton of people in this world who have somebody else to blame everything that they do on. I'm wanting to scream "you're responsible for your own actions". I have a sister in prison who blames her son because she's there. She went with him when he was making a drug deal...he was set up. Everyone in the vehicle was charged & all are in prison now. She continues to place the blame on him. My questions for her were who did he learn about drugs from. Answer, in his own home as a child, her; but it was only pot. My opinion; when you are smoking & dealing pot in front of your minor child...it doesn't matter that it was ONLY pot...you're setting that child up for failure. My stance on her getting busted with him...she knew he was going to buy heroin...why ride along? She got 18 years, he got 7. She still screaming & trying to make it his fault she rode along. I'm know I'm responsible for my actions, so I am careful about what my actions are. ( except after major surgery, that anesthesia will make you say some crazy shit). What don't people get about being held accountable for their actions?" - Sue Foster

"Let me say fear is a factor, Sue Foster. If not fear as a factor it is the factor..." - Gregory E. Woods



"Thanks for sharing, Sue. I hear similar stories. A lot of finger-pointing. When I was young, I used to blame my dad a lot for not "loving" me as he did my other siblings--just because I am/was always the kid who will say it as I see/saw it, including his mistakes Yet he let me do my thing even in those years that I was still under the roof of his house and feeding me. And how I pursued my life--exactly on the polar opposite of what most my family believe in. Although I never did drugs or succumbed to alcoholism or did any of those classic bad dude shit, I still believe I fell and failed. Yet they never let go. I ran far and long--yet they always find a way to locate me. These days, I talk with people who will blame their mom and dad, the church, schools, the government, even the weather, just about anything and everything--except themselves--for their failings and mishaps. Blaming is anger. There was a time as well when I blamed the dictatorship back home for my life and pains and it took years and many travels for me to come to terms with the fact that it's all me. Anger isn't going to set me free. We get bad societies and presidents and officials, bad preachers and spiritual guides, bad milk in the grocery--but as long as we are good within, we will know how to work around the bad. Rage still gives me sleepless nights when memory comes back from those years, especially when I read about deaths and children dying in the crossfire. I get angry. But anger's truth or source is blurred by its tone. When we are angry we aren't really communicating our pain or frustration. Most people hear the sound of anger/hatred and fail to listen to its pain. But one way to simmer the anger down is not to blame the world as though the world owes us some apology. We have life and life blesses us with a rational mind and a good heart. I believe that--we are all good than bad and we will overcome." - Pasckie Pascua


"We came up rough & hard as well. I've had / still could let the anger overtake me. It's been a long troubled path I have traversed. Early on I knew I had to find a different way to deal with the rage inside me. I was broken & didn't know how to fix me. I lived out in Yancey county in a shelter in the woods & spent most of my time alone. Then I started hitchhiking to Asheville & hanging out in the coffee house's not saying much, just observing & I started opening up & interacting with people. Before long I hitchhiked to California with some people. I lived in the mountains at a religious retreat & met people in similar shape. After about six months I was ready to move on. I hitchhiked back & visited my folks. Then took off again & again, trying to find something inside me. Looking back, I see sometimes I was running just to be on the run. I walked a lot of my rage out, literally. I steered clear of a lot of people because my rage wasn't their fault & I didn't want to treat ppl as I had been treated. I finally let enough go to where I could function in society & found peace within. I still walked a lot, but quit hitchhiking. I am good within & I worked around the worst of the bad by walking & exploring the US. I simmered mine down by exploring & not blaming. I'm thankful I was able to get out that way. I also believe people are more good than bad & we can overcome. Thanks for sharing your stories!" - Sue Foster



"You walked out the rage? So did I. Never met anyone else who did that. I used to talk to God in the worse language for 20, sometimes more miles than I cared to count before I was exhaushed from the hike and the cussing and the crying. I'd look around then and realized I needed a ride home. I never carried a phone. Well, only the rich and pretentious did back then; so I found a place to sleep in the woods or snuggled under a pine tree in someone's front or backyard and sleep until I could have some strength to walk back home.

Walking yoga I called it. Or walking prayers.

You walked out the rage? So did I. Never met anyone else who did that. I used to talk to God in the worse language for 20, sometimes more miles than I cared to count before I was exhausted from the hike and the cussing and the crying. I'd look around then and realized I needed a ride home. I never carried a phone. Well, only the rich and pretentious did back then; so I found a place to sleep in the woods or snuggled under a pine tree in someone's front or backyard and sleep until I could have some strength to walk back home.

In retrospect, those were good days because I grew from there and that to this who I am right now." - Gregory E. Woods

Do I Need a Title?

There is a rumble in a story I am going to tell beneath the surface.

Black Americans, I believe, fail their children because parents place their full trust in a system designed for their children's demise. Black people 'adore' white American's contempt. If it were not true the obvious things to protect and develop their children would be done automatically.

Abandoning our children is a deep and conscious decision made daily. Not plunging into why the system of thought about education exists is abnegation of duty. Or maybe Black Americans are lazy. There are other systems of education that fit our children that is not resistant to creativity and is resistant to social engineering. There are other battles to fight within these schools, but it is better to fight those fights with a sense of knowing the control has shifted in your favor. And then there is control. I don't believe, and I am not convinced Blacks are finished with their assigned role of subjugation.

Maybe, Blacks are waiting to be saved, or simply enjoy complaining. The onus is on us to grab the reins of the horse running amok and bring him to a halt. The reins physically control the horse's movement, but the horse studies the rider's soul, and emotions. His determination of the substance of strength or weakness in the rider supports his compliance, or rebellion. Riders know this. It is why some healers use horses to mediate the healing and balancing of disruption, disorder, psychic pain, and trauma in a wide variety of people. Water mediates and tempers the soul, balances fire's propensity to destroy by directing the heat to heal when needed. Understanding the elements are the genius of indigenous cultures. Education, at the level it is, in modern life is not based upon the structures of living in the world as co-creators, and caretakers, or nurturers. It is based on something insidious.   

What would the American education system look like if Black Americans, en masse, moved away from their norm and rode horses instead of walking mules on acreage they don't own? What would change in the social environment if Black people shifted from the slave/mastery mentality into the difficult waters of self-sufficiency, if they trained their own children's spirits?

At the core of the controversy about education is one unanswered question many white people on both ends of the spectrum ask of each other, but avoid asking Black parents: "If Black lives mattered would Colored folks be so dependent upon white's control over their lives?"  

Gregory E. Woods, Grandfather  

Dec. 15, 2016

First Lady, First Lesson

What Michelle Obama Can Teach Us About Raising Empowered Girls


Michelle Obama delivered one of the most powerful and heartfelt speeches at the Democratic National Convention last week. As I listened and watched our First Lady, I couldn’t help but tear up with emotion and pride in what she has represented for so many Black women. As a wife, mother and daughter Michelle exemplifies to the country and the world the essence of what it is to be a strong, beautiful and intelligent Black woman.

Here are some lessons Michelle can teach us as we raise and empower the next generation of Black women:

1. Women are a powerful force. Women have had to fight a long time towards equality and rights. For Black women, this fight has been paved with many additional challenges and this struggle continues today. Women have had to adapt and acclimate to break through glass ceilings at work, gain the legal right to purchase a home on their own and access to opportunities more likely to be given to our male counterparts. By Michelle Obama embracing her femininity, strength and perspective she brings to the table as a woman, it has made her even more respected and acknowledged.

Lesson Learned: Women don’t have to act like a man to be strong and successful. There is incredible strength in our femininity. This is an attribute we possess which is unique to us as women.

2. Mothers create the roadmap for their daughters. Michelle Obama came from a working class family. She didn’t allow where she lived or what she may have lacked dictate her path in life. She didn’t make excuses for not succeeding. Michelle worked hard in school and her career. This mirrored what she saw in her mom and dad. Your daughter is constantly watching you and looking for cues of what’s acceptable. Often, what you do is more important than what you say because kids mirror your behavior. Look at FLOTUS and her daughters. You see two confident and focused young women. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!

3. Take the higher road. One of Michelle’s best quotes in her speech at the Democratic National Convention was when she said, “When people go lower, we go higher.” It has been eight years of highly intense scrutiny and criticism of the Obama family. Michelle was mimicked in newspapers and magazines, at one point compared to a monkey, and often criticized for her parenting skills by some conservative parties. Her daughters were criticized for their hairstyles and also recently when her oldest daughter, Malia, was seen on video dancing at the Lollapolooza music fest. President Obama was also attacked for many of the decisions he made in his role and paradoxically for being too angry or not angry enough.

But, if you go back and look at the criticisms, you will note Michelle Obama and her family didn’t retaliate or stoop to the level of those who made these negative comments. When asked or prompted for a response to the negative comments, they would always take the high road and stay above the fray. This had to be difficult, especially with their natural instinct of wanting to protect their families.

Lesson Learned: Take the higher road even when it’s difficult. People will remember the person who deals with a difficult situation respectfully versus an individual who reacts negatively or in a condescending manner.

4. Your mind is your sexiest attribute. Beauty fades and it’s fleeting. But what makes Michelle Obama so respected is her intelligence. She is smart and witty and real. She has a sense of humor. Her beauty and confidence are evident, but her intelligence is the differentiator. It makes her highly appealing.

Lesson Learned: Teach your daughters to develop their mind not just their physical attributes. It’s the one asset that will sustain you through a lifetime.

Michelle Obama leaves a lasting impression and legacy as the First Lady of the United States and as a wife, mom and daughter. These lessons she has taught us can help empower your daughters and other young women to create their legacies! - author unnamed

First Lady Michelle Obama with daughters Malia Obama (C) and Sasha Obama (L) Photo by Jacopo Raule for Getty Images

READ: Job Well Done! 16 Accomplishments Of Michelle Obama 

First Lady Michelle Obama surprised little girls before their recital. (Jan. 2013)

Give the Drummer some...

Drumming in Sunday drum circle at Malcolm X Park in Washington D.C. photo by Pablo Raw

Every time I see a child playing drums, or playing sticks on tables and just drumming his little heart out I sing within with silent joy enjoying and knowing how the magic world of drumming translates and transforms the drummer.  I always express that emotion saying in an almost sing song voice, "Oh!!! Just wonderful!"  

My mother never let on when my endless drumming got on her nerves. She kept encouraging me in her silence as she putted around the house doing this and that, cleaning and what not. She taught me to make a drum from a Quaker Oatmeal box when I was six, and as a teenager smiled when I turned up one of her ancient artifacts from Central America and focused learning the rhythms Mongo Santamaria played on the recordings from Daddy's eclectic record collection. It was Mommy who gifted me with my first hand drum, a tumbadora made by Latin Percussion on my 17th birthday simply saying one word that capsulized it all and assuaged my angst created by church dogma around creativity and music: "Play."

I look forward to children's imaginations expanding by the limitless power of being allowed to express himself by their families, but most importantly by their parents. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.10.16

Don Ramon Santamaria Rodriguez (Mongo Santamaria) would be 98 today April 7, 2015

drums and percussion instruments from parts of the world.

STEER clear

Mosito Calenton

beautiful woman full breasts
December 2, 2014 · 

  

PARENTING in TRUTH 

It is hard to gauge the strength of moral character in the face, or in front of your sexual fetish; whatever it may be. What is difficult is restraining yourself. Some boys and men have never seen an example of restraint believing wholeheartedly pussy/women are to be taken. If it is warm and wet and she hints at intercourse, take it! If you imagine switching places, and there is a large homosexual man on the prowl, and you as a 17 year old boy are his fetish what do you face with him taking you from behind? He feels the way you feel about sex, and taking what he wants. How would you feel in the moment, and afterwards with him spent and relieved, and you sore and defiled?

This happens a lot. It is frightening. It is everywhere. This scenario is an indescribable terror silenced by the fanfare of Gay activism currently en vogue selecting what topics will be discussed from their agenda for validation, and acceptance. But, the question Elders pose is simple and profound. Who will protect the children? Who will protect innocence and the innocent child from the ravenous beasts?

Against the cultural backdrop of adults incapable of not giving their children to powers that work against the value and the substance of their child's essence what chance has a child to be their authentic self as an adult? Education is not the answer. The value of education is in its ability to steer a boat away from dangerous currents, not justify with the head what the heart knows to be a truth!

There are many examples of excellence around us, and in world history and American history of parenting styles that produced at a high level extraordinary adults who shaped the world from their vantage point of authenticity. Millions of people despise Condolezza Rice for good reasons, and unfounded reasons based in misconceptions founded in the way their parents raised them with unsubstantiated fears. The core of Ms. Rice is how her parents raised her in the segregated South!

There is my father who was the Chairman of C.O.R.E. in the late 1960's in Washington DC. Paul Hines who was the Virginia high school coach who was part of the team of black coaches that profoundly shaped Virginia white and black boys in the early 1970's. Their lives were featured in a film Denzel Washington starred in. There was Mr. & Mrs. Holmes down the street from us who were educators of the highest order in Black middle class Prince Georges County, Maryland, who raise their sons in their realms to such a degree their two sons could not help but be their authentic selves as family men. David Tolson's parents raised their four sons simultaneously on four levels of being to be principled, owners, men and investors in the four levels of their being.

These are people most don't know of, but live amongst us. If people cannot look at their celebrities to see these attributes look around your world. We are in every neighborhood, city, town and country.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.19.15

mariah-carey-045-img

After Life

Today is my parent's wedding anniversary, or it would be. They are dead. They are active and alive within me and their descendants. Even today people who knew them hear the resonance of my parent's voices, their spirits, and their meaning(s) within their bodies.

It is remarkable the way we die, and even more remarkable why we die. It is complex this attitude I have centered around my parent's cords attached to my core. It is one of the unspoken mysteries because you cannot speak about these complexities. They have to live within to be heard, and understood through wisdom. One has to care to hear these forces at work playing with our existence.

Without that play are we alive? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/3/16

Lioness by Kavion Robinson 

August 18, 2016  

Many do not know the animal spirit of their other body. Even the concept, the notion of such a thing is abhorrent to their subjugated belief systems. It is too bad. Bondage is deception of one's spirit, blindness to the eye, and a sealant within the ear. If one were to rid themselves of the illusion of not being capable of holding power what animal would their eyes see within themselves?

If or when it happens depends on how deep one wants to live his or her life! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/1/16




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