SAMSARA : The ever turning wheel of life

Filmed over a period of almost five years and in twenty-five countries, SAMSARA transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders.  By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern (via).

The following is a fusion of SAMSARA and BARAKA, a film of similar purpose and design.

That ending scene, of the monks destroying their brilliant masterpiece, is so fantastically powerful. And I can't decide where my own inner interpretation lands. Is it meaningless meaningless all is meaningless? Is it that I am here, that life exists. And identity. That the powerful play goes on and I may contribute a verse?

Or is it something else entirely? 

I kind of like the idea that all humanity is a different color, making up a much larger work that will, inevitably, be destroyed - whatever that means.

But not yet.

Because "SAMSARA is a Sanskrit word that means 'the ever turning wheel of life,'" and at least for now, there is a lot of Life left for us to dance.

Even in jail.

Yet, there are some that never will. Or if they do, it won't be for life.

Because that too is part of the our reality and inner interpretation that I just quite understand.

"SAMSARA was filmed in 25 countries and produced over the course of almost 5 years." You can watch the full length movie on Amazon.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring films about Humans  :  Inspiring Art  :  Documentaries 

Where the People are.

If you're in a corner, or in a box, it's not because somebody put you there, it's because you've agreed to be in that box.

I stay outside. Because that's where the people are.

When I first watched this, I thought of my classroom and getting out in the hallways to be with the kids as they pass and walk by. Because even though I want to stay in my room, out in the hall is where the people are. And they want high fives, waves, fist bumps, and sometimes even hugs.

Then, while getting a Fat Tire from the frig, I thought of other boxes, bigger boxes, and more restrictive boxes. Boxes of religion, family, and politics. 

But mainly religion.

Maybe yours is something else.

Whatever it is, we've both agreed to be in that box. Isolated, Insulated. And safe. 

Because stepping out is entering into the unknown, and to where the people are. People who think different, look different, act different, and are different. Like kids in the hallways.

In the hallways, I lose much of my control and influence. I'm no longer the centerpiece but an outside observer. In the hallways, kids curse, make out, swap cigarettes, and fight, and I stand on the sideline, unable to do much of anything but correct what I can and say hello to those who pass. 

Sometimes though, kids want a high five, fist bump, or short conversation.

And somehow, when it happens, in the hallway, on their turf, it seems a bit more genuine because truly, they don't have to say a damn thing. They can walk by, cursing under their breath (which some do, no doubt) or ignore me completely. But they don't - not all of them anyway. They wave, smile, and sometimes stand with me and talk. And I love it because, often times, I learn things about them that the classroom can't teach. 

Like the student whose father was just arrested for dealing meth. Or the one who's having surgery on Thanksgiving day because she might have breast cancer. 

Sometimes though, they don't say a thing. They just high five, fist pump, or nod. And when it comes from the kid that I get on every single day to do some work, to turn something in and stop dropping F-bombs in my class, well, that too means a lot to me. 

And after watching this short clip, I began to wonder what would happen if I stepped out of other boxes, engaged and mingled with other people, different people, and started talking and listening and learning from them? Where would that take me? Take us? 

Probably to where the people are.

Which is just where I want to be.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  #eattogether :  Humanity  :  A Heineken commercial that inspires more than a drink

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Humans of New York. S1: E1.

“Humans of New York began as a photography project in 2010.  The initial goal was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants" (via). Since then, it has become one of the most popular ongoing documentaries of humanity, expanding over twenty different countries, and gaining over 18 million followers world wide.

Recently, the premiere episode of Humans of New York aired. Filmed over four years with more than 1200 interviews, BRANDON STANTON is sharing the lives of the people of New York, one story at a time (via). 

"These stories focus on specific populations, examining their experiences and the challenges that they face" (via), which is both encouraging and heartbreaking. 

Encouraging because we can be reminded that we are not alone in our hardships and difficulties, and heartbreaking because they are us and we are them. And when they ache, we all ache.

Or, at least we should.

You can follow Brandon Stanton and the humans of New York on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Humanity  :  Regular People, like us  :  Real People, Real Stories

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Shrinking of humanity

Five boys, middle school aged boys, just walked into the Starbucks I've been sitting at for the past hour. They rode their bikes here, dropping them outside the door, asked for free water, then huddled together and pulled out their phones. All of them. 

"Should I post this to my story?" one asks, passing around his phone. One friend says no; the rest yes. He posts, and they all laugh.

They chat, giggle, and, generally, act like a small pack of middle school boys: loud, and fully self absorbed. Just like I did when I was their age. 

However, they are also fully different from what I remember because, my friends and I never had phones or social media. In high school, we had pagers. In middle school, Juno. We were pretty sheltered.

Yet, how quickly we've all adapted. And how quickly we've all bought into the lie.

The lie that everyone around us is as happy as they claim and post, and the lie that we need the likes and hearts and approval from others to feel good about our selves, and our (often) fake lives.

A couple has just walked in - they look to be maybe in their late teens, perhaps early twenties. She opened the door first, placing her sunglasses on her head full of curly brown hair. He soon followed, his face absorbed in his phone. She held the door for him and they both disappeared behind the wall to order their drinks. 

When I watch, when I really look around at the people in line at the grocery store, at those shopping, those eating or even driving, I notice that most, and close to all, have their screens out and on. Hardly any of them are sitting there, talking, without their little device of distraction.

Including me.

I met a friend for brunch this morning and the family of three sitting across from us sat in silence. The husband watched the TV in the corner while the mom and son scanned their phones. In almost 45 minutes, they said hardly a word to each other. Even after the food arrived.

The couple has just left. She carried both drinks; he carried his phone, about a foot from his face. (I swear, I'm not making this up).

Several years ago, I remember reading a few stories of a man and a woman being stabbed in city streets, only to find that no one would stop and help them. But they would take pictures. 

This video, suddenly, doesn't seem too far off. Even if it is a bit disturbing. 

Middle school boys, boyfriends, or families out for lunch, on their cellphones, doesn't mean they will overlook a stabbing - that's a pretty far jump. 

But it does start somewhere. Or rather, it isn't controlled somewhere. 

And the easiest, most appropriate place to start, is probably the home. 

Our humanity is shrinking.

We no longer have natural "stopping cues" - the ending of a book or news paper or TV show that moves us on to something different, or even, that it's okay and appropriate to put down our phones and see the world, the people, that surrounds us.

So we need to create them on our own. 

Alter offers dinner as a possible stopping cue, which I fully accept and agree with, but also struggle with a bit because phones have never been allowed at the table. Ever. So it doesn't really help.

So I am interested in what other have done, how others have consciously protected their home, their family, and their pursuit of conversation. 

Screens are miraculous - I too feel that it's true - but they are also dangerous. And they are thieves. They steal the color, the richness, and the interesting from life, and they, ironically, steal the human connection with other humans. They create a distance. And they install a dullness. But only if abused and misused. 

If you have a suggestions on how to create natural (or unnatural) stopping cues for screen life, please, share them. I'm sure we would all appreciate a little more sand between our toes and ocean on our feet. 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :   #eattogether  :  On Living  :  Humanity

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Broadening "we" and shrinking "they."

Mike Monteiro’s wrote "a really moving essay on what turning 50 means to him, and how he’s expanded his personal definition of “us” and “we” along the way, moving from his family, to his immigrant community, to a group of punk art school outcasts, to a wider and wider world full of people who are more similar than different" (via).

When we arrived in the United States in 1970, we settled in Philadelphia because it was the home of a lot of Portuguese immigrants from the small town my parents (and I guess me) came from. And so the we grew from a family unit to a community of immigrants who looked out for each other. We shopped at a Portuguese grocery store because they gave us credit. We rented from a Portuguese landlord because he wasn’t concerned about a rental history. And my parents worked for Portuguese businesses because we didn’t come here to steal jobs, but to create them...

This same community also looked out for each other. When there was trouble, we were there. When someone was laid off a construction job for the winter, we cooked and delivered meals. When someone’s son ended up in jail, wefound bail. And when someone’s relative wanted to immigrate, we lined up jobs and moved money to the right bank accounts to prove solvency...

But as anyone who has ever grown up in an immigrant community knows,wealso demands athem. They were not us. And they didn’t see us as them either. And at the risk of airing immigrant dirty laundry in public, I can attest that immigrant communities can be racist as fuck.Wehated blacks.Wehated Puerto Ricans. (It wasn’t too long ago I had to ask my mom to stop talking about “lazy Puerto Ricans” in front of her half-Puerto Rican grandchildren.)Wehated Jews. In our eagerness to show Americans we belonged,weadopted their racism. (We also brought some of our own with us.)...

I love the honesty of this piece. The brutal, self-effacing, real-as-shit (which is a strange phrase, really) writing because, if we are honest, we can relate - on some level. It doesn't read like a Facebook post, it reads like a heart felt, lessons from the soul post. And it's refreshing, even if it's hard. 

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Michel D'Oultremont : More than a Photograph

The following video, and Michel D'Oultremont's works, are breathtaking. But, hidden in his words and disguised by the beauty of the film, is something bigger, something beyond photography, that I can't quite pin down. It's there, gnawing, scratching, and unrelenting, like a thorn, buried in the flesh, that won't go away.

I've watched it several times, till, finally, I watched it with my eyes closed, substituting people in for animals. Then, some truths for life come into focus (see what I did there? Clever!).

Truths like:

"I tried to put more distance between me and the {people}, to have more breathing space in the image, to have something more constructed . . . I tried to put more importance on the environment or the play of light, rather than the {person themselves}."

"Patience is one of the most important things to have. Without patience it's not possible to see {people}" because, "When challenges accumulate, they shouldn't hold you back, they should be an extra motivation. Because the next day, everything might change." But only if we're patient, and if we're there. 

"I think this kind of project is really important for our future, for all of us really." 

Perhaps the most important of it's kind.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Faces of Humanity  :  Photography  :  Humanity

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Revised History of the Black Panther Party

For me, the Black Panther Party meant leather car coats, black turtlenecks and black berets. It meant violence and guns. It inspired fear. But like the many black men and women who joined the Black Panther Party with ideas of power and revenge, I was fully disillusioned. Because for many years my understanding of the Black Panther Party, their history and their purpose, was shaped by media and movies. And I believed that what I saw and knew was fully true. 

But the Black Panther party was not, as J. Edger Hoover argued (and I loosely believed), “the single greatest threat to the United States.” They were not, as I have unfairly thought, a racist terrorist group that wanted to spread fear by violence in hopes of bringing down the system. Rather, they were smart and educated and extremely giving. And they were inclusive to all color. Something I never knew. 

I recently listened to a podcast appropriately entitled, The Black Panther Party, hosted by Stuff You Should Know. The following is a brief summary of their 67 minute overview of the incredibly misunderstood Black Panther Party.

From Crow:

To grasp the why of the Black Panthers, historical context is important. They were created at the tail end of the Jim Crow Era, which, when simply put, means that life for a black American was very hostile. They were generally poor, were constantly harassed, and often beaten by police. The racial tension was intense, and it was everywhere.

And Black communities were tired of waiting for things to get better.

To Arms:

Photo by Stephen Shames

Robert Williams an American Civil Rights leader codified the idea of needing to defend self against an oppressive society. He might also be responsible for the (unfair) images we have today of the Black Panther Party - of black men with ammunition around their necks - because he was an early advocate for fighting back against the oppression and mistreatment of the white government. In 1962, he wrote Negroes with Guns (1962) which details “his experience with violent racism and his disagreement with the non-violent wing of the Civil Rights Movement and the text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton cited it as a major inspiration (via).

However, The Black Panther Party, armed and ready for violence, was not aggressive or offensive and in search of a fight. Instead, they were passive. Violence would only be used as a last resort. Just like a black panther.

Black Panthers (the animal):

Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panther Party (originally called The Black Panther Party of Self Defense) and chose the black panther because “the nature of a panther is, if you push it into a corner, that panther is going to try and move left or right, to get you to get out of the way. But if you keep pushing {the black panther} back into that corner, sooner or later, that panther is going to come out of that corner and try and wipe out who keeps oppressing it into that corner” (via).

Black Panthers (the party):

The initial purpose of arms for the Black Panther Party was to defend themselves until a black man or woman could walk the streets without harassment, until equal opportunity. 

But carrying guns and intimidating law enforcement was not all they did. In fact, especially in the early stages, the Black Panther Party spent most of their time and energy serving and educating.

Members of the Black Panther Party were avowed Marxists and wanted to get rid of Capitalists; they were socialists, and they were willing to join hands (often literally) with anyone who shared the same sentiments or struggles. No matter the race.

Legal Arms:

Huey Newton, the other co-founder of the Black Panther Party, found in the California Law Book that citizens were allowed to carry a gun in public as long they were not concealed. (Ronald Reagan would soon sign a gun control act that stopped the open carrying of guns . . . and then in the late 70’s, he would team up with NRA and fight for the right to bear arms, but only after the Black Panther Party had lost its prominence).

Huey Newton, Bobby Seal, and other members of the Black Panther Party then legally patrolled the city of Oakland, looking for black men and women who were pulled over, and they would stand at a reasonable distance and protect the black citizen. Because they wanted to make sure their brothers and sisters where not mistreated or abused, as they so often were. And it worked! The cops responded as the Black Panther Party wanted, with much more care in how they treated the black citizen, and the black citizen responded as the Black Panther Party wanted - without violence. 

Arming the Party:

Photo by Stephen Shames

This show of strength, along with the leather car coats, black turtlenecks and black berets, create an image that attracted many new converts. But the men who quickly joined the party with ideas of guns and power and revenge in mind were fully disillusioned and quickly educated. Literally.

Kathleen Cleaver a then Black Panther Party leader and now professor at Emory University School of Law, told a story on CNN, of a young black man who joined the party to get a gun and join the patrol. When they gave him a stack of books he said, “I thought you were going to arm me."

"We just did," the Party responded.

For the Black Panther Party, violence was not the answer or solution.  Education and serving the community was.

Black Panther Service:

Photo by Stephen Shames (Like the men toting guns, these men and women are also members of the Black Panther Party. The contrast is striking. I love it).

Huey Newton recognized that they could make a greater difference in the community if the underprivileged boys and girls ate breakfast before their long day of schooling. So they did. Five days a week, the Black Panther Party served over 20,000 free breakfasts around the country. For free. They also offered free medical clinics where people could get vaccines, be tested for diseases, and treated for basic illnesses. And under the direction and inspiration of Elaine Brown, the Black Panther Party opened the Oakland Community School, which was free, and where students could learn poetry, foreign languages, current events, yoga, and black history. They also open and operated 65 survival programs and ran “The Black Panther” newspaper which was read by men and women of all color, not just black community and had a circulation of over 250,000. Emory Douglas designed and published much of his artwork in “The Black Panther” and became a potent symbol of the movement. 

Take Away:

Photo by Stephen Shames

My understanding of the Black Panther Party was, and still is, largely incomplete, and it probably will forever be because people and cultures and humanity are not easily explained or defined. 

And I love that and think it appropriate because the unknown leads to wonder and begs for curiosity. Look at the faces above, especially the woman at left-center holding the poster, and Humanity is there. Pain, sorrow, fear, and pride. A longing for a better life and a hope that it can come. But in these faces, there is also doubt.  Doubt in the system and doubt in mankind.  

They lived in a world that allowed the incomplete and simple to be the whole story, and in doing so, failed to understand and to humanize.

They believed in a single story. Much like today.

Ten-Point Program:

Photo by Stephen Shames

In every publication of "The Black Panther" ran the party's Ten-Point Program, which really, is not all that different than the letter sent across the sea by our nation's founding fathers.

It's only appropriate that it's posted here.

1.   
We Want Freedom. We Want Power To Determine
The Destiny Of Our Black Community.

We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2.   

We Want Full Employment For Our People.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3.   

We Want An End To The Robbery
By The Capitalists Of Our Black Community.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us, and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.

4.   

We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Of Human Beings.

We believe that if the White Landlords will not give decent housing to our Black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

5.   

We Want Education For Our People That Exposes
The True Nature Of This Decadent American Society.
We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History
And Our Role In The Present-Day Society.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6.   

We Want All Black Men To Be Exempt From Military Service.

We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.

7.   

We Want An Immediate End To
Police Brutality And Murder Of Black People.

We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for self- defense.

8.   

We Want Freedom For All Black Men
Held In Federal, State, County And City Prisons And Jails.

We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

9.   

We Want All Black People When Brought To Trial To Be Tried In
Court By A Jury Of Their Peer Group Or People From Their Black
Communities, As Defined By The Constitution Of The United States.

We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials. The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being, tried by all-White juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the Black community.

10.

We Want Land, Bread, Housing, Education,
Clothing, Justice And Peace.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

For more on . . .

Stephen Thames photograph

The revolutionary art of Emory Douglas

The Black Panther's Vanguard of the Revolution film and page

Three Beautiful Human Minutes by Asger Leth

Asger Leth is a director and writer, known for Man on a Ledge (2012), The Five Obstructions (2003) and Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006).

PostSecret : Thoughts and Deeds That Expose Us All

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. Their secrets are posted every Sunday.

Some are funny and innocent.

Some are not.

All, in a strange way, are relatable.

We all understand pain, embarrassment, and loneliness.

In the social media age, putting the best images, ideas, and moments of ourselves forward is expected. Which, in moments of despair and grief, isolates even more. 

To steal a concept from Stranger Things, PostSecret reveals the Upside Down dimension - the existing yet hidden parallel dimension of sorrow and fear inhabited by all human beings.

All human beings.

So even if we've never done this:

we can all relate to having our own secrets of stupidity that have been tucked away in the attic of shame and regret, only be unpacked and shared on a postcard. Not Facebook.

We are beautiful and wonderful, we are flawed and broken, and we all carry secrets.

Should we Say “And” Instead of “But”?

I stumbled across the following article and thought it worth storing away because I like the discussion it raises, or at least should raise. I'll ask the question at the end.

This post is from Nicole Francesca:

In Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, a “dialectic” refers to the idea of two truths being true simultaneously, even if they seem to oppose one another. It’s a practice in removing ourselves from black-and-white, either-or thinking, which is one of the greatest limiting factors in our collective ability to grow. We’re so used to seeing things as one-or-the-other and never as both-at-once that we unconsciously choose a side and live there. It needn’t be so. It’s not an easy transition always, but here’s the trick that I learned this first year in grad school to become a clinical social worker (which is a long way to say “therapist”):

Whenever you’re about to say “but,” replace it with “and,” or “and it is also true that.”

Fair warning: everyone that is very used to standing at the either-or edge of the both-and lake will not be amused by your commitment to swimming. They may have never even heard of such an outrageous idea, as I had not, of allowing both things to be true at once.

And for good reason. How can we rectify something good as also having bad elements, and vice versa? That makes the black-and-white territory quite gray indeed, and, my friends, we are fucking terrified as a people of the gray area.

It means we have to dig deeper to figure out how we feel about things, what our actual motivations are. The gray area removes the ease of simply choosing a side and leaving it at that. The other factor is this: anyone who has been on the receiving end of a “this truth, but this truth” knows that anything before the “but” is lost to oblivion forever.

I love you, but I can’t stay.

See how that works? We can’t even hear the shit before the “but,” and for good reason. “But” ends dialogue. It says, “the first truth is not nearly as important as the second truth.” Turning it into, “I love you, and I can’t stay,” opens a door for exploration, and values the first truth just as much as the second.

I encourage you to give it a try, and I’m going to give you some examples from my own life, because it took me a good while to commit to the both-and—and now I’m sold for life.

I am angry at the state of the world, and it is also true that I am in love with every small beautiful moment of each day.

I am confident, and sensitive.

Fully experiencing grief is the only way to move through it, and it is also true that grief hurts in ways that tear apart the very soul.

Being poor has made me resourceful beyond measure, and it is also true that poverty fucking sucks.

I’m the only one that can repair the damage incurred to me, without my consent, during my childhood, and it is also true that that’s really unfair.

The difference in how the statements feel when you remove the “but” has a palpable feel to me. Do they for you? It allows the reality of pain to exist without denying the reality of responsibility, or the reality of what seems to oppose the pain. It allows us some small measure of liberation without losing accountability.

The binary of either-or is a lie. As humans, we’re meant to swim in the both-and lake, and explore the deeper-than-surface shit. Joy can include grief, and pain can include beauty. It often does, without us even realizing it.

Side Note: I also want to make note that this can be used by people with nefarious intent and it’s important to be able to recognize that. Any tool for healing will be twisted as tool for control by those who need control, even if they don’t realize they desperately need it. For example:

“I hurt you, and my love for your made me do it.”

Be always sure to listen to exactly whom is taking responsibility for the gray area in which they wade.

So here is my question:

Does this mean we should never say "but"?  

I love this article because it does highlight how we are "so used to seeing things as one-or-the-other and never as both-at-once that we unconsciously choose a side and live there." And I think you would agree that we see this in most everything: religion, race, personalities, etc..

So again, does this mean we should never say "but"? And if not, where? When? On what topics, issues?  

Thank you Nicole for inspiring a discussion - even if it is only with myself.

Remembering The Dream

I asked my students the other day, “What is the greatest influencer in our world today? What dictates how we live?” The students spent some time writing thoughts, then sharing with their partners, then we wrote on the board. The first few answers weren’t shocking: Internet, social media, electronics, and money. No surprises. I added coffee because, well, because it’s true.

Then a student said, “judgment,” and agreement sounded through the class. I asked if anyone who wrote something prior wanted to change his or her answer. Many of them did. Of the fifteen students, two hold a US passport. None of them are African American.

. . . When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds . . .

Pointing to the word “judgment” on the board I asked the class, “What does this mean? How are you influenced by judgment?”

“We live in constant fear” the student said, “that no matter what we do or what we say, we’ll be judged.” Again, muffled talking of understanding sounded through the classroom. Everyone could relate.

“You know what’s interesting about this list?” I asked, pointing once more to the board. The chatting slowly dies off. “What do you notice is NOT here?” Their eyes squint as they study the list. “If this is supposed to be a list of what influences our minds the most, what should be up here?” More eyes squint. A couple mouths agape, looking for what they don’t see. Then one speaks up, “school.”

“YES!” What else?

“Politics.”

“Yep. And . . .” I stand wide; arms open and legs beyond my shoulders – my get-ready-because-some-great-Truth-is-about-to-come stance. Almost in unison a few students guess, “religion?”

“How are these three NOT on the board?” I ask, genuinely surprised.

“Because they really don’t,” was one kids simple answer.

The rest agreed.

. . . In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force . . .

“We’re going to annotate a song today,” The students pass along the papers, “but before
we do, lets look at this quote.” The PowerPoint flips to a picture of Andrew Hozier-Byrne, an Irish musician known most commonly by his middle name, Hozier. The song is “Take Me to Church.” Many of the kids know and like it, but few, if any, understand it.

Intended as a swipe at the Catholic indoctrination so intrinsic to Irish culture, Byrne uses song to speak against any construct (especially religion) that condemns sexuality, which he believes, "undermines humanity at its most natural.” The students begin to shift a little in their seats. “In this same interview,” I click to the next slide, “he says this, ‘There is no greater celebration of life, and nothing more human than a sexual act.’” The kids squirm a little more. I press a little harder, “What, according to Hozier, is the greatest most natural act a person can engage in?” It takes a few seconds, but eventually, a few students speak up, “Sex.”

“With whom?” I ask.

They’re not sure so the reread the quote on the board, but that doesn’t help. “With anyone?” one students asks.

“Well, lets see.” And we dive in.

. . . The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back . . .

            “How many of you agree with Hozier?” How many of you agree that, ‘[your] church offers no absolutes’ and that ‘She tells [you], "Worship in the bedroom’”? Nobody raises their hands, but I suspect at least one might want to. I keep moving. “How many of you agree that ‘Every Sunday's getting more bleak’ and that there’s a ‘fresh poison each week’”? A few students raise their hands, but no one is surprised at whom.

“Okay,” I say, “Where does, ‘I was born sick’ come from? Where have you heard that before?”

“The Bible – we were born with a sinful nature.”

“Good, but how does Hozier respond to it? What does his next line say?”

“That he loves it, in a way” he ponders for a bit, “He doesn’t really agree with it, so he’s kinda making fun of it.”

Perfect. 

“Yes!” The energy is growing, and its contagious, “What do the next two lines mean then, ‘Command me to be well. Aaay. Amen. Amen. Amen.’?”

“It’s sarcastic, he’s using the words of the church to mock them, kinda like he did with ‘but I love it.’”

“AGH!! YES!” (I start hopping around when I get excited) “and why does he feel the freedom to mock the church?”

There’s silence for a bit, but then, “Because he worships in the bedroom.”

The class is completely silent. All eyes are on me, waiting, but all I do is nod. I don’t want to stop their brains are travelling, wherever that might be.

After a bit, we dive back in, “Take me to church. I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies, I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.” We read and I ask, “What does this mean, why is he sharpening a knife?”

“The Catholic church requires confession.”

“Not just the Catholic church, but go on.”

“Right, anyway, he’s saying that while the people are confessing, the priests are sharpening their knives.”

“For what?” I ask.

“To kill them.”

“Why? Why would Hozier paint the church in this way? As men sharpening their knives?”

Again silence. I tell them to discuss in groups and that we’ll need an answer in the next few minutes.

When we reconvene, they’ve got the answer, and it comes through the voice of shy and pastor’s-kid sort of girl, “He’s saying that even though the church says you need to come and confess your sins, once you do, they judge you. They kill you.”

Silence.

I look around the room at the several faces. In the fifteen students, four countries are represented. Some of the students are missionary kids, some are atheists, many are undecided. I put my hands in my pockets, “How many of you would agree?” I look around the room, “Not necessarily that worship happens in the bedroom,” a few nervous laughs break out, “but that you feel judged by the church, that when you “confess your sins,” you are destroyed for it?”

Several hands instantly shoot up, then a few more. Then everyone’s hand is raised, including mine.

. . . Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .

We’ve finished the song and I’ve just assigned them the same process with a song of his or her choosing – do next class. While the students are copying down the assignment I ask, “What’s purpose in doing this, you think?”

“Because it’s fun,” one student blurts out.

“Nope, but I’m glad you think so.”

“Because it’s media, and we said media is one of the greatest influencers on our world.”

“Exactly. And how many of you listen to your music on the way to school?”

They all raise their hands.

“While you are out with friends?”

Hands stay up.

“At home in your room.”

Still up.

“And how many of you read the lyrics with your parents?”

All hands go down.

“In your church?”

Hands stay down.

“And before today, in school?”

Still down.

“If this is one of the greatest influencers in the world today, why are we no studying it!” I look back at the list, “I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE NO ONE SAID EDUCATION!!!” A few students laugh, I laugh, but it’s not funny. It’s just true.

I flip to the next slide on the PowerPoint, “Don’t just annotate the song and tell me what you think it’s trying say, I want you to find something in the song that you AGREE with, and tell me why.” The students write down the expectations, shove their books and computers into their book bags then wait silently for the bell. Then, like Pavlov’s dog, when it rings, they react.

Find something they agree with. That’s the point of the whole lesson, even more so than evaluating the songs they listen to. More than anything, I want them to identify with someone unknown and different, and not to critique, and not to pick apart. I want them to put together.

“Critique” derives from Ancient Greek κριτική (kritikē), meaning "the faculty of judgment", that is, discerning the value of persons or things. Often, it seems, value is placed upon persons or things we agree with, we understand. And if we can’t understand it, we break it down to something that we can.

. . . I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith . . .

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day . . .

Steve Turner said it best, “Positively, the world is all that God made and Christ came to redeem. This includes culture because humans have never lived in isolation from each other, and when they get together they automatically create culture. It would be impossible to think of loving humans and yet hating human culture, of loving individuals and yet hating their music, songs, stories, paintings, games, rituals, decorations, clothes, language and hairstyles. God made us cultural beings” (Imagine, 44).

It’s easy to find differences, to identify beliefs and lifestyles that run contrary to our own, and it’s easy to fixate on them, to emphasis the dissimilarities. It’s easy to break someone down to a simple stereotype, but the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, it’s that they are incomplete, and that they focus on how we are different. Not how we are similar. Because it’s hard to empathize, to sympathize, and to allow for something we don’t understand.

But isn’t that what makes things beautiful? When we don’t understand it? If we can, it becomes simple. It becomes boring. It becomes a deathless death.

. . . And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of

the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!