D.Greaves

Well Veresed. Never Rehearsed.

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    PAUSE

    As I pause and reflect I wonder what is right anymore.

    What advice can I give my child who will face obstacles far beyond any I could've imagined at the same age as she?

    What encouragement can I give myself when facing the inevitablity of rational thought. I say rational because as a writer I live in an irrational state of mind. Unlike the majority of the world I can't escape pain or flush memories into the abyss. The genesis of most literature comes from a place writers must maintain despite their misgivings. I did not ask for this gift, as most writers don't as well. Truth be told most of us would rather just be. But we cannot. Writing, like breathing, is an essential part of our being. Our sensitvites are profound and, at times, fragile. When I regale my normal friends with tales of the writer's colony they shake their heads and ask, "Why do y'all trip on such silly things?" My answer is simple and direct. If we, as writers, don't "trip" on the simple things, then the world as we know it will fall. Fall into a malaise. Fall into anarchy. Fall into chaos and disorder. We, by being "silly", allow the complexity of the human psyche to take form. We by being "silly" allow the essential "pause" in this malestrom of an adult world gone mad that someone out there needs to survive another hour. Would I rather not have that burden? Of course. Yet, if I relinquished the burden of expression...

     

    What advice could I give my child who will face obstacles far beyond any I could have imagined at the same age as she?

     

    When I was her age the world was smaller and interconnected. The issues were concrete and tangible. The forbidden zones were well  marked and the O.G.'S (the Original Guard) warned you before entering. If by chance you stayed too long in the forbidden zone they would pull you out forcibly, slap you down if need be and send you home crying to face another bleak urban daymare. She doesn't have that option. I cringe when I contemplate the roll my generation played in taking those options away. I, like many of you, thought I was protecting her. How foolish of me. Of us. We, as adults, cannot protect innocent curiosity. That's a part of growing and maturing. When the curiosity is no longer innocent that is the precise moment a person becomes wise. Wisdom is not copywritten. Wisdom is shared and passed down to the next generation. What wisdom can I impart to her? What wisdom can we pass to them when we, colllectively, are in desperate need of it ourselves? When I was a child the world was real and we imagined. Now, due in large part to my generation, the world is an imaginary place that we attempt to form into a useable reality. That is why I wonder...

     

    What advice can I give my child who will face obstacles far beyond any I could've imagined?

     

    Three years ago I celebrated a man and, in my revilry, totally ignored the reality. I truly believe in my heart the man I celebrated is a good man. Just a vibe I guess. That man is from my generation. He was told, like me and like us all, that he shouldn't aspire to do the impossible. I am sure he was told, like us, to have reasonable goals. To his credit he ignored the whispers. To America's historical credit he became a president. Yet, when I celebrated that night, I had a tinge of doubt. Doubts concerning his ability or capability? No, not at all. My doubts were based on the reality of studying former presidents. It dawned on me sometime that early morning, in the midst of celebration, that "good" men do not make "good" presidents. Why? Because men with bad intentions control the overwhelming majority of the finances in this country. You see, polictics is the ghostwriter for finance. Finance controls and politics attempts to explain why we need to be controlled. Finance eliminates health care and politics attempts to explain why people are dying due to lack of medical accessibility in what is the greatest country on earth. Finance makes a war and politics explains why the war was "made". Above all finance can, with the stroke of an expensive pen, eliminate dreams and politics attempts to explain why dreaming is foolhardy in the first place. That night I felt a surge of pride as a man made a dream become reality. His dream. Unfortunately finance had other ideas and so, three years later, here we are. Men with bad intentions destroying dreams so they can add another 10 million to their yearly salaries. Why? Because they can. It's called, I believe, empowerment. And so, I wonder...

     

    What advice can I give my child who will face obstacles far beyond any I could've imagined?

     

    We, you and I, are tired aren't we. I can see the fatigue in your eyes as you can in mine. We don't smile as much as grimace these days. We try, feebly at times, to find a safe emotional haven. We try to "chill". We love, we leave, we enter, we depart. We do what we do. My favorite quote of the 2000's, "It is what it is". Damn if that quote doesn't cover alot of ground. I say it all the time. When I say it though it is said with a touch of shame. Why? Well, I'm pretty sure if African-American, Native-American, Irish, Italian, Polish, German,Asian-American, Latino and "Other" anscestors said "It is what it is" we wouldn't have the freedom to say it. Change, positive progressive change, does not utter, "It is what it is". Change asks the question,"Why is it the way it is?" More importantly, what can I do to "change" what isn't good. A 1776 counter-revolution? Not a good idea. Anyway, let me say this ebonics style. Ain't NOBODY, including me, giving up they silk boxers to pick cotton again. Or be told Irish need not apply again. Or be called various racial slurs again. You see, the reality of revolution is very simple. You must go back to  the beginning to find a solution to the current. So what can we do? Hope? Pray? Buy a new car? A bigger screen T.V.? Drink? I'm pretty confindent given your maturity level you will find a personal solution. As I will find one. For the time being though I will write. Why? Because I am a writer and, "It is what it is"...for now.

    • 20 August 2011
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    Thanks for stopping by and visiting my site. I hope you enjoy the poetic works shared here.Please feel free to leave a comment and subscribe. You can also find me on Facebook under Darwin Greaves. While there, stop by and like my fan page. Listed under D.Greaves the Poet.

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    Thanks for stopping by and visiting my site. I hope you enjoy the poetic works shared here.Please feel free to leave a comment and subscribe. You can also find me on Facebook under Darwin Greaves. While there, stop by and like my fan page. Listed under D.Greaves the Poet.

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