The complexity of understanding and growth

Looking past imperfections and flaws is not easy, despite our own personal deficiencies and shortcomings. Embracing and loving people's flaws is so much more important than most people realize, or care to admit. It is easy to love someone for their good qualities but loving people because of their nagging habits and idiosyncrasies is true devotion and love. I misinterpreted and over analyzed so much in my life that I became a pseudo psychologist who was just looking for reasons to stay away. I was afraid of being committed to anything: school, work, women, or God. Basically, I was driven by ego, pride, and selfishness. Finally, at the age of 30, I became a man who embraced the importance of reciprocal, unequivocal love. All of the mistakes I made as a youth serve as lessons that continue to make incremental differences in my life. God works in his way and his way only. I learn lessons from examples and experiences in my life that I never forgot. However, there is a time and place for those experiences to manifest into life-altering principles. God works in mysterious ways but he always has a foundation as to how those experiences will affect us. There are things that we deal with everyday that mold us into the people that we are and the people that we will become.

I learned to understand the importance of loving each person for what they are, not for what I think or hope they are. Each person is unique; However, our differences truly allow us to realize our abundant similarities. We have all dealt with individual obstacles and traveled different paths in life. The roads might be different but our destinations are the same.


Here is a song called "The Abusing of the Rib" from Atmosphere that I thought of when I wrote this post:


(Lyrics)
I wanna follow the footprints across my lover's stomach
I wanna call out her name before I plummet
I wish I had a map of the terrain so I could step around the landmines
Avoid the beasts under the bed that bring their bad times
I wanna find this here so-called treasure
The pleasure, the trinkets, the never-ending weekends
Acknowledging that I'm still just a piece of the sequence
But seein' these different footprints got me needin' to show my weakness
The time-line, the time zones, I cross them with my eyes closed
Memorized the landmarks and learned the cycles
The weather patterns, how the seasons affect
the East and the West of each region learned the cycles
Forget about the fact that many trails have been tracked
Maybe it's a plus that there's a path
If this was some uncharted land I'd have to be a smarter man
willing to travel the farthest to unravel the harvest
and natural resources are unlimited
exploration only requires some desire and initiative
take your time and find the right way to climb
it ain't safe to play games with natures mind

If I could show you, you would never leave it (never)
And if I could show you, you would never leave it (never)
And if I could show you, you would never leave it (never)
And if I could show you, you would never leave it (never)
And if I could show you, you would never leave it (never)
And If I could show you, you would never leave me

I wanna ride a train up my lover's arm
Destination the brain and climb out and find out what's going on
Cut through trees and ride through rocks
And synchronize the universal sundial to my watch
I've seen a lot
But not quite as much as her
To top it off the memory and her imagination blur
I know she's been put through hell
I can feel it
And I know she's touched heaven as well
Trying to steal it
It came on and it taught her the song
Strung her along and it caught her when that guard was gone
Now to the break of dawn she wants to feel that fix
And all the family and friends is trying to seal them lips
I'm not dumb
I can hear that train come from miles away
I'm setting obstacles to stop the arrival
Gonna blow up the iron and wood road
From what I understood those be the orifice of her survival
My recital
Yet another tantrum
Because she's highly excitable
Swinging moods at random
No happy endings always off to a bad start
Addictive
Voyeurism to the trackmarks...

And if I could show you, you would never leave it, (never, nah)
And if I could show you, you would never leave it, (never)
And if I could show you, yo, you would never leave it, (never)
And if I could show you, yo,you would never leave it, (never)
And if I could show you ......(fading).....

Time management

Time management is a wonderful thing. That is, if you have the slightest idea of how to implement it. Time management can result in seeming like you are prepared, dedicated, focused, and somewhat intelligent. Applying time management skills to everyday life has a way of making you seem like you have it together. On the other hand, bad time management seems to make things more serious. Improper time management makes people seem unprepared, rushed, and somewhat lost. Now, I'm not saying that that is the case. I'm just saying that it seems like it. Waiting until the last minute gives me a rush but it also brings some unnecessary gray hairs. Recently, I've been pretty good with time management. However, this week was straight out of the Twilight Zone. Everything seemed "off" and I have been unable to get on track. I just do not feel like I am myself this week. I have two projects due today, as well as two exams, and a obligatory post on my blog (this is it). I don't like waiting until the last minute. That was one reason as to why I underachieved in school when I was younger, and I refuse to fall back on my bad study habits. I guess we all have those moments when everything is out of whack. With that being said, I have to get things done right and in a timely manner because you just never know what will come up.
After all, this is life and it doesn't always work out as planned, despite our best laid plans. I guess the bad timing of this past week can only help me improve my time management.

The Wire: The BEST show nobody watched

Life is full of joy and hardship, good times and bad times, laughter and despair, and triumphs and failures. The Wire is an American drama that combines all of these characteristics in an unparalleled manner. Its five season run on HBO displayed writing, character development, and story telling at its absolute best. Each season focused on main plots and subplots of previous seasons. However, one thing that never changed was the main character, the city of Baltimore.

The first season focused on the inner city and the cat and mouse game between the police and the local drug dealers, the Barksdale crew.

The second season sheds light on the destruction of the middle-class by centering the story around the dock workers and the ever decreasing employment opportunities available.

Politics, whether governmental or organizational (police department) was the key plot in the third season.

By the time the fourth season rolled around most of the characters were fleshed out. However, the emergence of four kids brought the show to a whole new level, by way of focusing on the inadequacies of the school system.

Finally, season five deals with the media and the manipulative nature of the business. Story fabrications and the ways in which the "powers that be" find a story to be "news worthy" are addressed.
I love being entertained by dramatic, gripping, and realistic stories and The Wire delivers in every possible way. If you enjoy stories that focus on characters and reality, then this is the show for you. I implore you to take a chance on this show and all that if offers. As in life, there will be moments that make you angry, sad, pessimistic, and discouraged with all that goes on in society. However, there will be moments that make you smile, laugh and hopeful in seeing the good amid so much tragedy. Go out and experience the greatness that is The Wire, you surely will not be disappointed. In fact, you will be glad that you got a chance to experience such a powerful story.

Plagiarism, a "four letter word"

Plagiarism is a very dirty word in the writing community. It can be viewed as fraudulent, unethical, dishonest, as well as some other words that can not be used on this blog. Whichever word you decide to use, it's invariably going to be negative. The books, stories, novels, and biographies are the end-results. However, most people don't think about the hard work that goes into writing. Preparation, research, and constant revisions are a few of the many facets of writing that often go unnoticed. And, as with any profession, there are regulations that must be followed. Citing sources is a simple and vital step that ALWAYS needs to be fulfilled. Citing displays responsibility and professionalism, by way of crediting appropriate sources and authors. "Giving credit where credit is due", is a oft-used phrase that sums up the necessity of citing sources perfectly.

Now, I just hope that I don't get accused of plagiarism for not properly citing the quoted material above.