IN DEBT FOR LIFE

I will never forget Professor Widner. He was my Black history professor in college and he told our class something that I will NEVER forget:

If we all stopped paying our credit card bills we would end capitalism.

You see, our entire monetary system is based on credit and it would crumble if we didn't continue to feed the system. In essence, the system could not exist without our debts to financial institutions.

Are you tired of being in debt? Do you think most people want to be free of debt or would they rather be in debt then be free of it? And let's say we all got together and stopped paying our debts...then what?

By the way, very soon after that conversation in class, Professor Widner stopped teaching at my university. I've always wondered if his strong political views got him fired.

HIT DELETE

I deleted every text in my phone today. Some I had been holding onto since April! Looking back at them kept me in April, when it's clearly October.

Delete something today people! Whether it's an email, text, a thought, a mind set, a negative feeling, a habit, etc.

Clear up some space for new things to enter your life.

Delete Synonym's:
Synonyms:
annul, cancel, edit, elide, eliminate, erase, excise, expunge, obliterate, omit, purge, remove

Hit me back and let me know what you purged; anything it don't have to be a lot - but get rid of something.

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BESTFRIEND....RIGHT?

A few years ago the movie Blood Diamonds opened my eyes to what are more commonly known as conflict diamonds because they are mined in mainly West African countries in very subpar conditions and controlled by militants to fund their war efforts. They typically enslave the local people in the area, including, women and children, and force them to mine diamonds that are then sold to various countries including London and the United States. Our African brothers and sisters are being killed for “precious” diamonds, you know, that bling-bling which has become a staple symbol of love and wealth. Kind of ironic how Africans are being killed which is a HATEful crime – just so we can offer diamonds to those we LOVE.

Now, they say there are places like Botswana where they actually hire miners and the diamonds are not conflict originated.

So my question to you is: Are diamonds the only stone that is a symbol of love?

Single Ladies
Real talk!!!!! Would you be heart broken if your fiancé didn’t buy you a diamond?
Is there another stone you find just as or even more beautiful?

Single Guys
Are diamonds the only ring to show a woman you love her?
Do you feel you must buy your fiancé a diamond? If so will you look in buying conflict-free diamonds or will you look into purchasing an alternative stone?

Married Women
How would you feel if the ring you wear every day was possibly a conflict diamond? Would you have been upset if your husband didn’t buy a diamond?

Married Men
Is it important to you that your wife wears a diamond? If you could do it over, would you buy a different stone for her?

MUSIC LOVER

Music can inspire you, fire you up, get you down – and most of all it taps into your emotions and will send you wildly into portals of your memory where fleeting thoughts are waiting for the melodic recall. Once there, you may find pure sadness or pure joy but the ride music takes us on is always worth shot gun.

Below is a list of some of my mood music. What’s your mood music of choice?

“I’m gonna be okay…no matter what”
Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun
Bob Marley – Legend
Amel Larrieux - Bravebird

“I’m angry and need to calm down”
Kem – II

“I’m angry and I like it”
Dead Prez – Let’s Get Free
Makaveli – The Don Kiluminati


“Love is in the air, do you smell it?”
Me’Shelle Ndegeocello – Comfort Woman
Mary J Blige – My Life
Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing
Carl Thomas – Emotional
The Whispers – Love Is Where You Find It


You can use my categories or you can write down your mood music any way that you chose.

NEW AGE DESPERATE WOMEN

Why are women acting so desperate?

If the collective of women are desperate, it HURTS the position for the women who feel a man should pursue her - and not the other way around.

On the flip side, the collective of men are not exercising chilvery and doing the bare minimum to get the women they seek. This actually HELPS the position for the few men that are rightous because women aren't used to seeing "real" men anymore.

Will women ever stop acting desperate? What do we have to do to get our respect back?

AND…

Will men ever go back to courting women? What will it take for them to recognize the beauty and admiration they have for their mothers, is within all women and should be honored?

DO YOU TRUST EASILY?

It's been said you should believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

How do you deal with trust? Do you instantly rely on your intuition or do you believe it takes time and everyone should have a chance to prove themselves to be trust worthy?

I TEXT YOU TO DEATH

We are so inundated with the speed of transmitting information that the meaning and validity of the messages are lost in transmission.

People will text each other to death before they love each other to death. I don't care what anyone says, if you have the time to text, you have the time to call. Now of course no one can deny how convenient texting is and how very useful it is in situations like just letting someone know you're on your way to meet them or just to say hello. What I refer to as text death are for those of us who build relationships via text. The irony is we are texting....on a phone, the very phone that was designed...to talk on. No text can replace the sound and vibration of a persons voice.

Now, I've always preferred typing over talking. Remember the skytel two-ways from back in the day? I absolutely loved that little gadget but at that time only those of us in the entertainment field and the entertainment wanna-be's had one. In fact, the word "texting" hadn't even been coined. We were just happy to meet people with them so we could "beam" our contact information to one another. I was only able to contact those in my circle as the rest of the world was still getting acclimated to email and analog cell phones.

Now I'm having people text me books that come in 3-parts; expressing ambiguous thoughts and I can't tell if they are legit or bogus; using acronyms that I have to google to discover its connotation before I can even respond; getting dirty jokes that come equipped with perverted photos; and my favorite are the texts from men I haven't talked to in 2 years who just want to spark a text conversation.

I had dinner with a friend yesterday and her phone rang from a guy she's been, for lack of a better word, "text dating," and she didn't know what do. She let her phone go to voicemail to buy herself time to try to decipher what a call from him might mean. Does he want something? At this point his very voice is unfamiliar.

Again, I'm all for texting but texting can be abused.

Here are some texting DON'TS:

• DON'T CONTACT A PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME VIA TEXT. CALLING SHOWS INTEREST, TEXTING INDICATES YOU DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO GET TO KNOW THE PERSON.
• DON'T SAY I LOVE YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME VIA TEXT. MATTERS OF THE HEART SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN PERSON OR LAST RESORT WOULD BE TO VERBALLY EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS OVER TELEPHONE.
• DON'T TEXT A QUESTION IN ANGER, THAT COULD GO ON FOR 12 HRS INSTEAD OF A 12 MINUTE CONVERSATION. BESIDES, IT FEELS BETTER TO BITCH ALOUD.
• DON'T EXPECT A RESPONSE IF YOU DIDN'T ASK A QUESTION. THE PERSON IS NOT OBLIGATED TO RESPOND TO COMMENTS SO DON'T KEEP CHECKING YOUR PHONE WAITING ON A REPLY.
  Now that you are well versed on some texting etiquette please say this aloud:
  
  ON MY HONOR, I WILL TEXT RESPONSIBLY. I WILL "MAN-UP (OR WOMAN UP)" AND CALL AND NOT HIDE BEHIND MY TEXT MESSAGES. ON MY HONOR, TEXTING WILL NOT SUBSTITUTE VERBAL COMMUNICATION.