The Synergistic Pen

While surfing one day, I decided to check up on one of my favorite authors, Ms. Toni Morrison... and my googling lead me to a very interesting site.

On the page was a letter, written by Ms. Morrison back in January 2008. It was a letter to Senator Barak Obama. She was endorsing his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

In endorsing him, she gave honor and showed admiration for Senator Clinton:

"I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm."

"Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

I felt compelled to ask this woman that question today. She's the sort of person that rarely has anything positive to say. She spends most of her conversation time ponificating about how grand her life is, even though her requirements for friendship and happiness are so stringent she could probably make satan sad...

I just asked... simple question...

she took a moment before responding...

"I am greatly loved by my family."

"Ummm, yeah, but who would cry for you at your funeral?"

"Why THEY would, naturally!"

"You sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Ok."

I moved on to a different conversation with another person and was laughing about something more pleasant when she blurted out,

"Not only would my family cry for me, I have lot of friends and acquaintances that love me too. They'd all cry for me."

"Ok."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"I have no choice but to beleive you. I think maybe you don't believe you."

Naturally, she balked. Oh well.



Who will cry for you at your funeral? Who on this planet, loves you enough, has been tolerant of "you" to such a degree, that they will find themselves overwhelmed with grief at your passing?

Now, I'm not talking about family, who are kinda obligated to be upset... but the people you have allowed into your life; the people you have voluntarily opened up your heart to.

I bowl once a week with some coworkers. As I sat last wednesday, watching people act a complete ass, laughing and enjoying each others company, I considered our relationship....

would these people cry at my funeral? Have I given them any reason to give a damn about me? What sort of impact have I had on them? Yes, I'm the "go to" person...or so it seems. Right, I know my stuff. Sure, I can handle responsibility. But, what do they see in me? What have I shared with them? Should they give a damn about me when I die?


And then there are those I HAVE let in. The 2 or 3 people I consider my closest friends. Yes, they will cry. What we have shared with each other is precious. Not speaking at least once a week is hard enough on us...if only for a moment...

"What chu doin'?"
"Nuttin, what chu doin'?"
"Nuttin."
"Cool"

Who will cry for you at your funeral? Who will miss you? Why will they miss you? What have you given them that they know they'll never get from anyone else once you are gone?


I need to write my eulogy. Peace.

John 15

Love and Joy Perfected

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

***********************************************

I had a "conversation" with someone a day or two ago that proved to be enlightening...

The above noted passage is one of my most treasured in the bible...

and I mentioned that to someone...

he asked why... I told them, because I'd hoped that I'd finally stopped being a servant and had become a friend to Jesus...

he....balked...

"We're all servants of our savior!!!!"...

"Ummmm, not all of us."

"If you aren't a servant of your savior, you aren't saved!!!!"...

"Ok". (you know me...I let the savior do the talking...and old boy wasn't hearing him)



so, after reading the passage above...and, for that matter the entire chapter, are you a servant or a friend...and why?

George Carlin died.

Why did I have to find this out while driving to work.... I nearly hit a parked car...

I'm "old" enough to remember a time when George was considered "risque"... when what he had to say would result in arguements in bars and investigations by the FBI...

My father had an album of his, I don't recall which one...but I remember he's make us go to bed and he'd have the sound turned down low and he's laugh out loud at what George said.

George Carlin is dead.

Why did I spend all afternoon looking for the following clip...cus its my favorite Carlin bit? (football rules yall, nuff sed)






Comedians really aren't funny anymore...I'm not sure if this is because there's nothing funny out there anymore to discuss, or if comedians have lost all sense of morality and no longer have an interest in expounding on the state of the world...

People like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor,and George Carlin... no more...

maybe its just me... maybe I'm not finding the "funny" in sex, race and social programing...

oh well...


George Carlin is dead.


As Florida Evans, from Good Times said....

damn, damn DAMN

I woke up this morning and did what I always do.

I thanked God for waking up one more day and asked him what he had for me to do to do for him today...

I laid quietly and waited. My bedroom door flew open and in raced my favorite non human: my cat Michaela. She jumped on the bed, made a beeline for my husband's chest, and began slapping him in the face!

He jumped, grunted and snarled at her and she slid off his chest and down between us. I was laughing at this display when the phone rang. It was one of my cousins calling to let me know her mother was at the hospital. Her mother had fallen ill overnight and she was worried about her. Naturally, I insisted that we pray right that moment.

When I got off the phone with her, I returned to the "discussion" next to me. Husband talking to the cat: cat listening intently as he rubbed her head.

Sometimes, I think God just wants me to be there for people. I was there for my aunt (she's gonna be ok) and I enjoyed the moment of playfulness between a man and his cat.

Ain't life grand?

ok... a moment for the cause... yanno... that time when, no matter how hard we try to be professional, upright, educated and in control of ourselves, nature, life and everything seem to make us "ack up"