7:14

Let's see.... 1712 + 300 = 2012

Hmmmm......

I'm knocking off a little early.

http://www.africanamericanimages.com/aai/Willie%20Lynch.htm

The Question of Religion?

I have been thinking about a lot of things abstractly lately. One of the things that has been on the contemplation circuit is whether or not the 5% Nation of Gods and Earths is a religion, rather than just a culture. The quick answer is no. We do not advocate the belief in a mystery god (10:40) therefore we cannot be a religion. Is that all to religion and religiousness? We do have a document (SM, SA, 120), a symbol (flag) and a song and a method that we use to conduct ourselves. We have God. We have practices. But there is no governing body, or National spokesperson. Just a bunch of strange acting Negroes, with strange names, who will give you the fisheye when you eat a pig ear sandwich.

But are we a religion? I have perused a few definitions of ‘religion’ and a lot of the definitions can be applied to us…

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God or gods, or ultimate truth It may be expressed through prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art, among other things
The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system," but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively.
A lot of what is said above is applicable to our Nation. All with the exception of belief, spirituality and mystery god-ness. Does that make us a religion?

When y’all build with the 85%, 10% or devil; do you say that this Culture is a religion? I know folks would say, “Emphatically Now Cipher!” But listen… Say you are a female and your boss is a devil and has no knowledge of our Nation and customs. The boss has no knowledge that s/he is a devil. You really want to be the person telling them that? They hold your financial future in their hands. Say you have a very public job like a college professor. Are you going to stand in front of your class or you colleagues wearing a wrap or crown? Or do you just want to be free to follow your Culture as you see fit? I ask this because I deal with this. My boss didn’t ask right away why I stopped wearing make up and started covering my head. I took the “don’t ask, don’t tell” route. He got bold enough to ask questions around Christmas. I mentioned that I no longer celebrated Christmas and didn’t elaborate on why. He assumed that I converted to Islam. Again, I said nothing. He keeps asking questions here and there. The reason he doesn’t come out and ask his questions is because he can’t. In this country we allegedly have religious freedom. And this is also why I don’t come right out and tell him. But what we live is a Culture is not a religion. Technically, he could let me go for the changes I’ve made to Self. If I got a tattoo on my forehead he could let me go for that and any other perceived drastic changes to my appearance. But I allow him and all my other co-workers to think that I have had this religious conversion. Am I in violation of the 11-14?
Lots of religions are Cultures as well as religions. Jews are not just a religion but also a Culture. They have a way that they live and they force those that co-exist in their ciphers to recognize it. So do Muslims. The outsider has to deal with their restrictions. But what about us? I have found that a lot of us can be loud on that 4th Sunday afternoon, but come Monday morning we are mealy mouthed. Do we make folks in our ciphers deal with us on our levels? Do we allow our parents to have access to our children when we know they will give them a hot dog? Do we accept and give Christmas presents? Do we let our children go to religious private schools? Do we insist that our young moons cover their heads? Do we maintain 3/4th ALL the time? Do you see women who call themselves ‘Earths’ with perms and makeup and say nothing? Will you go to church with Mama and 'nem on Easter and family reunions? Do you know Gods with babies who know nothing of this Culture who are active in the cipher and we say nothing to them? What about Gods that do not take care of their babies? Do you always read the labels? Will there blood be required at thine hand? Are you 100% sure you are shining/reflecting right and exact?

I say all this, for you to ask yourself as I constantly ask myself, what is my level of righteousness? Am I/Are you willing to deceive others so I/you can be comfortable? Does discussing the particulars of this Nation make you uncomfortable? How much are you willing to share with the devil? Or will you just give an answer that makes everyone happy even if it’s not quite the truth?

At the end of the day, I’m sticking with the short answer. NO. But that’s easy for me. My cipher is easily controlled with very few surprises. My boss is easily confused, my family lives far away from me, I have no children and my friends are in check. What about other Gods and Earths whose lives are more convoluted? Do they take the religion pass? I’m curious….



Peace

PS: Sorry I couldn't get this formatted just the way I wanted it

Aphrodisiac

Wanna know what turns me on? What gets me going? What will make my heart as well as other parts skip a beat? What will always make me take a deep exhaling breath? What will hit my spot every single time without fail? What I dream about as I fall off to sleep? Fashion....... I love it. My childhood dream job was to be a designer (and a back up singer!). I used to design doll clothes for my friends. (I didn't play with dolls myself) Mommie told me to get a grip. "That's not a job for Black people" she would say. But even she acknowledges that I have a eye for fashion.

I know I said I wasn’t going to keep talking about my clothes. But I’m obsessed; and it is part of 'Serenity's Cipher'. I should start a blog called “The Refine-ista!” Serious fashion buffs get that. But 3 blogs is a enough for me to handle here at Blogspot.

It’s that time of year. Fall… The time of year where you stop thinking about sandals and start thinking about boots. The time of year where you start thinking about tweeds and coats. Hats and gloves. The time of the year wear the new clothes becomes foreplay. I’m getting excited just thinking about it.

My favorite season is Summer hands down. And Spring is my close second. I like to be warm. BUT… Fall is the best clothing season hands down. It makes up for the cool weather. If you venture into department stores they have begun to mark down summer clothes. The fall stuff is coming in a few weeks! When I was in high school and used to work in retail, I would go to work early every time I had to go just to see what was new in the store. They only put the prettiest and best dressed girls in the new section. I used to step my game up so that I was That Girl. I was an assistant floor manager so if I looked the part, I had the clout to trump all them other chicks if I wanted it. No one wanted to work in the back where the sale merchandise was. All the greedy bargain bin heifers were back there and you had to work like slaves keeping those racks neat. The front racks were lovely and elegant. Even had space around the racks. Good times. Though you’d have to pay me a grip today to stand on my feet in heels, for hours at a time working retail. No sir.

But that was just the beginning of my obsession with fashion. The September Vogue is the Bible for the fall fashion. It can have over 750 glossy pages. I have all the September Vogues on my bedroom shelf of the Vogues since I moved to Allah’s Garden in 2000. I have the September issues, somewhere, since 1984. I’m telling you, this ain’t no joke to me. I start stalking the stores in August for the September issues of the big fashion magazines. Elle, Bazaar, Lucky (surprisingly), W, etc. I used to subscribe to Vogue, but they consistently sent their subscribers the September issue last. Sometimes you don’t get it at all. I don’t like that. But it is cheaper to subscribe ($12/year) than to buy every month ($3.99/month). I’ll just buy it and if I should get one in September, I’ll give the extra away.

Once I decide what I want, what will be the fashions that I pull from for that particular season, I go through my wardrobe and pull out anything that may match it. The joy of having such a large wardrobe is that I’ll probably already have most of the trends already. And I have purses for days. Love them…. I will augment the staples with trends that suit me. Don’t get it twisted. I won’t wear anything that doesn’t flatter me or that I don’t advocate. And if I have a favorite item I will rock it whether in or out of style. But I will not be unfashionable.

Example: Short shirts seem to be in all the designer’s collections. I won’t wear them. It violates the ¾ clause and I don’t care for my knees. See? Another example…. Stretch pants. I don’t wear pants; therefore, you won’t see me in any. Y’all getting how I do? Y’all should have known me when I was still and 85’er and took it all the way to hair (weave), make-up and fragrance. I am more than serious about this. This is one of the things that makes me me! And I’m certain folks be on that, “It’s not that important” or “You shouldn’t care about appearances” stuff. But if that was true then explain the reason for bathing or changing clothes every day without blowing your whole argument. I ain't shamed of my fetish. I would love to name my babies Halston, Chloe, Versace, and.or the twins Ralph and Lauren. Something tells me the God won't go for it.

I’m glad tonight is Monday. There is nothing on TV and nothing pressing for me to do tonight other than curl up on the bedroom sofa with my magazines, a legal pad and prepare myself to make frequent trips in and out of the closet. Sheer Bliss!



Peace

10-12:36

Attention all movie goers! (if y’all still exist!) Attention all bootleggers! Attention all pirates! I have something that y’all should add to the lists. Attention all movie goers! (If y’all still exist!) Attention all bootleggers! Attention all pirates! I have something that y’all should add to the lists. Food Inc. Attention all movie goers! (If y’all still exist!) Attention all bootleggers! Attention all pirates! I have something that y’all should add to the lists. Food Inc. The movie!

I went to see this movie last night. It was amazing. I’m a vegetarian making the move to crunchy militant veganism. I was prepared to be horrified over the mistreatment of animals. And I wasn’t disappointed. But the mistreatment of farmers was unexpected to say the lease. People they have been genetically modifying food for longer than you think. It has been going on since the 60’s! Damn! That means my entire generation has been raised on ‘Franken-Foods.’ Wow! And I know folks my age who are grandparents! That’s a goddamn shame.

Monsanto (and probably some other companies) are mob-like in their determination to monopolize the market on what we eat. My question is why? What could they possibly have to profit in owning all the food? That sounds like something different than just financial profit. Them folks want something else.

Assume all food is modified. Even the food you plant in your garden. And the foods that are without a doubt mixed diluted or tampered with are… Soybean (that means tofu and anything made with soy), corn (you know they make batteries out of corn?), canola oil, papaya, zucchini and cotton (although I don’t know how that can be dangerous, but I know its coming!).

Frankly I find it disturbing that food that works it way from my mouth to my behind, and influences every process in my body has some gene marker and it’s patented! That just ain’t right. Ain’t right at all! And folks just eating this food and are being led to the slaughterhouse like those poor animals. I cannot stand it.

So what am I gonna do?
I will limit my use of processed foods even more than I already do
I will become efficient at gardening even if it kills me
I will buy produce from farmers markets or them folks that sell stuff from their gardens on the side of the road
I will increase the amount of bean products I prepared
I will make my own bread
I will buy organic
I will eat in season as much as possible
No more fast food
I will network with home gardeners and start canning
I will keep blogging until folks know what’s going on.

I have a question for the bootleggers... Why don’t y’all keep a stash of conscious flicks on board. I asked my bootlegger for a copy of Religulous, and it took him 2 months to get it. He had Obsessed the day it came out. Now I know he’s got a hustle going, and it’s all about the paper. But every time we transact some business, he gives me one of his slow moving flicks. Why can’t y’all be a little more conscious with your hustle and pass out extras that will free the minds of your customers. And actually keep them alive longer to buy your product?


Peace

Who Owns the Hood?

I live in a predominately Black neighborhood by choice. It was ALL Black when I initially moved here, but I noticed the white folks creeping in. It is not what folks think of when they think of a predominately Black neighborhood. It’s not a rich neighborhood, but it is a striving one. Folks keep their property up; there is no graffiti, no sofas in the front lawn and such. Even if you have a non running car in the yard, you keep it washed and presentable. Folks who visit from out of town often seem surprised that it is predominately Black hood. Anyway….

As much as I live amongst my people…. As much as my people are not completely and obviously destitute…. Why is it, none the businesses in my neighborhood are not owned by people that look like the people that live in my neighborhood? Let’s look at it shall we?…. There are gas stations…. Middle Eastern people. Nail Salons….. Asians. Restaurants… Asians or Middle Eastern people. Car repair…. Asians. Beauty Supply Stores…. Asians. Cleaners… Middle Eastern, Asians. There is a tire place owned by Jamaicans and the braid salons are owned by Africans. You see where I’m going with this? Where are the Black American owned businesses? And why are we so content as a people to work for other folks rather than ourselves?

Now some would argue that all the people I just mentioned are Original people. And I don’t dispute that. But I’m speaking about my neighbors. I am aware of who lives in my neighborhood and I have yet to see any Asians or Middle Eastern folks cutting the grass. When I ask my neighbors about there jobs, they are proud to tell me that they are preachers, got on at the post office, teachers, work for this big company and so on. Why are American Black folks so scared to go into business for themselves?

I may have an example to show varying differences in mind sets. My parents. Different as day and night. My father was the type of guy to try anything. He would try one career, didn’t like it, shake the dust off his boots and move on to the next one. He had absolutely no shame in mopping floors during the in-between. He eventually found his niche as the sole proprietor of his own insurance agency. He worked that job until he died at age 71. He would work that job all night long and just to calm down when he was stressed. He had no insurance outside his VA benefits (Mommie floated him a bit), nor did he provide any for his employees. Wasn’t all gravy. There have been times that he ran into financial straits and had to declare bankruptcy. He moved things around in our names for a few years until he got back on his feet. He had no retirement, but didn’t need any because he planned to work until he died… and did. He did not die broke. His business still stands today.

Mommie took the opposite approach. My mother worked for the government in the name of the public school system as a media arts specialist. She worked when they told her and was off when they told her. She was extremely satisfied with a predictable paycheck. We had the state’s insurance and my mother retired at age 60 with a fat pension and all that goes along with it. She’s not broke either. Far from it. But she also does not have anything to show for the 40 years that she labored for the government. Which one of my parents had a better life?

Hard to distinguish ain’t it. I suppose it has everything to do with what you want. But I want more than getting by. Paying bills ain’t as satisfying as it sounds.

Where does that put me? My brother inherited my father’s business. And he should have. I never had any real interest in it, and when I did work for him, I was a big screw up. That wasn’t my shtick. But I have never been happy working for other folks, yet I crave security in a big way. My brother has Daddy’s business and he works for that state. We are two mixed up individuals. I learned a trade that should have allowed me to open my own practice. But I found out after learning this trade that I didn’t like it that much. My dream is to open my own holistic facility in my own neighborhood and employ and empower folks that look like me to do the same. At the same time, I also want to be a college professor. I can do both. I don’t have to be at the center 24/7, but I will need to shower my baby with my attention (that includes resources) until it can stand on its own two feet. Hmmmm……. I guess we are both cut from the same cloths.

***whisper*** I gotta go. The white man that signs my paycheck is coming!



Peace

Equality

Today’s Supreme Mathematics is Equality. I see that to mean ‘balanced relationships; dealing fairly with people. The way it’s slapping me upside the head is how certain people expect from you what they are not willing to give.

If you know me in the physical, you know that I don’t have a good relationship with my mother. In fact it has been said that the two of us are like fire and lighter fluid. If we weren’t related, we would not be friends. I have taken the avoidance approach. Meaning I rarely visit, hardly call, and if I am forced to visit, I don’t stay overnight. My mother doesn’t like me either, but she will refuse to admit the fact. She, however, takes the direct opposite approach. She is confrontational. She constantly calls, (I don’t answer) and sends dirty emails, makes requests she knows I’m not going to agree too and tells anyone who will listen how I ruined her life. She often claims in anger that she should have aborted me.

One of her biggest complaints is that I don’t appreciate all that she has done for me. I mean what is that supposed to mean? Yes she took care of me. Isn’t that what mothers do? Am I supposed to spend the rest of my life trying to pay her back for something that she was supposed to do? I don’t get this. She made sacrifices. Don’t all mothers do that? She says that she stayed when my father left. Ummmm… She ran him off and he didn’t go away. My father lived walking distance from my home and I could see him any time I chose. Also, little known fact that she never mentioned…. My father continued to pay the mortgage until they officially divorced years later. My mother proclaims she paid for me to go to college. Correction. She paid for 3 semesters, my father paid 4 semester and I paid 1 semester (then my father paid me back). My parents made too much money for me to qualify for financial aid at that school.

I’m not trying to slam my mother. But she was not the perfect long suffering mother that she pretends to be. I will not accept the yoke that she puts on my back. I see other folks with their mothers. I know this is not normal. My mother is unreal in the requests that she wants. When I say no, and stand my ground, I get slammed not only between her and me, but through the entire family and up and down the eastern seaboard. I once met some one who upon hearing my name asked me if I was her daughter. When I confirmed the information this man proceeded to rip me a new one 5 minutes after meeting me. A woman, who once heard me sing, heard her speak at a different venue. She went over to my mother and asked her if she was my mother. My mother responded by saying, “What did she do now?” Come on, is that fair? She proceeded to tell this woman exaggerated personal information. And of course she spins it to make herself feel like a victim. Hell even writing this is pissing me off.

I don’t want to hear foolish advice like, “Why don’t you guys sit down and talk about it.” What you never thought in all my decades of life I hadn’t thought of that? If I had a dollar for every time I heard that bullshit statement, I could take a road trip around the world buying only high test for my SUV.

Oooooh…. And I hate folks that come at you like, “She’s your mother” and “You only get one” or “You’ll miss her when she’s gone.” Really? I don’t wanna hear that shit anymore. If you love and have a functional relationship with your mother, great! Y’all drink some international coffee and braid each other’s hair and be happy. Because you could have mine! If she is not willing to deal with me in Equality, I’m out.



Peace

Bedtime Stories

Last night I was watching Farrakhan on public access cable. Despite the fact that he is a clergyperson he knows our lessons and speaks the truth. (I ain’t sending him no money though, nor am I buying a Final Call or a been pie) One of the things that he said that got me thinking was a comment that I admit I must paraphrase, regarding our children and education. He said that we and our children have picked up the “Mark of the Beast” as written about in Revelations chapter 13.

As a former Christian, I am aware of the prophecy. Some how, some way we will be required to get 666 tattooed on the forehead and the right hand. And then we shall be doomed to an eternity of damnation. If we refuse, we will just be damned until we die. But that death will come faster and more painful than those tattooed. This is really what children’s nightmares are made of. I spent many a night waking in sheer terror because of some Bible story. Lazarus used to scare the hell out of me. “Mommie Jesus sent zombies to get me!!!!” LMBAO! This prophecy was no different. Mommie assured me that never getting a tattoo would remedy my concerns. She funny.

But Farrakhan made a few good points that I must agree with. First he defined what a “beast” is. Essentially, the nature of white folks. We knew that already. Our lessons describe beast as being synonymous (sort of) with a savage. Farrakhan has these same lessons. So beast refers to the devil’s culture. We as Original people in this wilderness have consciously and unconsciously (mark on the head) adopted a lot of their customs. So much in fact that a lot of them starts to be Our default. I suppose KOS is throwing off their default programming.

Another characteristic is the boundless greed and disregard that colored people have for anything or anybody. Including their ownselves. They are wasteful and greedy. And we, who know better, are following suit. Grills, rims, red-white-7-blue weave. Really? Can you think of a more useless waste of income? This is the hand mark.

Their days are numbered. We and they KNOW this. But they aren’t going out by themselves. And why should they? They didn’t enter this world by themselves. Rastafarians consider this country to be Babylon. We call it the wilderness. Those people of this world can be considered whores because they are furthering the un-civilization. By internalizing what the ideals of the colored peoples of this country, we are having virtual sex with them. Sounds nasty right? That’s because it is.

So what do we do? Leave? Insist on a separate land so that we may govern ourselves? Come on. That didn’t work before, it’s not gonna work now. Look at the poverty and backwardness of a lot of previously colonized Original countries. They never threw off the mental shackles of the devil. And are we even ready for that? Can we handle that? If most of us come up on 5K, how will most of us spend it? You know the answer already. On nothing. We will just give it back to the devil. What are we doing to upgrade or situation now? I’m not saying run or do nothing, but we have to get ourselves to a point where we will not perish due to another’s foolishness/lack of Knowledge. According to their own Holy Books, they going out by fire. I don’t like it hot like that.


Peace