KNOW ALL THE FACTS

KNOW ALL THE FACTS Knowing the facts, from as many as different points of view as possible, precisely endows understanding, while directing all actions effectively. This fact is true in medicine, in auto mechanics, mathematics or baking. It is true in any realm of endeavor . Not knowing all facts is disastrous.

ENCOMIUMS TO OUR GREATNESS

ENCOMIUMS TO OUR GREATNESS The cacophony of Constitutional exclusions experienced by black Americans is bewilderingly long. These exclusions cropped up after the Civil War, which the North later won, because of the 200,000 black soldiers and sailors, whom Lincoln had enrolled out of a sheer "military necessity," after January 1, 1863; though discriminatorily paid, shod, clothed, armed, trained, and led by many indifferent, or even racist, exclusively white, officers, into battle against their former masters. Still they won victory in Vicksburg, Nashville, Petersburg, Richmond. In the interest of peace, profits, and the regular resumption the very profitable business of white power privileges, the Northern capitalists instructed their political cronies--Republicans and Democrats--to sacrifice the now "free blacks" on the altar of white manifest destiny. Part of that "manifest destiny" was also to effect a final resolution to the troublesome question: "What is to be done to, for, or with, the black, now former, slaves?" Their solution was to betray these black national salvors back to the South, who "best knew how to handle" them. And so that's what they did. "The colored people are left, in the States where they have been disfranchised, absolutely without representation, direct or indirect, in any law-making body, in any court of justice, in any branch of government... Constituting one-eighth of the population of the whole country, two-fifths of the whole Southern people, and a majority in several States, they are not able, because disfranchised where most numerous, to send one representative to Congress, which, by the decision on the Alabama case, [Jackson v. Giles] is held to be the only body, outside of the State itself, competent to give relief from a great political wrong. By former decisions of the same tribunal, even Congress is impotent to protect their civil rights, the Fourteenth Amendment having long since, by the consent of the same Court, been in many respects as completely nullified as the Fifteenth Amendment is now sought to be. They have no direct representation in any Southern legislature, and no voice in determining the choice of white men who might be friendly to their rights. Nor are they able to influence the election of judges or other public officials, to whom are entrusted the protection of their lives, their liberties, and their property. No judge is rendered careful, no sheriff diligent, for fear that he might offend a black constituency; the contrary is most lamentably true; day after day the catalogue of lynchings and anti-Negro riots upon every imaginable pretext, grows longer and more appalling. The country stands face to face with the revival of slavery; at the moment of this writing a federal grand jury in Alabama is uncovering a system of peonage established under cover of law." P. 877-878, "Disfranchisement of the Negro, 1903," CHARLES W. CHESTNUT :STORIES, NOVELS & ESSAYS (2002) Harry Houdini's death-defying escapes do not begin to rival the survival skills exhibited by our forbears in bringing us, indeed, delivering us from the precipice of white-hot hell fires of extinction ; which extinction white scientists and savants had so learnedly and so assuredly predicted for blacks! No historical example in human or in inhuman history is comparable to our real-life, daily-documented, tragic testimonials and encomiums!

HOWEVER IT IS ACQUIRED USE IT

USE IT HOWEVER IT IS ACQUIRED The famed question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg," has acquired the status of conundrum. Being a riddle, it also seems to asks "Whether teachers had teachers?" The riddle, question, conundrum, has to do with formation, creation, sequences linearity, priority, time; also with content. All chickens have come from eggs. All chicken eggs are from chickens. But, whether all who are teaching have been taught, would seem to depend upon the subject matter. Thus, there seems to be an apparent divergence within our attempt to combine biology with pedagogy, or education, based upon the character of each exemplars' acquired contents. Certainly all content is acquired, although some content is innate. While biology determines the forms of life, environment determines the lessons of life. Both need nurture, just as both need some nurturing. So whether chickens' or teachers' contents are acquired or innate is but another expression, or refinement of our primary question, riddle, or conundrum. Some people are prodigies. That is, they are born with musical, artistic, even, mathematical genius, which is seen in them, exhibited by them, at very early ages, without any formal training. Prodigies do teach some people. A few people have natural gifts that enable them to hear, to see, to feel, taste, smell, to sense, in sensitivities more highly developed than usual, and thereby to deduce, to induce, certain connections, associations. Still others with common sensibilities have used them, to such an extent of excellence, they are later deemed prodigies. Just as surely, there are yet most who occupy many other niches. Fact is: life is itself a gift. All living things are prodigious prodigies. If one buries one's gift in a napkin, in the earth, one squanders the gift that one has been given by God. It matters not what religious, or other symbols are exhibited on the outside of that buried napkin! https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biblegateway.com/passage/%3Fsearch%3DMatthew%2B25%3A14-30%26version%3DESV%26interface%3Damp?client=safari However your eggs may arrive, cook them up, eat them up, as nourishment. However, teachers acquire content learn from them, so you may teach others, in turn.. The answers to the chicken/egg question and the teacher/taught question, riddle, conundrum is now confirmed, if confused, in us.

RUMINATING ON OUR "RIGHTS"

RUMINATING ON OUR "RIGHTS" While reading in "Charles W. Chesnutt's Own View of His New Story, 'The MARROW of TRADITION,'" dated October 20, 1901, I noticed that he wrote: "Tradition made the white people masters, rulers, who absorbed all the power , the wealth, the honors of the community , and jealously guarded this monopoly, with which they claimed to be divinely endowed, by denying to those who were not of their caste the opportunity to acquire any of these desirable things. "Tradition, on the other hand, made the Negro a slave, an underling, existing by favor and not by right, his place the lowest in the social scale, to which, by the same divine warrant, he was hopelessly confined." P.872 "Rights," were not, even then, associated with the Negro, who "existed by favor," while "all" "desirable things" were divinely "monopolized by the whites." On first reading, these contrasts slipped by me. But, in the first paragraph of his next essay, "The Disfranchisement of the Negro," Charles W. Chesnutt, an attorney and an author writes : "The right of American citizens of African descent , now commonly called Negroes, to vote upon the same terms as other citizens of the United States, is plainly declared and firmly fixed by the Constitution." P.874 "Rights" are "favors" relegated to Negroes, in this 1903 essay, while the whites are termed "other citizens of the United States." I draw attention to these piddling word nuances, because the word "rights" --cum "favors"-- flip frequently, too easily from the lips of too many of my people who do not appreciate that their so-called "rights" are colored codes confined to their caste, that, by "tradition," has too-long lacked the "desirable things," held by "others." Stated directly, he says: "the desirable things...all the power, the wealth, the honors of the community" are for whites . The "rights" are for Negroes. Such was the case in 1901, 1903, and yet remains painfully similar in 2016. CHARLES W. CHESNUTT: STORIES , NOVELS, ESSAYS (2002)

NOT FROM ZERO BUT FROM GOD

NOT FROM ZERO BUT FROM GOD If you start at zero and end at zero, anything in between is mysterious. 0 + 0; 0 x 0; 0\0; 0-0 = 0 Thus, life begins with something. It does not begin as nothing, as seen. Nothing comes from nothing but nothing. Everything comes from something, be it seen or unseen; known or unknown; felt or unfelt. Given its physical, mental, spiritual complexity at maturity, human life, if not all "life" on earth, certainly begins with wondrous abundance. All that life later becomes is latent within it; already in it, programmed awaiting "perfection", by detection, inspection, erection on one plane; also awaiting adduction; suction; friction, irruption, on another plane. Maturation is marvelous, magical, mysterious. In order to mature fully, properly, humans must be loved, laved, fed, watered, worked, played with, trained, taught, tried, trusted. These rigors, rites of passage, may take place on many levels, physical, mental, spiritual, social, environmental, practical, theoretical, educational, musical, governmental, business, professional, vocational, financial, to name a few of many exposures, experiences needed in whole/part. We are richly blessed at birth by God with innate power that needs continuous renewal to realize its potency, to appreciate its primacy. Each life is primally magnificent. Each is singularly unique in space, time, energy, matter, the universe. Respect each life as divine. Begin with yourself, that you may respect other humans, as you do yourself . You come not from zero, but God!

REBIRTH

AFTER REBIRTH NO CONCERN One may come in one way and leave another way; or the same. This is true for entering a car or building: but is it true for life? One may not again enter into its mother's womb, as Jesus answered Nicodemus, to be born again; but one may indeed be reborn of water and spirit; water to wash; spirit to ignite. But why worry about matters beyond our ken, care, or concern? After rebirth why be concerned? Since we all were sent here from a place that we do not know. And since we all only found out that we were here, subsequent to birth; and since we do not know where we are going, if anywhere, after we leave this life on Earth, would not it be more propitious that we concern ourselves with that which we do now know, instead of the unknown? I'm just asking. Especially since, even if we knew answers to any of the above, we would be unable to do anything about it in the least!

MY PHILOSOPHICAL FULMINATIONS WITH PLOTINUS

MY PHILOSOPHICAL FULMINATIONS ON PLOTINUS If I lay aside Plotinus' classic work, THE ENNEADS, as being "linear," therefore unworthy of my time, am I not being ludicrously hubristic? Is Plotinus not one of the greatest African savants, philosophers in history over the last 1800 years? So what of Plotinus' pristine praise of "sophrosyny," (Greek word for philosophical abstraction of primal purity) as genesis, finality, God 's essence, as fountains of beauty? All energy is reusable is it not, even his? Especially his! So tag alone. If you do not like the present view, read on, as you did when reading the Bible, and encountered tough spots, rough places, disagreement. For, indeed, Plotinus' friend and fellow scholar, Origen, also had his issues under your linear litmus test. Origen's theological classic ON FIRST PRINCIPLES, is also linear! And on it or in it Augustine exulted! Bear in mind that "I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end," is the summation of it all; its being "quantum," is most compatible with your non-linear cosmic conception. "I am the Alpha and the Omega; the First and the Last; the Beginning and the End." Rev. 22:13. Plotinus' quotation that caused my philosophical fulmination reads : "6. For, as the ancient teaching was, moral-discipline and courage and every virtue, not even excepting Wisdom, all is purification. "Hence the Mysteries with good reason adumbrate the immersion of the unpurified in filth, even in the Nether-World, since the unclean loves filth for its filthiness, and swine foul of body find their joy in foulness. "What else is Sophrosyny, rightly so-called, but to take no part in the pleasures of the body, to break away from them as unclean and unworthy of the clean? So too, Courage is but being fearless of the death which is but the parting of the Soul from the body, an event which no one can dread whose delight is to be his unmingled self. And Magnanimity is but disregard of the lure of the things here. And Wisdom is but the Act of the Intellectual-Principle withdrawn from the lower places and leading the Soul to the Above. "The Soul thus cleansed is all Idea and Reason, wholly free of body, intellective, entirely of that divine order from which the wellspring of Beauty arises and all the race of Beauty. "Hence the Soul heightened to the Intellectual-Principle is beautiful in all its power. For Intellection and all that proceeds from Intellection are the Soul's beauty, a graciousness native to it and not foreign, for only with these is it truly Soul. And it is just to say that in the Soul's becoming a good and beautiful thing is its becoming like to God, for from the Divine comes all Beauty and all Good in beings...." P.51-52, "Beauty ." Plotinus ascribes to God only the Good and the Beautiful, not the Evil nor the Ugly. What then is the source of these, the evil and the ugly, if not God? Is God less than omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent? I say not. Plotinus ' postulate of pristine purity is misplaced on our planet. Here, even gold is alloyed; here, air and water have impurities. Man does too. So too his lachrymose elegiac elucidation of Beauty's provenance.

ORDER NUMBER 11 AND ME

http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/general-order-no-11 A huge replica of this famous painting by George Caleb Bingham hung for years in the Cass County, Circuit Court in Harrisonville, Missouri, that was prominently placed to be seen by all. Yet, each time that I inquired about it, no one seemed to know what was being depicted. Later, I learned that it depicted the forced evacuation of 4 western Missouri counties by Gen.. Ewing in General Order No.11, after Lawrence, Kansas, was burned down in August 1863 by William Quantrill and his gang of Confederate irregulars, whose support and troops were drawn largely from these western Missouri counties that General Ewing ordered evacuated 1 week later, after 200 abolitionist men were killed in Lawrence. Cass, Bates, Jackson, Clay were the counties that were evacuated, which is masterfully depicted herein.

2012 BUTLER, MISSOURI, CIVIL WAR COMMEMORATION PHOTOGRAPH OF LARRY DELANO COLEMAN

Back from a program commemorating the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry's historic "Battle of Island Mound, Missouri" in Butler, Missouri, Bates County, October 28-29, 1862, the first black troops to fight (and win!) in the Civil War: 150 years later! Photo taken in 2012.

ENOUGH

WHEN ENOUGH IS ENOUGH When is enough enough? How do we know ? Do not we feel when it is? Feel when enough is enough? Yes, we do! Whether it be drinking, eating, sleeping, exercising, enough is enough, when our body says so. We may ignore or override such signals to cease and to desist , if we wish. But there is a price to pay for our obstinacy, disobedience! The same fact is true for talking, preaching, playing, and hurting! When enough is enough, that's it!

TABLE OF BROTHERHOOD

TABLE OF BROTHERHOOD Salt was used to preserve meat, fruits, and vegetables long before refrigerators, as was drying in the sun, or smoking in closed doors. Curing it was called and it included canning, and dehydration methods. Similarly, it may be said that certain aspects of renown civilizations of ancient Africa have been "cured," by conquests from abroad by the: Assyrian , Persian, Greek, Roman, Arabian, Turk, French, or British, over the past 2,000 years, and carried away. African civilizations date back 10's of thousands of years, as reflected in architectural structures, glyphs, script, artifacts, tools, art, genetics. It is very well that its seeds, meats, fruits, or vegetables were so sown, that its sapid civilizations were kept abroad, as to inseminate the rest of humanity, to nourish it and feed it. Doubtless, the dinner time is nigh! At which point, all may dine as one!

"IT IS ALWAYS SAFE TO DO RIGHT"

"IT IS ALWAYS SAFE TO DO RIGHT" "I was pained to hear of the capture of these fugitives, and inquired of some of the Friends of the village why they did not take them in and secrete them, when they were pursued , and then aid them in their way to Canada? I found out they were afraid of the penalty of the law. I told them that I read in the Bible as a boy that it was right to take in the stranger and administer to those in distress , and that I thought it was always safe to do right . The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow the teachings of the good book. I was willing to receive and aid as many fugitives as were disposed to come to my house. I knew that my wife's feelings and sympathies regarding this matter were the same as mine, and that she was willing to do her part. It soon became known to the colored people in our neighborhood and others, that our house was a depot where the hunted and harassed fugitive journeying northward on the Underground Railroad, could find succor and sympathy. It also became known at the other depots on the various lines that converged at Newport [Indiana]." P.72, REMINISCENCES OF LEVI COFFIN (2006) abridged and edited by Ben Richmond .

OLD TRUTHS AND DR. KING

OLD TRUTHS AND DR KING Reading Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last book, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY? (1967), I have detected in his writing, a palpable sense of despondent unease, in a few isolated places. One such place of Rev. King's this : "It is sometimes difficult to determine which are the deepest wounds, the physical or the psychological. Only a Negro understands the social leprosy that segregation inflicts upon him. Like a nagging ailment, it follows his every activity, leaving him tormented by day, and haunted by night. The suppressed fears and resentments and the expressed anxieties and sensitivities make each day a life of turmoil. Every confrontation with the restrictions against him is another emotional battle in a never-ending war. Nothing can be more diabolical than a deliberate attempt to destroy in any man his will to be a man and to withhold from him that something which constitutes his true essence ." P. 116-117, "Racism and White Backlash." "To withhold from him that something which constitutes his true essence," described above, is not man-made. It is God-given. "The world didn't give it to me, and the world can't take it away." Thus sang Shirley Caesar in concert; so lived our forebears in concert with Shirley Caesar and she with them! Even Dr. King could have benefited from relearning these old African American truths, as might we all!

TREES

THE TOP OF THE TREE IS UNWISE TO ABUSE ITS BASE.

TIME AND NUMBERS

TIME AND NUMBERS No moment in time is any more momentous than the next. Each is connected to all the rest, on whom it is dependent on for context and for content. Be it the World Series, Super Bowl, Christmas, New Years. The same is true for numbers.

IDEAS ABOUT IDEAS

IDEAS ABOUT IDEAS Time and numbers are subliminal substrates that are foundational. Energy and matter are condensed cosmic forms of time and numbers of which each consists in essence. Ideas are real, being time, numbers energy and matter; thus comes the expression: "Don't get any ideas." Ideas stream constantly from us, to us, and through us. Some ideas are congealed in us; made perfect by us. Yet, most ideas stay inert. We humans are congealed ideas, as is all else that is, was, ever shall be.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN RACISM

Once we understand that "racism" was invented in America in the 17th century--having nowhere existed previously in Europe; although it did exist in certain Islamic communities from the 9th century forward, to judge from Al-Jahiz's retaliatory 9th century work, titled THE SUPERIORITY OF THE BLACK OVER THE WHITE, where he strikes back against white racism in Islam --we become free. The truth will have set us free! While colonial rulers found it to be expedient to use the false construct of racism to divide black indentured servants from white indentured servants to maintain power, to justify disparity, and to facilitate control over both groups by preferring one over the other in law and business. President Thomas Jefferson hints at this fact subliminally and tacitly in his book: NOTES OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA (1785), in "Query XIV." Upon such a true and correct understanding of racism's beginning, especially that the first "servant for life"--black slave-- was owned by a black man the 1660's, Anthony Johnson, which was awarded by reason of a Virginia court decision, this nation's subsequent history also becomes plain, including the present Presidential sweepstakes of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, which rests upon these premises.

PRESS ON

PRESS ON! There is no more shame in trying again and succeeding later, than there is succeeding on the first time, right away. Hitting a baseball or scoring a basket on some later attempt than the first, counts as much as at first; or converting on a fourth down than on earlier downs. "Be not weary in well-doing," the Bible says, however many times it may take, however long it may take! Press on toward the calling of the high prize that is in Christ Jesus !

ARISTOTLE, "NICHOMACHAEN ETHICS," EXCERPT

"And we must also remember what has been said before, and not look for precision in all things alike, but in each class of things such precision as accords with the subject matter, and so much as is appropriate to the inquiry. For a carpenter and a geometer investigate the right angle in different ways; the former does so in so far as the right angle is useful for his work, while the latter inquires what it is or what sort of thing it is; for he is a spectator of the truth. We must act in the same way, then, in all other matters as well, that our main task may not be subordinated to minor questions. Nor must we demand the cause in all matters alike; it is enough in some cases that the 'fact' be well established, as in the case of first principles; the fact is the primary thing or first principle. Now of first principles we see some by induction, some by perception, some by a certain habituation, and others too in other ways. But each set of principles we must try to investigate in the natural way, and we must take pains to state them definitely, since they have a great influence on what follows. For the beginning is thought to be more than half of the whole, and many of the questions we ask are cleared up by it." P. 943-944, "Nicomachaen Ethics," THE BASIC WORKS OF ARISTOTLE (1941, 2001)

HEAD NURSE

THE HEAD NURSE! Heels clicking smartly, rhythmically upon my hospital's highly polished linoleum floor, announce her imminent advent, announce the coming of the dreaded head nurse. She had been called in, after the empathetic lesser nurses found me to be resistant to the placement of a garden hose-looking implement, they called a catheter in my penis. She had swept breezily, confidently into my room with a seasoned boldness and professional panache that bespoke, that was indeed so no-nonsense, "in command," that it squashed all dissent and protest. The curtains fluttered, anticipating. Flipping back the covers of my bed, after the barest of introductions, she then proceeded to grab my circumstances with one hand, and that garden-hose looking catheter in the other; and before I could fix to holler, she was done and gone, down the hall, clicking those heels! Head nurses do not play!

ANTHONY CRAWFORD'S ABBEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, LYNCHING OF 1916

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Crawford_(lynching_victim) MANY OF OUR BEST, MOST INDUSTRIOUS BLACK MEN WERE LYNCHED BY JEALOUS, DELUSIONAL WHITE MOBS DURING "THE NADIR"--THE PERIOD AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, BEFORE THE 1960'S CIVIL RIGHTS AND BLACK POWER MOVEMENTS. ANTHONY CRAWFORD OF ABBEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA IS ONE EXAMPLE. THERE WERE LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF OTHER APICAL LYNCHINGS , BURNING, DROWNINGS, JAILINGS, OF SUCH MEN, THAT STUNTED OUR RESURGENCE.

IMAGINATION'S INVAGINATION

IMAGINATION'S INVAGINATION Metaphors may be mined as easily from fact as from fiction, from mythology as from history, from mathematics as philosophy, from music as from science, and from nature as from Holy Scriptures. The imagination of mankind is an invagination of God from and to which comes and flows all else.

DONALD TRUMP IS PHANTASMAGORIC

DONALD TRUMP IS PHANTASMAORIC Donald Trump, Republican Party Presidential nominee in 2016, is true to his ancient German roots as a raider, party-crasher, a plunderer, akin to the Vandals and Visigoths . The American oligarchs, who have traditionally ruled the political and economic systems of the United States, are as much intimidated by Donald Trump as phantasmagoric as are the non-oligarchs who, are fearful of his feral filibustering of Muslims, immigrants, women, and some traditional black Democrats. Money respects only more money. Money Donald Trump certainly has; but how much? Who knows? He has had certainly enough to be able to avoid paying federal income taxes for decades, in accordance with law. In so doing, he has let the pussy cat out of the velvet bag on how the rich ruling oligarchs have kept their money, and have made more money, by not paying taxes, and by investing wealth overseas . But, money apart, he has wrecked havoc on the Republican Party, as surely as Alaric did such on Rome. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaric_I

GRANDPARENTS

Grandparents are like Mt. Everest, Mt. Denali, and Mt. Kilimanjaro, all rolled into one; being the parents of their parents, we enjoy divine status with them! And rightly so! We produced them. Love , teach, protect, amuse them, whenever possible! Never will they forget the least of these acts!

HOSEA 4 (REJECT KNOWLEDGE FORGET GOD) AFRICAN BIBLICAL PROPHESY FULFILLED

5 So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7 The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.…HOSEA 4:

RARE AIR

RARE AIR In 1772, in the famous "James Somerset Case" involving a black slaves's "freedom suit," Britain's Judge Mansfield in an epochal ruling in James Somerset's favor, claimed that "the air of England was too free for a slave to breathe," but slavery was allowed, if not encouraged in its colonies." Now, that was some very rare air, indeed! This written decision sparked America's "revolution" as its entire economy--in the North and the South--was slave-based, and these "Founding Father" colonists feared its eventual application over here! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart

JESUS PIERCES BONE MARROW

JESUS PIERCES BONE MARROW Since the life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment , then Jesus' admonition to "feed my sheep, feed my lambs " resonates beyond the physical planes into other planes, mental and spiritual. Its subject matter is tacit in the holy admonition, that is, bread for life and bread of life; clothes to wear and clothes that do not wear out. Although he was speaking in one time and place, his thoughts have distilled within the here and now, transcending even time and space. Light cannot be hid any more than its radiation contained, whose half-life lasts many thousands of years. Jesus reflects and refracts the gifts of God into man, via natural images linking all that is, was, shall be, as one kindred creation all born to die. Jesus pierces me to the marrow of my bones, in love, power, wisdom. Not just for me alone but to all who seek his radiance in the simple way of life; in the ordinary things of life. AMEN 🙏🏿

SUFFICIENCY V. EQUALITY

SUFFICIENCY V. "EQUALITY" The pernicious illusion of some mythical "equality" has seriously impinged upon our present appreciation of what sapient sufficiency we do now possess. I term equality "mythical," because it is merely an abstraction. No two persons have, nor have access to, the same thing, in the same quality or quantity, at the same time and place, even in the same family, as reflected in the allegory of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis. I posit that sufficiency is more ideal, is more real than "equality," which is illusory and unattainable. Exodus 16:16-18 explains what I mean by "sufficiency." It states: "This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of persons that each of you has in his tent. And the people of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack . Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.'" https://www.google.com/…/%3fsearch=Exodus+16%3A16-18&versio… I follow up on the question of "Equality v. Sufficiency" with a decidedly non-Biblical reference from BONDAGE IN EGYPT: SLAVERY IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS by Darrell Dexter (2011). He writes: "The slave population in Illinois continued to increase, despite limits on importation. The 1752 census of Illinois Country shows the largest slave population in Kaskaskia, with 246 black slaves, over 40% of the village's population ... Forty-one percent of Illinois households had slaves, although most owned only a few slaves, and eight masters owned nearly half of all the slaves." P.34 The point being made is that he who pursues "equality" chases a mirage, a phantom , an abstraction; but he who seeks sufficiency will find plenty for he and his family! Equality is "keeping up with the Jones," while not enjoying what you have. Granted, the Declaration of Independence does say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal..." These stirring words were written either by President Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, or by Thomas Paine, his imported, eloquent surrogate. The escaped slave and literary tour de force, William Wells Brown, may have put it best, in a speech that he gave to the Antislavery Society of America on May 8, 1862, viz: "All I demand for the black man is, that the white people take their heels off his neck, and let him have a chance to rise by his own efforts. (Applause.) One of the first things that I heard when I arrived in the free States--and it was the strangest thing to me that I heard--was, that the slaves cannot take care of themselves. I came off without any education. Society did not take me up; I took myself up. ( Laughter.) I did not ask society to take me up . All I asked of the white people was to get out of the way, and give me a chance to come from the South to the North. That was all I asked, and I went to work with my own hands. And that is all I demand for my brethren of the South today--that they shall have an opportunity to exercise their own physical and mental abilities. Give them that, and I will leave the slaves to take care of themselves, and be satisfied with the result." P. 949-950. WILLIAM WELLS BROWN: CLOTEL & OTHER WRITINGS (2014) Self-Sufficiency beats mythical "equality," going away, any day!

PRO AND CON

Pro and con are dichotomies that distort, contort disparate realities into controllable duality. Life is much more complex than vapid pro and con, or vapid black and white; though each are present in the spectrum of divine light. But, as the electromagnetic spectrum is infinitely broader than visible light, so too is human possibility.

TRIAL AND ERROR

TRIAL AND ERROR Trial and error is a great teacher . Trial and error may have been the very first teacher, after our parents , who also learned by trial and error. Like who learned the chicken and its egg was edible? Trial and error ? Who first learned how to farm or fish or trap or hunt or build or kill? Doubtless it was by trial and error. The problem with trial and error is not so much the trial, though it has hazards enough of its own, as the inevitable error, which does arise! The error can burn, bite, poison , flee, agitate, sting, attack, rebel. Truth has consequence as well as rewards. So does trial and error .

Isaiah 40:28-31

Isaiah 40:28-31New International Version (NIV) 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

AYI KWEI ARMAH

SELECTING EFFECTIVE LEADERS Elected leadership is compromised not just electorally, structurally, socially, financially in the United States of America, but it has also been compromised legally, judicially, historically, as well. Are there not other, more efficient, ways to select political leaders than by popular elections? Those who are, once, elected are beholden to the financial interests who helped them, once, and may never again, if that elected person is not obedient. Compounding the financial overlay is the underlying structural edifice, whereby the electoral college is an invisible, barely understood check on runaway populism; and judiciary with the power to gerrymander districts and to decide outcomes. So, the American republican form of government so broadly bragged about to the world, is not really so democratic, as its Greek ideal would seem to be, which Greek ideal, itself, was less than idyllic, judging from the fate of Socrates! "Rigged elections" for black people go back to "Reconstruction," when the white power, unreconstructed, U. S. Supreme Court, ignored the Colfax, Louisiana, murders of 200 black elected officials, by banishing the former rebel soldiers, who were perpetrators' federal prosecutions in 1867. Bloody end to civil hope! These thoughts have come to mind, as I reflect upon a passage from THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIBES by Ayi Kwei Armah (2006) of Ghana and the world. He writes: "It was a sore point with my mother that I refused to take seriously the idea of my family being so-called natural rulers. Discussions with her on the subject were uneasy and infrequent . Once or twice she cut them short in anger. The trouble was that though I was quiet, I could be a rather articulate , undiplomatic child. Our family 's claim to authority was founded not on warfare but on the fact that our ancestors had made migrations, founded settlements, and stayed committed to cultural values our people considered vital. I made it clear that while I thought all this a splendid achievement--'for them'--I considered the notion that their social status could be passed down to us, their physical descendants, not through any achievement of our own but simply because we were of their blood, a case of social fraud. In the beginning, my mother laughed off my arguments as exhibitions of childish foolishness. She firmly expected me to grow out of such silly egalitarian ideas . When, in my early adult years, she understood that I was not about to change my thinking about status, the notion of natural rulers, hereditary power and social privilege, her disappointment turned to fury. I doubt whether I can really say I survived the impact of a proud mother 's expectant love turned to rage." P. 28-29, "Myth, Literature, and the African Child." In light of the foregoing, I again ask the same question as posed at the outset, viz: are there not more efficient ways of selecting political leadership than described above?

DONALD TRUMP--KING OF THE WORLD?

KING MIDAS DONALD TRUMP Why be elected President of the United States, when you can as easily become King of the World? So goes the sub-rosa subtext of the highly improbable Donald Trump campaign for President. It is the Trojan horse (pun intended) of our time. The man is about money! He is about the propagation of his family brand--the TRUMP brand--all around the world: USA, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia! President is a public relations coup that he fell into. His GOP competitors had Tea-partied themselves into a political corner, from which they could not escape! Unburdened by that bilious ballast, Donald Trump stepped up being rancid racist, being the straight up demagogue , firing red-meat to the ravenous horde of mainstream GOP ideologues and idealists, who had bought into the Trump tripe! Hail King 👑 of the world! Midas Trump!

CONFESS AND UNLOCK

When you confess to something that you do not know, you subconsciously unlock your mind to be able to know something new.

LIFE IN PLURIPOTENT PARI PASSU

LIFE IN PLURIPOTENT PARI PASSU Life is not linear, but pluripotent on this earthly plane, inhabiting even very out of the way folds, crevices, niches, below the microscopic level in every climate, extreme or biome. Life's variety, life's vast versatility, amazing amenability in adapting to changed conditions, to be able to thrive: to sustain, to defend bodily integrity or to reproduce itself, may suggest an intelligence 'pari passu' latent within itself that logic cannot account for as other than as divine. No less of divine origin are we men, we Homo sapiens, whose history is in 'pari passu' with that of all other life, in any form a life may assume. Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed., 2004) defines pari passu as "proportionally; at an equal pace; without preference".

RESTATEMENTS

RESTATEMENTS SINCE THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN, EVERYTHING THAT IS NOW WRITTEN OR SPOKEN IS A BUT ANOTHER RESTATEMENT OF WHAT HAS EXISTED BEFORE, IN ANY FIELD, IN ANY FORMAT, AT ANY TIME OR PLACE.

DUBOIS' 'COUP D'ETAT'

I was struck by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois' curious characterization of the Southern-initiated Civil War as "a political 'coup d'etat,' which failed in the war of 1861-1865," in his epic, THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE (1896), p.154. While the term 'coup d'etat' has often and accurately been applied to the 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, conflagration where white mobs lynched or shot black local elected officials, homeowners, and businessmen, burned down their structures, killing untold numbers of black people or running others into the swamps for refuge, I had never seen it applied to 1861-1865. However, the more that I mull that curious characterization of 'coup d'etat,' the less anomalous it now seems, particularly in the light of ensuing events like the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the near-assassination of William Seward, Lincoln 's Secretary of State on the same date and hour; and the ascent of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency, a Tennesseean. One might well wonder whether the 'coup d'etat' in fact failed, given his further cogent observation about the South, which was also true of the North, then, as well as now: "she refused to support vigorously the execution of the laws she had helped to make, and at the same time she acknowledged the theoretical necessity of those laws." Id. P.155

SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, EXCERPT...

"The history of slavery and of the slave trade after 1820 must be read in light of the industrial revolution through which the civilized world passed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Between the years 1775 and 1825 occurred events and changes of the highest importance and widest influence. Though all branches of industry felt the impulse of this new industrial life, yet, 'if we consider single industries, cotton manufactures has, during the nineteenth century, made the most magnificent and gigantic advances.' This fact is easily explained by the remarkable series of inventions that revolutionized this industry between 1738 and 1830, including Arkwright 's, Watt's, Compton's, and Cartwright 's epoch-making contrivances. The effect which these inventions had on the manufacture of cotton goods is best illustrated by the fact that in England, the chief cotton maker of the world, the consumption of raw cotton rose steadily from 13,000 bales in 1781, to 572,000 in 1820, to 871,000 in 1830, and to 3,366,000 in 1860.... "[In] the second quarter of the century Southern slavery was irresistibly changed from a family institution to an industrial system. "The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been viewed so exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint that we are apt to forget its close and indissoluble connection with the world 's cotton market." P.152-153, "Rise of the Cotton Kingdom, SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois (1896)

REDEMPTION SONGS, excerpt....

Much divine courage, inspiration, understanding, love, and faith are to be derived from the diligent reading of the holy scriptures of the Bible, if aided with the diligent reading and the careful study of complete African American history. The essence of each such discrete category, when combined, makes a strong bond, a common accord. Each category is based upon strong written accounts of human struggle and suffering against great adversity and ultimately the triumph of the good over the evil. The book, REDEMPTION SONGS : SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT by Lea Vandervelde, Esq. (2014), fortunately, tells the true stories of former slaves who successfully sued for freedom in Missouri Courts, before the anomalous Dred Scott decision ruled against Scott, leading to war. These stories are comparable to any Bible miracle in that these are actual, documented occurrences, rather than allegorical constructs. The example of "John Merry, also known as Jean Marie, Free Born," is illustrative: "John initiated efforts toward freedom by offering to buy his family 's way out of slavery.... He told his new master, Pensonneau, that he would not work for him, but he would pay him the price that he had paid for his family. He offered him money and some horses in exchange for the freedom of his family. The agreement was that John would pay Pensonneau $450 over three years, $900 in total, their full appraised value . He gave his master the down payment of $230 immediately , $200 in cash and $30 in the value of two horses. John said that Pensonneau had 'liberated' him, which perhaps means simply that he released him, and he left for St. Louis to earn the rest. "There are many ironies in the river crossings in this story that run contrary to stereotypical expectations about slaves and free territory.... The first irony in this story is that as a recently 'liberated' Illinois slave , John Merry left Illinois for an urban area in a slave state where he could expect to earn the money necessary to complete the purchase of his freedom.... A second irony , not only did St. Louis draw free Blacks because it provided better economic opportunities, as John's treatment will indicate the slave state of Missouri actually offered slaves more receptive venues to litigate their freedom than did Illinois at the time. "Despite the contractual agreement and taking the down payment, Louis Pensonneau refused to honor the agreement, and came after John Merry in St. Louis to reclaim him.... "Under Illinois law specifically the Illinois black code, John Merry's contract was not legally enforceable. The Illinois code rendered all contracts between masters and servants during the time of service void. If John Merry was a servant for life, it would mean that he could never engage in an enforceable contract with his master for his liberty. "Pensonneau personally saw John Merry being manacled and placed in irons aboard the steamboat 'General Brown' at the St. Louis docks. Still in chains, John was transported downriver and then transferred to a slave trader in New Orleans for resale. Though in January 1825, John Merry had believed he had a contract for his family 's freedom, he had left his family, had relinquished prospects, money and horses , and was in the process of working off the rest, by May, he found himself in New Orleans resold as a slave to a man that Missouri courts call Andrew 'Sheckoni.' ... "But John Merry did not remain with Cexnaider [Sheckoni] or at the Louisiana plantation. After some time he managed to escape and make his way back upriver to Cahokia, the village where he had been born, and presumably where Suzette and their children still lived.... Once John Merry was discovered at Cahokia, Pensonneau seized him again. This time he employed a St. Louis part-time deputy sheriff, and sent John back across the Mississippi River to be jailed in St. Louis .... Pensonneau then sold John Merry again , from his jail cell this time to local men who understood the value of French slaves from Illinois... "Upon his release from jail, John Merry sued both Dr. Tiffin and Louis Menard for his freedom. While the case was in litigation, John Merry could not legally be removed from the court 's jurisdiction , so he would be safe from extradition to Cexnaider in New Orleans and kidnapping by Pensonneau. "In April 1827, the suit went to a full trial , with eight witnesses... The jury decided against John Merry , however, and the freedom litigant immediately appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.... "The Missouri high court rejected the slaveholders' argument.... Again Judge Matthias McGurk, who wrote Winny's case and worked behind the scenes for the Scypions, wrote the opinion. "The Missouri Supreme Court declared the important principle of birthright freedom. The Court wrote, ... '"This man [John Merry] was not then born, and when he was born into existence, the law forbid slavery to exist; and at the time of the cession act, this man, John, was not property ; and at the time of his birth, he could not be property.'... "Accordingly, the Missouri Supreme Court declared, 'John is free.' These were stirring words for a slave state in 1827. This holding was extremely important in dismantling the perpetuity by which generations of 'French slaves ' had been held in Illinois since Governor St. Clair exempted them." P.82-84. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_judges_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_Missouri

GOD WILLS LIFE AND DEATH

Death cannot be prevented nor delayed, anymore than life can be prevented or delayed. Life and death are not ours to give nor to take away. They each come from God, as do we, beneficiaries of God's grace, who gives and takes as God wills in both respects.All else is illusion, delusion, sophistry, casuistry, science fiction, fable.

PROBLEM SOLVING

PROBLEM SOLVING In seeking an answer to what you do not know, break it down till you find what you do know. Then, build upon that certain known until you find the unknown. Knowns leads to unknowns inexorably, and resolve them!

CONTENT/CONTEXT DYADS

CONTENT/CONTEXT DYADS Content/context jointly interact , interrelate, intersect, in due time. "More in the man than in the land," acknowledges content/context in asymmetric operation in farming, ranching, mining, fishing, teaching, governing, building, inventing, etc. "Asymmetric," as used here, means a lack of equality. It suggests that in no context/context dyad or pair, are their outcomes/inputs exactly equal, or equivalent, inter se (within itself); nor "extra se," outside itself. Children raised in the same family are different; so, too, puppies from the same litter, or citizens within the same country, as our American history attests, respecting the legal status accorded to non-"whites," as compared to majority "whites." "Whites" is a content/context dyad created by expediency to facilitate colonization of the new land by its Western European "discoverers." The term was first used relative to natives and immigrants; then later to distinguish "white" indentured servitude from black indentured servitude; to frustrate and forestall a more successful conclusion of the 1667 rebellion, which only was thwarted by the death of its prime mover, Nathaniel Bacon, himself a rich colonial, whose name it bears. In this same geographic region, today, Virginia and Maryland roughly, such personages arose as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Betsy Ross, Harriet Tubman; and many more persons, who were differentially created and cast into life by the content/context colonial dyad. Each of one of us is a product, or a byproduct of our unique content/context dyad, as is all else that is; each is differential, not though not coincidental, but specially called forth into being, into the here and now, by God for such purposes as may be discerned by us or others.

HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND, EXCERPT....

Some years ago, I used the phrase "situational physics," to describe the devolution of destruction, that followed upon African civilizations, after losing their prior preeminence in physics, in mathematical mastery upon the earth, to latecomers like Greeks, Romans, Muslims, others. Today, intuitive affirmation of that refractive notion was buttressed from my reading of the following: "When moral relativism puts on the face of being absolutely true, then ironically it proves itself to be neither true nor absolute . The incrimination is dismissed as myth. The atoning work of God on the cross becomes lost in situational ethics. Tolerance of evil becomes a virtue. "African orthodoxy is now returning to its wellsprings of classical exegesis. This is happening equally among wide varieties of traditions of Christian memory: Coptic and charismatic, progressive and conservative. They taste the kindness engendered by classic orthodox understandings of Scripture and apostolic truth. As they do, they are discovering that they have at times been betrayed by modern church bureaucracies long accustomed to ideological biases and fixations on political power, and willingness to conform to passing cultural whims. Hence permissive ecumenism no longer can pretend to be the exclusive bearer of ancient ecumenical teaching. It lacks penitence and humility." P. 116, "The Opportunity for Retrieval," HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND: REDISCOVERING THE AFRICAN SEEDBED OF WESTERN CHRISTIANITY by Thomas C. Oden (2004). "Early Christian views of universal history arose more directly out of this African Christian history than Europe. This is documented in the Western literature on the meaning of human history. Africa produced the greatest texts in early Christianity on the interpretation of universal history. The African writers were very early in addressing it systematically and thoroughly. Major African reflections on the whole course of human history are seen in the African writings of Minucius Felix, Arnobius, Lactanius, Tertullian, and Origen. All these preceded the synthesizing historical work of Eusebius, who took their sources and made them available to the churches of the East and North in Asia and Europe. Without Africa, Eusebius's library would be very thin. "This pre-Eusebian tradition of African historical observers became the predecessors of the even more influential Augustinian understanding of universal history. Augustine drew together these African and Mediterranean sources in the most sophisticated and complete way in his magnificent work on the 'City of God.' Through Orosius, Prosper, and Salvian the Augustinian interpretation of universal history would be disseminated throughout early medieval Europe. "The growing vitality of African independent Christianity today is not simply about the privately emotive, charismatic, or the here-and-now work of the Holy Spirit. It also embraces 'the history of the Holy Spirit' at work over the millennia in Africa. African Christianity is grounded in this concrete and palpable sense of redemptive suffering in history. As in the incarnation of the Son, the Spirit works in and through the flesh." P.120-121, HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND by Thomas C. Oden (2007)

being poor has its privileges

BEING POOR HAS ITS PRIVILEGES! I spoke to a friend recently whose online accounts had been hacked, I learned by her email. After calling her to confirm that she had indeed been hacked and had sent the email, and confirming her new email, we prayed. For we know that good comes along with the bad, and that the bad comes with the good, therefore she will get through this hack's inconveniences, as we both have gotten past much else! In the end, we laughed, too, as I shared with her that any online hacker who was troubling me would be sorely disappointed by my poverty and angrily move on from me, despicably. So, at least here being poor has its privileges!

CONGRATULATIONS, DANA!

I extend my hearty congratulations to Mrs. Dana Tippin Cutler, Esq., on becoming the first African American female to become President of the Missouri Bar, following several years behind, Charles Harris, Esq. and Reuben Shelton, Esq., of Kansas City, and St. Louis, respectively, black males, into that esteemed office. I have known Dana since she was a little girl, through her father, the redoubtable James W. Tippin, Esq., a legal stalwart in his own right, who has practiced law in Kansas City, Missouri, since the early 1970's, in tax, and, later in personal injury defense with Dana, and her husband, Keith Cutler, Esq., who met in college, in Atlanta, where she graduated Spelman, and he graduated Morehouse. Outstanding people and lawyers!

WHISPERED WISPS OF GOD

WHISPERED LOVING WISPS OF GOD Neither our brilliance, vehemence, extravagance, prayer or faith can hasten the dawn, or the dusk, by even one whit. Each cycle is preset already prior to our petty interests' formulations and prior to ours too! Even the part that we play is preset like the rest of nature. Yet, we are blessed to be able deem our own human selves differently, uniquely. We are blessed with the illusion, a delusion of possibility, that we can invent an elixir giving eternal life or inhabit another planet than earth. These are quiet loving wisps of the Almighty whispering to us in time.

defense of deceit? not.

DEFENSE OF DECEIT? NOT! Deceit is vilified as being devious too often, when it is as natural as its opposite: forceful subjugation. Animals, plants, birds, minerals and man, all engage in forms of deceit. Isaac deceived Ishmael, as Jacob, Esau; as Bathsheba\David, Uriah. No need for me to defend deceit. It is fully capable of defending itself! Many European, American foreign and domestic policies are deceitful. Do not cry aloud! Develop your own forms of retaliatory deceitfulness, as they have done; forms of adept, confiscating, conquering deceit! Or remain subjects of deceit's master!

BIBLE SUPPRESSION RECONSIDERED

BIBLE SUPPRESSION RECONSIDERED Taking the Bible from the public schools may have had less to do with religious freedom, as it did with the promotion of ignorance. The Bible is a very powerful book. If it is the wrong hands (or in the right hands), it can also be a dangerous book, as proven by many heroes and heroines in history and in life. While reading the Holy Quran some years ago, I was amazed to see, to discover therein, the many Biblical allusions, stories, and references, even in the Muslim's holiest book! This is quite natural "deep calls unto deep." Psalms 42:7. So, it is very doubtful that Muslims were offended by the Bible, and if it is not Muslims who were offended, the Christians' greatest living competition, then who or what was offended by the Bible: atheists! The godless are offended were offended; those who would take Christ out of Christmas; those who would substitute mankind for God. Then, again, the atheists may have simply been used by more wicked, evil forces of powerful nobility to smoother all others in abject futility.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL NOT SAVE US

The federal government will not save black people, regardless of the President. It never has. It never will. It can help. But, we must power the laboring oar! We have always found a way to free and to save ourselves. We must do so once again. One way to do this is to DIVERT and RECYCLE our money from the banks and the stores we are currently indiscriminately giving our money to, while SELF-INVESTING those funds in ourselves and in our enterprises. Right now, our adversaries are using our money--whether savings or indiscriminate consumer spending--to beat us down. How efficient! Diverting is earning! "A penny saved is a penny earned." Recyling what we have--our "talents"--in the marketplace, in whatever manner we please, promotes internal self-employment, jobs, respect, dignity, and generates additional revenue to divert and recycle. Hoarding is not helpful, it is harmful. Money, like blood, must circulate. Otherwise, that patient and that economy/community dies. Jesus taught us this in his Parable of the Talents, and his Parable of the Unjust Steward. COMBINING our efforts is another important lesson taught by Christ. Where two or more are gathered together, in his name, he promised to be in the midst. Two sticks combined are harder to break than one alone, and three is stronger than two. Whatsoever we ask in his name, believing, we shall also receive! So DIVERT, COMBINE, RECYCLE, INVEST, in Jesus' holy name-- That is one formula to freedom and to personal and national salvation!

DEBT IS A FIERY FURNACE

DEBT IS A FIERY FURNACE When debt is credit and credit is debt, the system is upside down . That is like when what is good is evil and when what is evil is good. This is an inversion, a conversion, a subversion of values and interests. Such is the present world economy. Taxation is vexation;debt is a cross. Rulers, syndicates, partnerships, cabals, governments: public or private, enrich themselves, gorge themselves at the public expense. Meanwhile we vacuously, placidly, ineptly, roll on into fiery furnaces to be processed, configured and sold.

SACRED NO NAME LOVE

SACRED NO-NAME LOVE If certain names are discarded, so too might be confusing, clannish nomenclatures. The sun is no less light by another name and water is no less wet. Surely a selfish pride of naming, in naming, appears to have precedence over conception. How much better may we be if we feel beyond its name to the thing? If we were to intuit beyond banal exteriors into the unseen interiors, would not we feel greater certainty, than we do presently in our fatuity? Would not we then be, would not we feel, blessedly assured of that strangely familiar type known, felt, celebrated, and bequeathed to us by enslaved Africans in America? These sacred forebears could see through; could feel through; could intuit their way through highways and byways and no-ways in some ways! And didn't feel noways tired ! It did not have a name, whatsoever it was that prompted, that enabled their perspicuity or their ingenuity! Plotinus in his chapter on "Beauty" describes it memorably, accurately: "Such vision is for those only who are with the Soul 's sight--and at the vision they will rejoice, and awe will fall upon them and a trouble deeper than all the rest could ever stir, for now they are moving in the realm of Truth. "This is the spirit that Beauty must ever induce, wonderment and delicious trouble, longing and love and a trembling that is all delight. For the unseen all this may be felt as for the seen; and this the Souls feel for it, and every Soul in some degree, but those the more deeply that are more truly apt to the higher love..." P.49, THE ENNEADS (1991)