Happy Holiday

Here's to wishing all those who celebrate in the Christmas holiday; a very happy and prosperous holiday!

Here's to those who do not celebrate in the Christmas holiday; may the warmth and cheer of the season fill you none the less!

Here's to those who hold sacred, the birth of The Christ; may his spirit be with you as he fills your lives!

May we all have the heart to love and the words to care, regardless of our belief.

May we remember to be our brother's keeper

and may we learn together that compassion has no season.

May we learn together, to give of ourselves while asking nothing in return

so that we may better understand selflessness.

May we learn to see the humor in all the silly things around us.

But more importantly, may we learn to laugh at ourselves.

And may we continue to defend those who cannot defend themselves.

If you move by faith, be blessed.

If you move by fate, good luck.

If you march to your own drum, be safe.

May your hearts overflow like your glasses as you celebrate!

May your home be stuffed like your turkey!

And may your memories be as sweet as your cookies!

Happy Holiday to all!

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MY PERFECT PERFECT

Signage for perfect

No one's perfect.  But why not try to be?

To be flawed in theory means that we possess characteristics that prevent perfection.  Perfection, theoretically, is to exist without flaw. And, again theoretically, we are all imperfect because we are
human.  Theoretically.  Realistically, however, we are imperfect because we do not strive for perfection.  We don't strive for it because, for the most part, we believe that no person should be or is capable of becoming perfect.

The fact that we are able to recognize our flaws shows that we are aware of our perfect selves. But defining perfection may be a more complicated problem.  Most of us live by some standard of morality - it may be religious, political, spiritual, scientific or some other cosmopolitan view.  Our personal convictions, more often than not, also often matches that of other individuals in our communities.  While community mindedness has it's usefulness in personal development, when it comes to making conscious decisions, it has the potential to become self destructive.  What I may view as perfect, others may beg to differ.  And with so many definitions of standards, morality and perfection to start with, whose ideologies can be trusted?  So in a sense, when we adopt the principal that 'no one is perfect,' what we are really doing, is refusing to give effort.

My perfect, is effort.

Conditioning the mind to believe that it is acceptable to be imperfect is the same as conditioning the mind to believe that perfection is unacceptable.

Why do we like to shy away from perfection? For the most part, fear, shame and the fear of being shamed.  Or in other words...we lack conviction.  Fear causes us to hide our core desires when we are certain that our communities will not accept them. Shame happens when we recognize that our actions were unacceptable - not by someone else's standard, but by our own standards. Generally, anything that is deemed unacceptable is shamed.  We are harsher judges of ourselves than we are of other people.  So the only thing that really keeps us from perfection, is ourselves.

Ironically; the first step in changing anything is changing the way we think about it and admittedly; it is rather daunting to think of changing the way we think of things that we hardly ever think of to start with.  Personally, I like to start with a question.

Question is: What does perfect really mean to you?

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything.

What we think, we become."

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FINDING BALANCE

"…a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices…" ~ Official definition of Aristotle's theory of virtue

[Musings]

We find that the purpose of desire is to find fulfilment.  

If greed is a vice, then how could pleasure be called a virtue?  

And the sacchariferous climax of fulfillment—however brief, however fleeting—can also be easily mistaken for happiness.  So what is virtue?

There is an absolute power, above that of human existence.  Whether it is a god or anything else; our existence pivots at this median.  

It is a point that we can neither reach nor change because its purpose is balance and therefore,   it must remain constant.  
For the need of pleasure and fulfilment, we cannot judge ourselves...
because we will not know how to find the balance between the virtue and the vice.

Why All the Noise, Ferguson MO?

Courtesy of thestar.com

For lack of a more dignified way to ask the question:

What exactly is the POINT in all this protesting over Michael Brown's death?

Twelve nights now and I haven't seen anyone step forward to organize and lead these protests - not to push a black agenda or any agenda at all.  The world is watching Ferguson Missouri right now and presumably the people are hoping to break down racial barriers in law enforcement.  Presumably they want to see more blacks on the police force and in public office.  

Our Featured Presentation: The Meaning of Life continues

Second Installment

(View First Installment)

The Neighborhood @ thepublicblogger.com is Proud to Present…..

Our Featured Presentation: The Meaning of Life continues

forward written by Neavada Dames, Miss Opinionated: Letting Go of Gone, Bahamassoundtrack  by IvySoul Robinson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
set design by Rick Daddario & Kendall F. Person
visual artist  Rick Daddario Art, Hawaii, USA
intermission written by Kelly Lewis of Kelly’s Wandering Mind, Los Angeles, California

written, edited & produced by 
Kendall F. Person, thepublicblogger
Sacramento, California

DEFINING GOD

An ode to all the hearts we meet as we journey to discover The Meaning of Life!

God's Child

Once upon a time; God was - or so I assume.

But today, maybe he is...maybe he isn't - evidently.

How does one define life?

How does one define God?

How does one define life without God?

God, biblically, is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 

To me, he is the universe, love and life itself. 

Which means, to me, that whatever our purpose in life is, we must know God to define it. 

And to know God we must know humanity, because we are made in the image of God. 

Which would mean also that everything that we are is God. 

So the way to know him is also in knowing ourselves. 

Which in turn would mean that a life without God is nothing. 

And the face of God is every face we see. 

So how can we love God who is beyond us, and not love our brother who is beside us?

This is...if God is.

If God is not...then what is life?  What is love?  What is infinity?

Easily defined...is easily found...easily found is easily lost.

But the human element is not easily defined.

Yet...easily lost.

And yet again...not easily found.

So how do we define God?

We must first define life.

Or perhaps; we first define God and then we define life...

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MY WEIGHT IN GOLD

This morning, a feature at MSN.com is HOW TV SHOWS HIDE STAR PREGNANCIES. 

As I scroll through the article, I am humored not only by some of the gimmicks but also by the fact that with certain shows; like Sex In The City, Friends and Seinfeld; I’ve actually been a fan long enough to remember the times when the leading ladies were preggers. 

Kerry Washington "Scandal"

Sarah Jessica Parker "Sex in the City"

But alas, as it often does, my mind began to wonder toward past experiences and—of course—extraneous circumstance…

The women that were featured in this particular article are all well know and well liked and although in many instances their pregnancies did not fit their ‘character’, they were none the less embraced by their adoring fans.  But for the average professional woman, it rarely works that way.  In terms of our careers, pregnancies are often viewed as unsavory set backs—particularly the maternity leave period.  Our dependability and efficiency are automatically questioned.  And pregnancy, in allot of cases becomes a scapegoat for not performing at our optimum.  But if multimillion dollar studios can work around a pregnancy; for an employee whose performance is 100% about being visible; what separates these women from the average woman? 

THE SNAKE

Sitting under a tree, deep in thought on a quiet morning, I heard a rustling noise above me.  I’m accustomed to birds playing in the tree so I paid it no mind.  Much to my surprise, moments later, something falls out of the tree onto my back.  I hear it land onto the wooden bench with a ‘thud.’  I jumped up—startled—and turned around expecting to see an injured bird.  Much to my surprise, and horror, I found instead a snake!

Now, not to be misleading, there are no poisonous snake species currently known in The Bahamas.  The snake was a racer.  Racers eat lizards, frogs, mice, other insects or even smaller snake species.  They are commonly referred to locally as garden snakes, because it’s not uncommon to find them hiding among leafy, low laying plants; particularly during the spring and summer months.

None the less; I’ve never been fond of nor fascinated with snakes and I was sufficiently frightened.  Apparently, so was the usually docile, two foot critter; as he opened his toothless jaws to hiss his warnings at me!  I didn’t dare move.  After a moments’ long stare-down, he dropped to his belly and slithered away.  It took me another moment or two to compose myself.  And I had to move away from the grassy area in an attempt to gather my sanity.

STRAIGHT ON GAY PRIDE

With the cries for LGBT rights steadily on the rise, unsurprisingly, the newest movement in popular culture is “Straight Pride.”  As I ingest the arguments from both sides of the fence I can’t help but wonder:  In a so called modern and progressive world; why does any human have to fight to be considered equal to another?

Why exactly, are we up in arms about the rights and freedom of homosexuals?

Unless I’m mistaken, equal rights for the LGBT community do not mean that it’s no longer acceptable to be straight.  Just as black rights never meant that it was no longer acceptable to be white.  We live in a free world.  In order to maintain freedom, it is essential that every individual is held in equality against all others in accordance with the law.  The law is not a matter of personal convictions. 

The Wise Seek Peace

The wise seek peace.

The wealthy seek riches.

The poor seek favor.

The desperate seek hope.

And for as far as humankind cannot purge himself of humanity;

They seek forth in selfishness.

The wise and the wealthy,

They inveigle the poor and the desperate to fight their wars.

The wise will say to the desperate;

‘There is a time for everything, now is the time for war!’

While the wealthy will say to the poor;

‘We must fight for what we want, now is the time for war!’

And for as far as the heart of a worrier cannot purge itself of courage;

They set out for war in selfishness.

In battle, entwined, each with the other;

Each one fails to find himself.

And behold the poor, who has become a poor fool at war;

The desperate becomes his animal.

While the wise hide cowardly from their own chaos

The wealthy scourge, as pigs do, for gold in their filth.

And for as far as war itself is darkness;

Not one will find peace in the other.

No kind words will either speak

No sword will yield for strong nor weak

And when each converge on sorrow’s peek

Fixed in war they steady keep

Without the servile ways of peace

That which was sewn will then be reaped

And when no one stands to set them free

Their foolish ways they then repeat.

The wise seek peace.

The wealthy seek riches.

The poor seek favor.

The desperate seek hope.

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The Ambivalence of Truth & Reality

...As told ambiguously by an optimistic hermit of pessimisms... 

Conventional wisdom teaches us that we don’t have to make our own mistakes to learn.  Every waking moment is an opportunity to absorb someone else’s disarticulations, miscalculations, misjudgments or miscalculated lack of articulated judgment.  And yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to learn from other people’s mistakes…unless of course…

”You think you’re better than others”…? 

I take it with good humor, that people use this expression so frequently.  Whether they use it correctly or not; is an entirely different subject.

Our most humanly and incredulous nature leads us to believe that our biggest critics (aka. my haters—another subject on its own) will never know what it’s like ‘to walk a mile in my shoes.’  Meaning, that they will never understand the challenges I face. 

Letting Go of 2013

As the journey of a new year begins, I take the time to reflect on my past; the things I’ve lost, and the things I’ve gained.  Moving forward, it is my hope that both will lead me ultimately to where I want to be…despite the fact that I am not able to thoroughly define where that place is at this time.

Nearly two years ago, in February of 2011, I made a choice to become a better person.  Not for myself, but for my children.  I am a single mother, who was raised by a poor single mother, who was also born to a poor single mother.  I am not proud of my heritage.  Therefore, I do not wish the same for my daughters.  They say that this life I live is an endless cycle but I am determined to break this cycle so that my daughters may have an opportunity to start a new one.  And so, I have embarked on a journey of introspection, focusing on meditation and philosophy, to help me to better understand how I may achieve my goal.

Thank You!!

Today is the day to give thanks.  

Most days, as I scroll through my Tl (and the streets in general) the consensus is, thank God for Life, for another day, for waking me up this morning.  But I wonder, do we ever really thank God for life?  Or do we insult him for it?

For example, you probably passed quite a number of people on your way to work this morning – other motorists, pedestrians, persons at the place you stopped for breakfast, the gas station, etc., etc. – but how many of those persons did you say ‘good morning’ to?  How many of those persons did you give a smile to? Lend a hand to? Show some other seemingly insignificant and fleeting gesture or word of well intention?   Probably very few, if any. 

Did Christ knock this morning?  Did you turn him away?  Did you tell him “IDGAF…NO NEW FRIENDS!!”?

How many persons had ever stopped to think, that every other person you meet on your way,

Mission: Rescue Humanity

Persecution - Irving Norman 1950. Oil on canvas.

As I look around...on the streets, on face book and other social media I note with a taste of sorrow that people are growing weary of people.  The anger and the hate is wearing us all down I see.  Do you know that hatred and anger are of the devil?  Even if you do not believe in God Almighty, do you know that the prayers you send out feed the deity that accepts them?  Or, the kind of energy you give off expands around you?  So when you act with anger and hatred, you are not only causing it to grow and fester among your 'enemies', but within yourself as well.

Often times, we look at our lives when we are in a bad situation and we tell ourselves that we don't deserve to be here.  But how often is that sincerely true?  How many Jobs’ walk among us?  By every principal - religious or not - everything comes full circle -- even the long arm of the law.  At any given moment, it is easy to respond to the negative vibes that others give out with negativity. And while we may feel vindicated in doing so at the time,