Still Learn and Grow

I was in the Charleston are of South Carolina on vacation for a week in June of 2015. One day, we wanted to see the French Quarter but got lost while trying to park somewhere. As we started our multi-mile walk in 100ºF weather, we came across a big beautiful church. In front of it was a large black gate with cards and big bouquets of flowers in front of it. They said things like "We will miss you." and "You will not be forgotten." I quickly realized that I was there, at Mother Emmanuel AMC, where the shootings had taken less than a week previously. On my right, I saw a woman walking out of the church, clutching a handkerchief to her eyes with one hand while the other grasped to a man's hand next to her with his head low. To my left, a group of people stood in a crowd on that street. They had a continuous passionate chant: "United we stand, divided we fall." What was shocking was that in this moment, this wasn't a news story, a dramatic inter...

Many of my friends are "atheists". Whether they've been taught about religious texts in a way they can't understand or believe, whether they've had a bad experience with religious people, or they've just not had any reason to have faith in something invisible–these very different people have come to this conclusion. But they are different in they the way they define it. Some of them don't have a religion, some say they don't have faith. Many people (religious or not, faith driven or not) don't realize that religion and faith don't go hand in hand. Religious systems are like political systems in the way that each "party" (religion, denomination, congregation etc.) have ideas about how things should be done for the good of (in religion) humanity. Some may do it in forceful, ugly ways; others may do it through charitable organizations; some do the work of achieving it without involvement of a specific religion (or at least thinking the...

Many times, we view life like a documentary. We see an image, and voices speak for it rather than letting it's voice of purpose be heard. If there is an image we don't like– whether it's how you see the opposite political party, different culture, unimaginable life experience –we take the image and criticize it. But we forget that people are not images; they're people, real people, similar beyond measure. I wrote this poem/rap the other night talking about perspectives that we often don't think about and how I wish these could play out. *This is not directly based on any story, just from my understanding of various stories of the sort, real and fictional. I'm also not saying this is the case for ALL situations like this, on the contrary. This scene you see me in, turn and say, "She has no expression upon her face." I'm sorry, but there's not a one minute reason, These images being hard to taste. A boy, he's only 13, Pas...

Last week, I felt what I can only describe as campsick . Clearly, I was not homesick for my house where my parents live and my hometown where my friends grew up because it's literally where I live. I was homesick for my home away from home, "a place apart". Coming into 2017, I missed the family that was created around me and the intimacy I had with creation. I missed the summer, a time where I could be outside all of the time and still be comfortable. This was not the first time I had this so-called campsickness. I was finished with my session at camp for the summer on July 15 in 2016 after four weeks. I even felt on the drive home that I had a void to fill. The next day, I decided to go to Java John's. One of my friends was playing a set, so I went with the thought in mind that if I saw other people, I would forget about what I was feeling. The plan failed, but not miserably. At Java John's, I saw many people that graduated that May. It was lovely to see th...