Afro Poet & Critical Thinker @wizardofwords1 - Tumblr Blog

‎Society & Culture · 2022

Funny the struggle between morality, & having it your way.

I don’t like how I phrased that, let’s try again…

Funny…the struggle between going after what you want, and potentially jeapordizing your morality.

Maybe you want to venture “outside the box” but is what you’re seeking hurting anyone? Is it affecting lives negatively?

Who says you should feel bad because it’s not socially accepted.

Society has a weird way of polarizing immortality right?

This brings the question, what is morality, and who is the decider of what’s morale?

To further complicate these inquiries, I personally am one who believes in God, but doesn’t regularly practice religion, thus the Bible is off the table as a point of reference.

Oxford defines morality as “of or pertaining to character or disposition, considered as good or bad, virtuous, or vicious.

So again….who’s determining wheather your decisions are good or bad? Are you actually deciding yourself?

Is the church/Bible deciding for you?

Are your parents the deciders?

What gives said person, place, or things the power to make such prominent decisions on your behalf?

Imagine being held in captivity by someone else beliefs, can they explain why they follow them?

Did you ever care to ask for an explaination?

What’s good and virtuous to one, may be bad or vicious to someone else.

So again I ask, why aren’t YOU the decider?

It’s time to take your power back, and debunk a lifetime of misinformed thinking.

It’s time to be happy on your own accord, set boundaries, and be your own decider.

Because only you is responsible to ensure your happiness.

In the process use discernment, stray from evil, don’t be a blood sucker, share your happiness and joy with the people around you.

And don’t allow the cloudy judgement of others to dictate your steps, live fully, and love wholeheartedly.

Via Palm & Pine in NOLA’s French Quarter

The dining expericne here was nothing short of superior, pictured here was a complementary watermelon salad straight from the cooks. It wasn’t even on the menu, but it tasted amazing, I’d never think to add spice to a sweet watermelon, but the contrast was pleasant. The pink drink shown was one of the day’s drink special, a watermelon drink, topped with a delicate spice, completely refreshing. I shared the bowl a vegan version of their ‘Sweet Potato Green Chorizo Chilaquiles’ a hearty and flavorful dish! The layers were coated with a light sauce, and a nice crunch with the ingredient topping the bowl (I can’t recall what it was). Our dining experience was exquisite, and the service didn’t fall flat either. Our server was attentive, informative, and welcoming. One of the owners even came out, and gave us a free cup cake to celebrate the restaurants first birthday July 4th, 2020. The entire experience here was great, my best in NOLA to date, thank you Palm & Pine for having us, and for tailoring our local dining experience.

Palenville Overlook in the Catskills

At the top there are three stone-built seats, if you look over the top of the mountain (where I learned I was scared of heights lol) you see nothing but trees and the Hudson River, amazing view.

I’ve promoted these books before, and I’ll promote them again. These books are pivotal reads for the minority in America, and can single-handedly change your life or thinking patterns. Their all relavitevly easy reads, Malcolm X being the longest, but also possessing the most interesting story line. The other two are more informational, however all three are equally amazing. “We Real Cool” has a free PDF via WordPress, open a google search and type in the title of the book followed by pdf and it’ll populate. Please educate yourself, especially my men of color! Check them out, you won’t be disappointed.

Digital Disconnection

I’m currently studying Journalism and Mass Communication and taking the class Digial and Media Literacy. This weeks assignment was to take three days out of the week to disconnect from technology, that included social media, television, radio, and texting 😳, unless of course it was work related. Interestingly I’ve recently started taking these breaks from social media where I delete the apps from my phone and avoid their use. Within the text book for my course Potter, J.W. (2016). Media Literacy (8th Edition) the author explains how we’ve become autonomous when it comes to use of technology and media, meaning we’ve become accustom to continuously incorporating media into our lives. Weather that be through social media, news updates, television media, etc. More and more people are becoming addicted to using their smart phones, and it becomes a natural reaction to open your phone and click an app, or looking down in your phone in a room full of people. Not the best of practices and I think it takes away from the things that truly matter at times. Not that I’m against technology or social media, it’s certainly become an integral part of our lives, and when used objectively it’s a great way to stay updated. It’s just good to disconnect from these things and recenter yourself at times. Media is certainly not a necessity, let’s face it you can miss a day of news or Instagram and Facebook post. It’ll certainly make your interactions more meaningful. I think we should all take these breaks every now and again and see the effects that media have on you! Let us also not forget that everything in media isn’t always absolute truth, there’s always an angle or narrative in a reported story. It may not be visible to you but always inquire about everything you take in.

Why I choose to become vegetarian. 🌱

Being African American I’ve had many of Sunday dinners and most of them consisted of soul food. Baked macaroni and cheese, (one of my favorites) collard greens, yams, chicken, pork chops, rices, gravies, corn bread, beef stew, bbq ribs, I could go on and on. Most of my daily meals consisted of at least one meat if not more and I’m a pretty heavy eater. Soul food is amazing and it brought my family together on many occasions, holidays, Sunday’s or otherwise. Many of our foods filled with sugar, preservatives, salt and butter. My great grandmother was one of the greatest cooks I’ve known, followed by my uncle. However at one point my great grandmother did suffer from cancer of the breast. The shift in my thinking happened when my uncle who died at the top of this year became ill of cancer. I sat by him while hospitalized and during his meal of mostly vegetables and other foods free of any salts or natural butters, he said to me “now I know better” in reference to his bad eating habits. I’d say about two weeks later my uncle was gone, everything happened so quickly. I’ve always been told my family was prone to high blood pressure and diabetes, memebers of my family have suffered from them and clearly cancer was another ailment within my family. After watching Netflix’s “What the Health” a documentary on the health of Americans and the food being sold to us, I’d forever be changed.

What is taught in “What the Health” is that cancer and other diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure are primarily caused by our large intake of meat within America. While one is told diabetes is caused by sugar, it’s actually the meat your consuming causing a stoppage of the arteries and veins within your body that won’t allow the sugar to flow properly. In addition the condition of mass produced meat isn’t the best. Much of it filled with antibiotics and sometimes cancerous itself is the primary reason one may develop cancer and not entirely because its genetically within you. The farms producing the meat are sometimes in filthy conditions, filled with feces and enough chickens where you can’t see the floor. Some of these animals disabled, unable to walk, grown at an unnatural rate, clearly sick are still slaughtered and sold to us. Furthermore the governance around these farms is brutal, they won’t allow you to film around their facilities and whistle blowers have gone missing. 😳 This indicates the onset of something sinister happening around these places within my view. There’s a lot of other information in this documentary but the final straw for me was when the maker of the documentary went to visit one of the institutions, I believe the American Diabates Association who agreed to meet after much push back and then refused to discuss diet with the film maker. He refused to explain why they were accepting funding from producers of meat, and animal products when the world health organization clearly listed many of these foods as major contributors of cancer and other sicknesses. It was a lot to take in, if you have the time please watch this documentary, available on Netflix.

My final reason for becoming vegetarian is my personal want to be healthier. I am still new to this lifestyle as I’ve been eating meat and meat products all of my life. What I’ve come to realize is that the food of my culture lacks the nutrients that are necessary for our bodies to function proprlerly, when they are introduced a lot of the time their dowsed with seasonings and butters. I read a lot of labels now and realize that almost everything has meat or pork in it from candy to potato chips, its quite disturbing. The goal ultimately is to eat more foods that are natural and containing nutrients. I consume more fruit, nuts, grains, and vegetables then ever before. It’s not easy and I still have my variations of vegan soul at times. I do tend to stay away from processed foods, fast food when I can, and anything with meat in it, including eggs, dairy milk or cheeses. After three months of just changing my eating habits I went from two-hundred and eighty-three pounds to two-hundred and fifty-three pounds and I’m very proud of my progress. I’m hoping to continue my journey and aide it with more frequent activity. It’s not easy but my health is worth it!

“We Real Cool” by Bell Hooks

This deserves a full thesis.

The “Culture”

Sad to see why this conversation has spawned but it’s exciting to see the birth of development. I wish more of our urban entertainers took a step back from the glorification of fast money, drugs and street life, disrespect to our women and separation amongst each other. It’s time now to promote education, research of our history, development within our communities, and amongst ourselves. It’s time we be more accepting of each other and cease the notion that we have to shun one another to be cool, it’s time we promote respect to our women and men and handle them with love and grace. These things are not obselete but we can certainly use more of them. It’s time we stop poisoning our neighborhoods and bodies with drugs, the very drugs that are placed in our neighborhoods to keep us stagnant. Healthy well being begans internally. It’s time now to build amongst ourselves and create a sustainable future for our younger generations. The wait game is over, America continues to show us it’s ideal of us every time a police officer gets off for murdering a minority for little to nothing without repercussion. Rest in Power to Nipsey Hussle, I wish I would’ve taken more time to listen to your message while you were alive.

From Botham Shem Jean to Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., they lost their lives to police.

inspiration-and-motivation

We may have been enslaved in America but this is not the start of our story. We were not born enslaved, do your research and find out about your true history and heritage the parts they didn’t teach you in grade school in America.

linusquotes

— Assata Shakur, from Assata: An Autobiography

Full(er) context: “The schools we go to are reflections of the society that created them. Nobody is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”

Linus Quotes

kemetic-dreams

Is this not the narrative to ever cop shooting of unarmed African people verbatim

wizardofwords1

Still revelant today except we’re not just being beaten but also murdered.

When you showed me that glimpse of venerability, in that very moment my world revolved around you. My mind was captured and everything surrounded you. I began to thank God because he helped me and I found you. Let my guard down I sounded a fool, never to question an astounding fuse. ❤️

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Afro Poet & Critical Thinker