Remember September 11

(Photo courtesy of: www.hilaryshepherd.com)

Today I join with the world and remember September 11, 2001.

I remember that the perpetrators were a group of people who perversely thought striking buildings and stealing thousands of lives was the way to get a point across.

I can't help but also think of the division, the hatred and the callous hearts that also come with remembering this day.

We've trapped ourselves with unforgiveness - the deadliest of human emotion. All that negative energy we have pent up inside that cannot be transferred to the perverse people that are responsible for 9/11 and would do it again, we transfer it to each other. We transfer it to our government and those who share the same religion but not the same moral standards of terrorists.

In our pursuit of justice, we have found selfishness and a pride that is wholly un-American (the cynic in me says history proves it's quite American). Now, when we boast in our freedoms and civil liberties, we condemn the freedoms and civil liberties of our neighbors, our coworkers and those we don't even know.

When I think of 9/11, I think about being in a cafeteria of nervous middle school students waiting for buses to arrive. We were granted early dismissal just in case we'd be attacked due to our proximity to D.C. I think about the pool of faces; some belonging to people that I honestly didn't like but seeing the tears on their faces and the concern behind it, I couldn't look at them and say "you deserve it". That's what we're doing to each other 9 years later. We're saying that we didn't deserve this type of action, embarrassment and emotion and I don't think we did. So we deflect. We try to punish those who suffered and cried with us. We're telling them that they deserve it merely for having a type of skin color, dress and belief that extremists have corrupted. We try to punish each other for acknowledging the memory of 9/11 in different ways. Some acknowledge it by supporting war, some by peace and some by protest but all of us were right in the ways we did so.

We ask God to bless America, but not the America that is in any way, shape or form related to the evildoers of 9/11. We ask America to bless God, but for Him not to hear the cries of those we've outcast and are indifferent to. We try to make this a matter for God; yet we set a battle against the flesh and blood of our neighbors when He has called us to not only love one another but to test all spirits of the matter.

I don't think we're testing spirits and motives now and deciding if they mean us harm. I think we're jumping at anything that makes us feel like we either "deserved" 9/11 or makes us remember the emotions that came with it. Worst of all, we politicize it. On the day where thousands died we politicize it.

We owe it to those who lost their lives to grieve with those they left behind while seeking to understand and love those we've outcast. 

Life Update

Courtesy of: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/74269/d21f3/

Hey everyone,

So for those who don't know, I recently started my first semester as a law student at Drexel University -- eh-hem, the Earle Mack School of Law AT Drexel University.

Law School itself is everything that you might think it is. It's a lot of hard work and a change in the method of education. For example, my pre-graduate attempts at memorizing APA, MLA, and Chicago citation method have been futile. Unfortunately, I do not celebrate it because I now have "The Bluebook" which has 200+ pages of legal citation methods. My aversion to citation has been transferred. I'm also learning how to apply fact to precedent. The subjective jargon would be "massaging the truth" but I assure you I am not attending a breeding ground for professional liars. (I have got to start now to dispel the evils of the profession). It has been a great experience so far. There have been many casebook pages to read which will increase as the semester continues but every so often I've scheduled time to see more of Philadelphia.

I have adjusted well to Philadelphia living. I live in a two bedroom apartment close to the school and have a great roommate. I got my first taste of Philly Theatre watching my good friend JB play a hilarious butler in a play called No-Talent Hacks which was presented as part of Philadelphia Fringe.

I spent time with my family this weekend, leaving me with much to do Monday morning. I am going to go pretend to get a headstart.

Much love to everyone and thanks for the good wishes, prayers, and support. It feels good to know that I've got a lot of love where I come from.

Seeing Through the Bluest Eye

"What you NEED to do is..."

Acting in The Bluest Eye is a great cap to what I have learned theatre is all about; stories that need to be told. To be entrusted with the responsibility to present lessons that transcend time by honoring the director's vision and the playwright was truly a blessing.

I'll always remember what was said by a gentleman during the talkback on Tuesday night. Though many of the parts are purposely comedic, our need as an audience to laugh at the side stories and jokes instead of being engrossed by Pecola's plight is an indictment on our own indifference. We must examine what of ourselves stops certain people from blossoming and why we so easily acquiesce to the shortfalls of our community. We must no longer be hostile to marigolds.

One more show Friday Night March 12 at 8:00pm. $9 Student ticket; $26 Regular Admission.

Thank you all for coming out to support me and this beautiful story. "You are true friend[s]"

Congrats to my castmates, crew, and Walter Dallas; a director who brought an insermountable amount of vision, nourishment, and love to those involved and the play itself.

Showin Love

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Showin Love

by Josef Mensah on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:17pm

I’ve always had a reflective post on the last year and one that looks forward to the new one. This is going to be a little different.

Courtesy of gardenofgloom.deviantart.com

I’ve been reading the Love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, and I’m certain life is all about love.

I’ve spent most the last decade getting to know myself. As it should be; I was eleven when it started and am twenty-one at its end. For me, this decade has been about “coming of age” (I’m actually not sure what age I finally arrive.)

I’ve learned so much about myself and the world around me. I’ve sought wisdom for my life, knowledge for my exams, perseverance for my trials and I think I am becoming a pretty good human being. But I have no qualms being real about not being able to love certain people. I’ve been stolen from, disrespected, undeservedly chastised, and there have been plenty of situations that I’ve disagreed with.

I’ve always been about what’s fair. I like rules; if you’ve ever played a game with me, you know I hate cheating and breaking the rules. I am totally an eye for an eye kind of guy. Yet Love teaches me to turn the other cheek, that the meek will inherit the earth. I say/sing to God “show me how to love like you have loved me” yet have a hard time loving the thief, the unjust, and the disrespectful. I have a hard time loving myself when I feel undeserved of it.

If I truly believe and accept the fact that though I have whored myself out to the world and my own desires but Creator God loved me even then (even now), then what love should I be extending to the world and “my neighbor”?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I want to love correctly. I want what I do when I do it to mean something and I have how to do it.

Courtesy of Mike Morgan

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoiced with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails... (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

This is the example that was set by God. In his patience, he offers mercy, kindly offering redemption. He is a Jealous God, yet even still allows us to go our own way that if we chose w could give ourselves to our selfish desires. He boasts in His beloved Creation; He sought man while we were still in sin all the while His glory remains variably independent. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from west. He came in flesh testifying to truth, trusting in His Word, hoping that through the cross man would seek Him again. Love didn’t fail and never will.

I have taken liberties in the last decade to explore my faith and tussle with it. But after every question and every answer agreed or disagreed with, it all comes down to the real question did God love through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ? My answer is yes. Can I learn and adapt such a love in my life for myself and others? My answer is yes.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Here’s just one answer why. Faith is a decision brought by revelation. Hope can waver as circumstances arise. But as long as love is the greatest, it will guaranteed lead back to the first two.

I want to love next year and next decade. Love myself, others, and God all three in the way He loved me first.

Courtesy of http://www.inquiringmindsmatter.com

Happy New Year.