Licking an apple confers no nutrition. Biting, chewing and swallowing it does.
The same is true with all learning . Getting to the meat of the matter, and consuming it, is required before there is any nourishment conveyed.
To have read STOLEN LEGACY was an achievement for me; to have taught it was even better. But, until I had read the works that the late, great author George G. M. James had cited therein, for myself, I was doing little more than licking the glossy, outer surface of that apple.
Similarly, to admire geometry in the abstract, while failing to acquire or to apply its principles in my own life is the same thing as licking the outside of an apple. Euclid's 13-volume classic, THE ELEMENTS, was abstracted from earlier African sources that predated his presumed 4th century existence over 2,000 years; since they had been already applied in Egypto-Nubian structures, navigation, astronomy, calendars.
Culturally, saying that "so-and-so was black" based on what you have heard or once read somewhere, may help your tortured self-esteem a little, temporarily. But, the same forces who have denied personhood to you are still as active as viruses!
You must fashion your own antidote by acquiring basic understanding. Basic understanding does not come from licking the outside of the apple, neither does nourishment, my friend!
Bite, chew, and swallow that "apple" so that God may grant the increase!
Monday, October 20, 2014
BITE THAT APPLE
BITE THAT APPLE!
Licking an apple confers no nutrition. Biting, chewing and swallowing it does.
The same is true with all learning . Getting to the meat of the matter, and consuming it, is required before there is any nourishment conveyed.
To have read STOLEN LEGACY was an achievement for me; to have taught it was even better. But, until I had read the works that the late, great author George G. M. James had cited therein, for myself, I was doing little more than licking the glossy, outer surface of that apple.
Similarly, to admire geometry in the abstract, while failing to acquire or to apply its principles in my own life is the same thing as licking the outside of an apple. Euclid's 13-volume classic, THE ELEMENTS, was abstracted from earlier African sources that predated his presumed 4th century existence over 2,000 years; since they had been already applied in Egypto-Nubian structures, navigation, astronomy, calendars.
Culturally, saying that "so-and-so was black" based on what you have heard or once read somewhere, may help your tortured self-esteem a little, temporarily. But, the same forces who have denied personhood to you are still as active as viruses!
You must fashion your own antidote by acquiring basic understanding. Basic understanding does not come from licking the outside of the apple, neither does nourishment, my friend!
Bite, chew, and swallow that "apple" so that God may grant the increase!
Licking an apple confers no nutrition. Biting, chewing and swallowing it does.
The same is true with all learning . Getting to the meat of the matter, and consuming it, is required before there is any nourishment conveyed.
To have read STOLEN LEGACY was an achievement for me; to have taught it was even better. But, until I had read the works that the late, great author George G. M. James had cited therein, for myself, I was doing little more than licking the glossy, outer surface of that apple.
Similarly, to admire geometry in the abstract, while failing to acquire or to apply its principles in my own life is the same thing as licking the outside of an apple. Euclid's 13-volume classic, THE ELEMENTS, was abstracted from earlier African sources that predated his presumed 4th century existence over 2,000 years; since they had been already applied in Egypto-Nubian structures, navigation, astronomy, calendars.
Culturally, saying that "so-and-so was black" based on what you have heard or once read somewhere, may help your tortured self-esteem a little, temporarily. But, the same forces who have denied personhood to you are still as active as viruses!
You must fashion your own antidote by acquiring basic understanding. Basic understanding does not come from licking the outside of the apple, neither does nourishment, my friend!
Bite, chew, and swallow that "apple" so that God may grant the increase!