We live in a senseless world and we must learn not to try to make sense of it. For all sense of understanding is wasted in emotions that distort and confuse what the very meaning of it is. That which could be grasped within the complicated nature of its knowledge is that chaos and order are simultaneously in sync, and that for every action there is a reaction, which might but more often than not cannot be predicted in the visible or the unseen. We must learn how to accept our existence no matter its status and try to elevate ourselves within it’s frame, to something higher and greater, while never giving up on the very existence that we live and share with each other and the vast universe from which we come. When and wherever we can, we must witness our impossibilities through hope, the very hope of love and understanding that is required in everything that makes no sense, for it is in the very giving and receiving of Love that is intrinsic in our DNA that survival and thriving is born! We must, even in the face of the greatest evil that exist, see that senseless acts devoid of love are not of the infinite love that created us, but of the hope that binds us to be the love that created us. We must learn to see love as that which was created for the sake of our own purification, so that we may discover whom and what we really are and evolve into a greater sense of self, even in the senseless illusions of...
It wasn’t me. It was he, my friend, who voluntarily elucidated a quote from Plato, which raised the question and left it hanging in abeyance for thought and answer. He, like Plato, believes that platonic love is the highest and purest form of love. I think not, unless the comparison is with eros love only. Implicit in the fact that the rate of divorce in America is around 50 percent, is the evidence that people fall in love with the concept of love, the convenience or benefits, and a lot comes under that umbrella. From color, prestige, a love that’s not too overwhelming, (yes, people have been known to run from that too, because they feel it makes them lose control – a sort of discomforting hallucinogenic drunkenness which is hard to fathom or handle), to wealth, affluence or plain sexual desire. This love is never grounded in the kind of substance that holds the ingredients to overcome serious rifts, threats or obstacles by which love is bound to be tested. People have been known to commit to the commitment which smacks of a sense of personality sacrifice, the kind that means living with half-truths or restricted measures. But love subliminally yearns for love, a need that cannot be touched or often expressed but a void none the less that says that something is missing, and therein lies the danger of “settling.” Because culture serves up marriage as a natural progression, followed by establishing a family, and because women’s biological clock, where it comes to childbirth, apparently ticks faster than men, women are prone to settling as well. Platonic...
It’s never easy to pen any elocution of one as massive in spirit, presence, performance and delivery as Aretha Franklin. Does one start from how she defined rhythm and blues, the fact that she found her spirit, voice and soul from the tender age of 12, the fact that it was her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, who heard, identified and heeded the call of the singer and artist within her, the fact that she amassed at least 12 honorary doctorate degrees despite being a high school dropout, or being nominated for 44 Grammy awards and actually receiving 18 in one lifetime? Should we start with her being the first woman to have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Or, should we start at the unique spin that Detroit, which she came to identify as her hometown, is known to bring out in those who have walked its hallowed halls of music? Do we look at the fact that hers was the chosen voice for the inauguration of not one, but three presidents? That President George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian award? Or do we look at her advocacy in the Civil Rights movement, for racial equality? It is a little known fact that Aretha’s father, Rev. Clarence L. Frankln was the one who organized the Detroit Walk of Freedom to Washington back in 1963 and that he was an artist in his own right. Upon reflection, it seems preordained that the Queen of Soul was, in her youth, mentored by the Queen of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson....
