The Book, The Cover, The Content

I was just watching a program on the 50th Anniversary of to Kill A Mockingbird, and it got me thinking about the nature of racism and hatred within contemporary society. The program was an author's exploration of the experiences that surrounded the publishing of To Kill A Mockingbird and the town of Monroeville, Alabama as it is today.

The part of the program that really got to me was when a High Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan was interviewed. What was really interesting about this segment wasn't the point that the programmers were attempting to get across, but how the High Wizard himself came across.

As a young black man I expected to be completely put off by this segment. However , as the cab driver (who was interviewed after the High Wizard) said 'you cant live with hatred in you're heart'. Instead of hating in him, I was both intrigue and scared of him.

The High Wizard acknowledged the fact that he was racist and close-minded. My preconception of people of that variety was that they were not self-aware enough to know the realities of their believes. However, this guy went against that preconception.

His self-awareness was scary because it shows that the hatred is so assimilated with in his entire being that he just doesn't care. I have naively always believe that the way the world works is that when people like him where exposed to the wrongness of their actions they would change their ways. What I have believed to be the case is that people who harbor hatred are not aware of how close-off they are to the realities of the world.

To have acknowledgment that some people truly acknowledge their close-mindedness and just do not care, actually doesn't make me hate me them. In actuality it makes me sad for them. All the experiences that you are open to in this world when you are open-minded is being withheld from people like this.

Hatred is a life sucking cancer. When we hate others the person who really stands to lose the most is ourselves.

That is the reason why I found this High Wizard so interesting. He got me thinking of the nature of hatred and how it affects us all. Hating others based on purely arbitrary means does nothing but belittle all human beings and prevents/slows down the advancement we could be making through cooperation.

Tomorrow Always Comes (Just not how you expected)

For some reason lately instead of doing my actual work I've been thinking about the future. About how it never arrives how I hoped it would. That’s the problem with me; I have been brought up to always think about the future. To prepare for a tomorrow that quite frankly may never come. So all my life I have been working towards this goal of my future and I don’t even know what I want that future to be. Plus, as I am planning for this future I feel alive but like I am not living. When will this future come and will it be spectacular or a spectacular let down.
Life is full of expectations that we place on what we would to be like when we "grow up". Most people by now have learned that life is going to let you down; nothing ever is your expectations. I have learned this lesson countless times and yet always remain optimistic about the future (That my friends is why I might just be insane). I am not saying that everything turns out bad, in fact my life is turning out pretty well, it’s just not how I imagined it would be.
The other problem with always preparing for the future and looking forward to what is to come, is that I am missing the now. If I wake up in 20 years and my life is great, will it really be whole if I dont have any great experiences to look back on is it really worth it. There are a lot of things that I would like to do but can't do them because of my future career will not allow it. I don’t want to look back on my life with regrets.
Now I am not an advocate of just completely living in the now. I do believe that preparing for tomorrow is a great thing, because being caught off guard leads unfortunate consequences. However, I just want to live in the present and enjoying my fleeting youth.

Been a Long Time Since I Left you With Out a Dope Beat to Step to

So I wrote this over the summer and I just remember it tonight. I wrote it while I was an intern and just never posted it so I decided to do so tonight. The wonderful ride known as life has taken me by the balls and thrown me for a loop. At times it’s been fun and thrilling and at times just downright painful, but that is life. I really haven’t thought about this page since I created it therefore I haven’t posted anything on it. That will be stopping soon. I plan on using this blog a lot more. I need to figure out what exactly I want to write about first. Right now I am not fire up about anything and just felt like writing this is to awaken the something in me. I am also doing this to remind myself that I have this blog. Hopefully tomorrow I will have something that I really feel the need to write about. I am currently thinking writing something on new experiences but I do not have it all planned out just yet. We will see what happens. I hoping that I stick to my promise and write a post more than three times a year. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

The first time is always awkward.

This is where I am going to be posting my thoughts and stuff. I don’t really know what exactly I am going to be using this for but I guess I will figure it out as i go along. All I know is that this is going to help me prepare for my future career of the moment. I am not really doing this for others to read. If they do that’s great I am mostly doing it for my own good. So yeah, I can write much today cause I have a paper to do, but I will come back and write something tomorrow.

So here is an interesting quote that i found today:
Who will make known to the world
The inscrutably deep secret cause?
That, King, I cannot tell you;
And what you ask, that you will never learn
It is from the epic Tristan and Isolde.