First off, Happy New Year!! Without going into the what I will's and the what I won'ts, boasting about keeping squares out of our circles (which by the way is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life, if for no other reason than the fact that some of your circles are so jacked up anyway) and being about "that" life, lets just do some better things with ourselves in the Deuce-O-Thizzle. 2013 for the "izzle" challenged...
And no, taking 2 (or 6) of your paychecks to buy a pair of shoes just to be able to say you "bloodied the streets of (insert city here)" does not qualify.
Also, and before I forget, I need a favor. To a reasonable extent, I do subscribe to the idea of flaunting it if you got it. But to flaunt what you don't have? Or what you have too much of? I spent a reasonable amount of time out in the community over the holiday season...
And some of y'all?
You do too much. Or maybe not enough. Either way, please stop.
In the club, in the street, at Super Wal-Mart. Just stop.
And on a Tuesday night, whether its a holiday or not, if you make the conscious decision to put on green hot pants, a yellow crocheted shirt, a head band, plastic pumps, and a bad lace-front, then make your way to a rural community juke joint, get drunk, and shake your behind while staring at your reflection in the dance floor mirror all night, with frequent trips outside and for "smoke breaks" with the locals, you probably also had plans to be going home with enough money to cover your light bill, a fill-in and an eyebrow arch for next week's outing. But that's just how I see it.
So for that, and all the other ratchetness over, under and in between...
Whether you need to put some more clothes on....
Or if its just that you need to take off what you have on and burn it...
Please stop. Y'all are disrupting the scenery on this walk I'm
trying to take with the Lord.
Anyway, for all the foolishness I saw transpire, (which by the way was of great entertainment value, thanks a bunch) I saw some really beautiful things during the few days that I was at home.
Namely the Annual Brown's Ferry Community New Year's Parade in Oatland. Its never what I would call fancy. Or even very well-organized. But ironically and awesomely, that sums up the spirit of the community as a whole.
We aren't fancy. We aren't well organized. But somehow, we always manage to take care of business...and each other.
In one of my earlier blogs or maybe a Facebook post, I mentioned how it was culture shock to me how broken the healthcare system in Columbia as compared to Georgetown.
Columbia boasts an elaborate conglomerate of primary care offices, hospitals and specialty consortiums. A well-oiled machine. Ready to take care of the least of us...
As long as you have the means to pay for it.
In the years that I worked in Georgetown, 2 small hospitals and no "free clinics" to boast, I never had the occasion to see a patient turned away from a doctors office or the ER for lack of insurance or the ability to pay.
But then, in a community full of people who have always just done what they need to do to get things done, I should not have expected anything less.
Its like Choppee High School. Not fancy. Not well-organized.
But research the archetypes my alma mater produced. You should be amazed.
See, for some reason while I was here, I paid really close attention to some things that I think I've taken for granted all these years.
Like my Mom and Dad waking up together at the crack of dawn every weekday morning to go to work. And although my Mom has always had the distinct privilege of working at her leisure, my Dad has been doing it everyday for the last 40 years. Middle of the night phone calls to come to work to repair a machine, crazy hours during shut downs, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for weeks at a time on some occasions. In it all, I've never heard so much as a grumble from him about a dang Monday or a "Hump Day," or a "Thank God its Friday."
Or watching my 85 year old Kin Maggie, entertain a house full of a dysfunctional family, at her sweat and expense, grateful for whatever she gets, forgiving, freehanded and open-hearted to a fault (cuz anybody else would have had the Grinch (and his dog) put on a permanent ban from the premises). And I've never, in my 35 years of life, heard her say what anybody "owed" her. My Grandmother would be working 40 hours a week today if her body would let her. Just like the rest of us, God might not be through with her yet, but the work He's put into her is more thorough than what the rest of us could ever imagine.
And then there was my sweet Aunt Lila Mae. I won't go into her story. Just know, my Dude brought her back from the brink. Just like every year, we watch the parade from her front yard. I remember looking over and seeing a lady all bundled up in a heavy knit sweater and a knitted hat using a walker, making her way out of the house towards the edge of the front yard. I had not seen Aunt Lila outside or really walking since she got sick, so my heart did a little backflip when I realized it was her. Her voice was strong. She was more like her usual jokey self. And though she's not back at her 100%, her testimony is that she's back.
See there are several places in the bible that speak of God as the author of all things. Scholars through history argue about whether God, in his goodness, could also be responsible for the evil that men do.
Me? My argument is much less sophisticated.
Plus, ain't nobody got time to even think about all that.
What I am going to say is that of all the things of which I know God is the author, sob stories and pity parties don't make the list.
Those are manufactured exclusively in the hearts and minds of faithless men.
And after a time, no one wants to hear you talk about how wrong you've been done...
Or how bad you feel...
Or how many pills you take a day...
Or what you need and don't have...
Stop asking, "Why me?"
Hell. Why not you? Mess around and exempt yourself from His will if you want...
Your head hurts? Mine, too. To the point where I want to just get it chopped off guillotine-style...
You suffered loss and death in your family? Who hasn't?
You have bills? Shit. Me too. I have 5 degrees. And I owe Uncle Sam $50,000 for just
one of them...
Are you upset because your baby momma/daddy put you on child support? Just be glad the court didn't require you to cover the cost of childcare. That $600+ a month might cut into your weed budget...
Life isn't easy. But it's fair.
Yes. Times have changed.
But God hasn't...
Look how far He has brought all of our people before us. And through way more than we may ever have to face...
But if He decides today, that He isn't going to do anything else for me, its ok because He has already done enough.
Especially since He let me live, one more time, to see Yancey McGill throwing that candy from his Cadillac like he was making it rain at Crush on a Saturday night...
Hallelujah?
Amen.
Towanna
