Happy Hump Day, All!
It’s another wonderful day in the “world community”, as I am grateful to be able to see it today! Each of us has the chance to live life based on the opportunities we have been gifted with or exposed to and we have to make the best of it. I have found that my inspiration comes from various places at different times. I just “lift up” my antennae in a safe and comfortable place, and allow the vibrations to flow in. That’s how I get inspired to live and to write. Just last night, I was listening to JayZ and Linkin Park on Spotify before I dozed off to sleep as I needed some inspiration to make some tough decisions. JayZ was spitting his usual New York City street rap using the “b-word” and the “n-word”, the way I use “love” and “peace” in my writing, and the music of Linkin Park had my toes twitching!! I was enjoying the groove. Shortly afterwards, with my antennae up and my search for answers, I considered how some “artists” are able to sell millions of dollars of recordings as both JayZ and Linkin Park are able to do. I thought of a conversation I had with a guy from Argentina I had met while staying in a hostel in Paris …
We got comfortable enough with each other to discuss the use of the “n-word” in solving some of the racism problems in the USA. This is not the first time I have addressed this controversial yet “powerful word” which takes on different meanings depending on the “user” and “the context” of the conversation. There was a book, probably several by now, written on the “history of the n-word”. I seldom use it, but accept the use of it coming from someone whom I KNOW is not going to come back ten minutes later when they get mad at me and call me an effin “n”, you dig. “Brothers” use it with “other brothers” because we know that ten minutes later, one of us is not and CAN not use it to put the other down in a racially charged “setting”, if you will. The guy from Argentina was saying that he thought the “n-word” and its usage should be banned … Can we really “ban” the use of a word?!? We can “run” from it but we can’t “hide” from it …
Right now, I am investigating my early retirement plans … trying to iron out the wrinkles! Of course, some of the “wrinkles” are just going to be there … folks are going to see them. While some folks “make up” stuff to put another person down, rather than up, some “stuff” actually happened … as is the case with me. Some folks want to go back 10 years … 20 years … to find “stuff” to hold against you to prohibit your progress. They have never heard … nor do they believe … that “the past is the past” and some of us have made mistakes and CAN change! I found out yesterday that in order to work under contract or “legally” in Spain, I need to have residency, which requires a host or domicile address for three years. I have tutored in the USA “off the books”, so to speak, and am planning a strategy to do so here in Spain. Needless to say, I would like to visit a few other places like Thailand, perhaps … Sweden and Norway when it’s warmer … maybe even North Africa! I like it here in Spain though I don’t get as much “bang for my buck” as I would … so I have been told … in Thailand or Costa Rica or Ecuador. Do I go to these places instead of staying where I am with a bedroom in someone’s home … hot meals each day … clothes washed and dried on a regular basis … included in the “rent”?!? Now, while I do take suggestions from folks, I also do my own research and have my own “reasoning” capacity! I ain’t runnin’ and I ain’t hidin’. I also ain’t waitin’ for no hot headed cop in the USA … I use that term loosely … to detain me, try to push my buttons and end up stopping my early retirement!!
Have a great Hump Day and a wonderful rest of your week.
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 