"I'm in the Mood for Love...

 ...simply because you're near me" Julie London sings it best.

What is love to you? What does it mean to be loved, but more importantly, what does it mean to love?

Many of us may have come from homes that taught us broken ideas of love and loving. Indoctrinated us. I don't think we realize how skewed our ideas of love might be nor realize they are skewed at all to the extent that they are. Some may hate love based on experiences with something or someone wearing Love's mask, and wearing it well.

I found love outside of romance. With my God sister. Not mine. A person, very special to me.

With my animals. Animals, not mine. 

I have found love in nature. Her seasonal impermanence isn't so loved, especially when it is manifested in a person, in a being, in a thing. In a possessable object. Nature teaches us nothing is possessable, as much as we may want it to be. 

I have found love in moments where I let go of a desire to possess.

Can we fathom loving something without attachment, without the idea of possession? Could you introduce your boyfriend without referring to him as your boyfriend? Forget introducing him, could you see that person outside the identity of being yours? 

Could you introduce your pet without referring to them as your pet, let alone a pet?

Could you introduce your favorite book without saying it is your favorite book?

Can we love anything without feeling like it belongs to us? Do we still consider that love if it is not ours to claim before another? 

I too found love in death. Even with those I’ve felt unfinished with. Especially with those. Forced detachment. A realization of my own possessive ways. 

What is love, without the ache that comes when it goes? The ache is a token it was there. If there was no sadness to love’s fleeting character, it wouldn’t have been love now, would it? 

Anything you lose comes round in another form, promised to us by the beloved Rumi. No need to hold.

Embrace its departure, you don't want to experience this one life you have with just one idea of love now, do you? Just one manifestation out of the infinite. 

Broken homes, harmful upbringings can teach us love is to possess, to comfort ourselves, to not feel alone.

Unlearn that. Feel alone, feel deeply alone. Love from there. Learn what it is to love while you feel empty. The two can coexist. Their coexistence is necessary. To seek love is a distraction, to welcome it in all its forms is life. So live it.

Become enthralled with feeling alone, fall in love with your solitude. Not because we aren't capable of being loved without doing so, that is far from the reality and even farther from the point. But because you will never ever experience something as deep, as profound, as explorative, as igniting, and as inspiring as the love you find within yourself. The sort of love that pours from you. The sort of love that is bound to the impermanence of your body. The permanence of life’s impermanence. 

It transcends time, it truly does and I don't say that to be cheesy. And because of this timeless feature, love requires no attachment, no possession in order to be experienced at its fullest. It is not love otherwise, it can't be. How can it be so profound with such earthly attachments? The sort of attachments confined to the human mind. 

Think of love as a life source. A definition beyond that of just human to human experience. 

Be in the mood for Love, simply because it is near you, always. Open the senses. Return home to yourself. Thay reminds us of this practice daily. 

Now do I claim to know what love is? Absolutely not. That is a lives long adventure. Plural. 

But I do claim to know what it is not. It is not the institution we know and engage with today. A contract of possession. A conditional agreement of love.

Love is as unavoidable and as essential as death. 

It is in the mundane although we often see it solely in the extraordinary. Extraordinary, look at that word. Allow yourself to discover the wonders in the ordinary. The extraordinary in the ordinary.

Allow these three ladies to fill your ears and your minds. Listen to what these ladies have to say. And then ask yourself what is love. Has your definition changed? Will your experience?

A Woman's Rage

On my morning scroll, that I try to avoid but fail too often, I came across a video on TikTok of two people having a "debate." I can't help but state that I personally think the word debate is used too loosely and incorrectly when describing an unregulated argument that is videotaped and then put onto various media platforms, but for the modern day Gen Z social media educated collective of people, we all know exactly what sort of conversation I am going to be describing.

So here it is, as short and sweet as I can get it. Race and gender will be importantly noted. The highlight of gender is solely in an effort to discuss how society's influence on gender has affected the way cisgender men and cisgender women act, and more importantly engage with one another. Race is noted here because as a black woman myself, I find it’s important to touch on the perspective that society receives of women's reactions based on their race. A perspective that I note society receives. An unwanted gift from the most esteemed critic of modern day society, men. But that’s my just, opinion. 

A black woman and a black man were sitting opposite sides of each other with huge microphones covering half their faces, talking at each other. Not to each other, but at each other. I think one of the most overstimulating aspects of these "debates" we are all subjected to on social media is the noise. The frustration that builds as the viewer must bounce back and forth between the vocal chords of two separate individuals rubbing together simultaneously. The timing of the two voices being so close together makes for an unpleasant sound. Not being able to hear the argument being made, let alone not even having time to process what it means before the other person is already firing back. The viewer feels defeated, having not even engaged in the debate themselves, but leaves the said conversation with an elevated heart rate and most likely a very skewed and inaccurate view of the topic being discussed. But that is not the point of this conversation I am attempting to have with the reader. I want us all to pay close attention to how this conversation I am about to disclose to you went.

The topic of their entire conversation was...I'm honestly not even sure, but what they were arguing about in the instance I watched was this. The young black woman was revealing to the young black man his emotional immaturity present in how he carried himself in their debate, and he was not having it. 

Video begins.

Man: "Listen man I would just hope that when we have discussions like this we only speak in fact." His response to her claim of his emotional immaturity. Note here, his initial demeanor is condescending yes, but it is arguably done in a joking manner. Keep this initial attitude in mind. 

Woman: "But no one said it was--you asked my opinion I only gave an opinion--" She says this in a seemingly flustered way, mimicking a state of confusion rather than frustration. Her tone reflects firmness, but in a soft way. Softness not out of want but necessity. Possibly in effort to appease, but I think too in a strategic sense, done to allow her to be heard fully, leading to a higher chance of being understood...and less of a chance of being argued with. So she thought. These premeditated efforts are manifestations of female anger I will touch on later. 

The woman is then interrupted by the man before she could finish her sentence.

Man: "So now going forward--"

She arguably interrupts him, but viewed from a different perspective, she just did not allow his interruption to halt her sentence. She didn't allow his interruption to silence her.

Woman: "How are you going to ask someone--" a continuance of her initial sentence she has still not been able to complete.

---interrupted, yet again.

Man: "Are you going to let me finish or are you going to keep cutting me off" 

Ironic isn't it. His first instance in this conversation of emotional immaturity that she is claiming he is exhibiting, brought before us, and before him. He just painfully cannot see it, or doesn't want to. Not being able to see one's own hypocrisy is the poster child for emotional immaturity. 

He says this while he places his hand firmly on the mic, chin down, and his somewhat jokingly aggressive tone has now just turned cold and rigid. A power move, he is trying to assert dominance. Like the big bad man he is--must be said and read in a little boy voice. His only play of trying to silence her in order for his argument to stand tall but not true, isn't working.

Video continues.

The woman proceeds to continue her first and only sentence she has attempted to complete since the beginning of this clip that is for the third time being interrupted. 

Woman: "--and then get mad at them--"

---interrupted once again, although this time his tone is loud. His cadence is fast and sharp.

Man: "and you get mad when I get a little louder because you're cutting me off and then call me emotionally immature for it." 

I don't know about you, but getting louder when someone isn't listening is the control tactic of an elementary school child, not that of a grown man interested in stimulating conversation. An interest I would think he possesses as he is the one who purchased two ginormous microphones. But anyways sir, weren't you the one who cut her off in the first place and now are left with just the capabilities of your vocal chords to shut her up, or in other words stop her from saying not necessarily what you don't want to hear, but what you don't like to hear. That you are being immature. In other words, exposing to you that you don't have your emotions under control. Control. Ladies, y'all will get that immediately, but men ponder that one. 

Video continues.

Woman: "you're just proving my point." She says this as she covers herself with her jacket rocks side to side, shakes her head, avoids eye contact. She is soothing herself, partly because the frustration is only building to a peak at this point as it is in me as I'm watching this, but his reaction is shutting her down. Or maybe it is the preconceived reaction of society too that shuts her down. See how I said frustration instead of anger when referring to the emotion she is arguably feeling in that moment, keep that in mind. Women but black women especially do not have the grace to be angry. Doing so limits their power rather than embodies it. That's society's doing.

He is showing her clear signs of aggression building up that may not be so obvious to our conscious mind or the naked eye so to say, but our body and subconscious mind knows what's up. It is called Neuroception. Where our subconscious mind constantly scans our environment and is able to quickly and arguably effortlessly pick up potential threats before our conscious mind can even register them. I'm not a psychology major, but Psych 101 can break that down real simply for you. In this scenario, a potential threat has been detected, the unregulated anger of a man. 

Don't get it twisted though. Trust me, anger is building too for the woman present in this clip, but us women have spent generations of suppressing, being forced to suppress that rise of anger. Associating it with fear more than we do with power, unlike men. A rise in anger or adjacent emotions or feelings asserts a man's power, his voice. While for a woman, it silences it. Silences her. Imagine what that does to someone, a body, a mind. What generations of teaching our bodies to entirely erase a human emotion from our natural behavior based on the gender we possess and how society perceives that gender. Imagine the anger women feel as a collective. You have no idea. And yes, I mean you as in men. 

Does this then mean we too should contemplate the sadness men feel as a collective? Yes, a story for another time.--

The way she backs down in a sense is not because she believes she is wrong, but any fuel to this fire is not going to help. She knows that, women know that. It is ingrained into our psyche. Read this.

"A cultivated feminine habit of prioritizing the needs of others and putting people at ease frequently puts us at a disadvantage. In particular, girls and women learn to put aside anger in order to deescalate tension or conflict, lowering the temperature of encounters or situations that put us or others at risk. We understand that abandoning our anger is a necessary adaptation to a perpetual undercurrent of possible male violence. In a society where male violence toward women is a reality for many of us, we simply cannot know how a man--whether someone familiar or a stranger-- will respond and if he will be violent. We can only trust, hope, and minimize the risk. Layered on top of these habits is a pervasive silence around the fact that we are constantly making these assessments. And so, as we will see, the men around us at home, school, and work often actively deny our experiences or can be ignorant of the constant calculus we make when it comes to expressing ourselves. If men know how truly angry the women around them often are--and understood the structures of enforcing women's silence--they would be staggered." -Soraya Chemaly, from Rage Becomes Her; The Power of Women's Anger. xix

Video continues

Man: "I'm just asking questions." His smile returns. "I'm just--I'm just--I'm just asking questions." He says in a laughing tone that doesn't harbor genuine humorous feelings, but rather a tone that says, "you're getting mad at what I say and it's funny. Haha."

So is that all that you were doing? Asking questions? Was that all you were doing when your voice got louder, and your tone got sharper, and your whole demeanor, attitude, and emotions turned...angry? Anger is not an immature emotion, but how you respond to that anger is. You see how his response mimics that of lets say, a 5 year old who was scolded on asking inappropriate questions. Anyways, I'll try to keep my unnecessary opinions at bay from now on.

An unknown man off camera chimes in: "We say this because you say your opinion as if it's fact that's how it comes off." When in the history of podcasts does someone without a microphone chime in? That was exaggerated but seriously, people from behind the scenes of a podcast don't just 'chime in'. But in this scenario a woman calling another man emotionally immature struck something deep in both men, clearly. Maybe it's time to look in a mirror?

Woman: "If he took my opinion for a fact that's between him and himself. I never said for a fact Jordan, you are this"

--While she is saying this, there is frustration in her voice. A condescending tone to her statement, a valid one I would say. It results in an unproductive response. You hear the men in the background go "ahhh I can't with this." 

Now what 'cant with this' can you not do? Is it someone clarifying what they said that you 'can't do'? Or in her case, was it the fact she had to repeat verbatim what she said in an effort to get you on the same page? But it was the tone she used that rubbed you the wrong way, right? So men can be condescending but women can't? Got it. 

Maybe it is the fact that they can't admit that an individual they deem inferior to them stated the obvious. A woman, a black woman at that. Because I can assure you if a man was telling another man he was emotionally immature, this would be a much different conversation.

Do you see how she already has to appease these men. She has yet to complete one sentence and she already needs to minimize the damage her words did to them. When in reality it is a minimization of the potential feelings and reactions that stem from a man hearing something he doesn't like.The men in this clip feel full right to police her speech but God forbid-- they learn to not yell when they speak. 

Video continues.

Woman: "you asked for my opinion, I gave you my opinion, you didn't like my opinion that's okay you don't gotta like it. Or even agree with it. It's just my opinion and that is all it is. I ain't God, I can't tell you what you are and what you're not. I can only give an opinion"

Before she can even finish, shocker. 

Man: So you're a dictator and I'm gonna stand on that. That's my-- that is how I feel, that's my opinion."

Woman: "and that's okay."

WHEW! Are you overwhelmed cause I am. And I am not necessarily overwhelmed by what I am hearing, although boy, would I rather kick rocks with opened toed shoes than hear that man ever speak again. But what I unfortunately know to be true is that there are too many men and women who are not going to see what is wrong with this man's responses. His behavior, his demeanor, his overwhelmingly obvious emotional immaturity. That is the exhausting part. That it is not seen, it is not believed, it is not acknowledged what women go through on a daily basis when it comes to men. Women wear the burdened cloak of being the endurers of pain, but too the teachers of peace. Not just for themselves, but for those around them. By default, the woman in that conversation is burdened with the responsibility of teaching those men, whether she realizes or not, and whether she wants to or not. This burden was placed upon her the moment she was born. Teaching them what you ask? Well for starters, how to have a disagreeing conversation with someone without allowing one's emotions to take hold of how they present themselves. AKA emotional maturity. Something that was clearly not exhibited in the conversation we just went through together. 

To some, mostly men, there will be a thought of, did she really just write a whole essay on a silly little dispute between two people? Yes, I did. Why? Because this idea of the burdened responsibility of "teaching men" that women unwillingly at times uphold seems minuscule, but it truly is not. It stems from something much bigger than having productive and calm conversations with those of the opposite gender. It is the responsibility of minimizing the potential of a harmful situation to arise. Part of that minimization process is learning the behavior of men to a T, and then learning how to conform yourself when in the presence of that behavior. It's an art form so to say, a dance a woman must learn at a very, very early age. The price of not learning this sometimes costs women their lives. 

So that is why I wrote about a silly little conversation between a man and a woman. Because a conversation like this, perhaps in a different setting, where a woman doesn't back down. Every single day. Costs women their lives.

Per usual watch the video.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMt0K-AbpCU

Why Do You Still Celebrate Thanksgiving? No Seriously, I am asking.

Is it because it is a time where families have the freedom and leisure to come together?

Is it because it is one of your only breaks from work?

Is it because it is a joy for your kids to experience the holidays in full force?

Well...

Let me ask you this. But first let me set the stage.

May 14th, 1948. The First Nakba. A day of massacre for the Palestinians, but interestingly enough, a day of "independence" for Israelis. Leading me to believe that mass murder and independence are synonymous in our vocabulary, but I digress. 

A girl I went to high school with and despite how badly I want to name drop, she will go unnamed, posted her trip to Israel on May 14th 2024, with a landscape photo of Israel from her hotel, along with the caption "Independence looks good on you."

Moment of silence for the bigotry we just witnessed, dressed up as a harmless 21 year old girl. Although, it really isn't that harmless, is it?...

I think we can all agree on what the elephant in the room is, but in this case she could not, so I then replied to the story post. Asking to be informed on what was meant by flattering Israel's dress of independence. Long story short, she was well aware of what led to Israel's so-called independence. So well informed that this person even used the Native American massacre, erasure is a better word, that occurred right here in this stolen home, in order to spark similarity to what Israel's independence day is all about. I'm gonna let that one settle for a second, yes you did read that right. 

An open admission to knowing American AND Israeli independence was birthed out of the massacre of the indigenous population already present. Hence the word indigenous.

...

Unimportant to add but something quite comical is that Hamas' attack on October 7th was brought up to justify Israel's onslaught, a collective one at that, onto the people of Gaza. Shocker, but what confused me about this is that we were talking about an 'Independence day' that occurred in 1948. What does a singular event in 2024 have to do with that? I assumed one would then be able to identify where the illogical usage was  but again, I digress. 

As the reader should already be able to infer, this response did not leave me shocked, but gravely horrified. Horrified that it is common knowledge what Israel has done, what America has done to provide this lavish facade. A facade seen by everyone but only experienced by the millionaires and billionaires and any one else who plays puppet to the puppeteers of capitalism for a moment of fake happiness at the cost of a whole lot of real torment and horror forced onto another peoples. Because face it, we all know that is the true price for power, money, and control. Death. Death on a scale that wipes out not just any-body, but any idea, belief, culture that could minimize the goal of the conqueror. 

My point with bringing up the extreme cognitive dissonance happening in the mind of one of my fellow high school colleagues, is to expose the cognitive dissonance happening in our own minds. In the minds of those who stand with anti-capitalism efforts, with those who stand with indigenous populations and their silenced story. From the looks of our Instagram stories about this very topic, most of us here all agree.

So let me ask you, why did we then go around saying Happy Thanksgiving? Why did we go Black Friday shopping? Why are we shopping at these sorts of stores even at all? 

Why do we sit here, discover and discuss the intersectionality of capitalism, the prison pipeline, Black America and its similarities to the Palestinian struggle? Why expose all of these findings and realize that one event is so linked that any involvement in one only perpetuates the other? Why encourage others to see it too and shame them if they don't? Why do any of that, why even open our mouths on some righteous BS if we are just going to turn around and perpetuate the very thing we criticize? We, and yes I mean WE. We will sit here and talk so poorly of Christian people, or religious people in general. I am most definitely always included in that shit talk might I add. How they don't 'walk as Jesus would' or practice what they preach. Well, from the looks of this past Thanksgiving, neither do we. 

Yet we wanna outcry for the Palestinians, while we are perpetuating our own instance of ethnic cleansing right here. We outcry for the children in Africa being forced to mine in the most dangerous conditions, but we buy the latest iPhone. We were outraged about the women and children stitching "help" into the tags of garments sold in stores like Forever 21, Shein, and H&M, yet we go buy their clothes? Knowing they will just end in a landfill? Don't even get me started on our outcry for climate change paired with our own lack of making changes in our own home. 

Let me set something straight for everyone. No one is coming to save you and your family from the disasters of the capitalistic society we live in. You have to do it yourself. 

To do so, you must care not about what is happening to you, but what is happening to others. Clearly, none of our life conditions have sparked enough immediate and daily change to our own routines but hello...? We have a front row seat to how the conditions of others lives have drastically changed, moved to being inhabitable with our own normal day to day activities, thoughts, conversations, etc., being a catalyst for its continuance. That too is clear to us, it is known we cannot run from that fact. By doing so, in our own indirect way that I argue is direct as fuck, we tell those affected people: your life must stay in its inhabitable state, so that mine can stay the way it is. So that I can go Black Friday shopping, so that I can have the perfect fit for this night out, so that I can spend Thanksgiving with my family. So that I can have a warm bed to sleep in at night. So that I can experience the convenience of life, which is in my opinion just mindless operation, at the cost of grave inconvenience onto another life.

First call to action, never let the word I ever come up again in a sentence. Erase it from our vocabulary. Right now. 

To touch on the claim that we are perpetuating ethnic cleansing right here in America, while pouring so much sorrow into the Palestinian struggle. As we should of course, but minus the hypocrisy. Yes, allowing people to have a morphed idea of what the Thanksgiving holiday is really about, is a form of ethnic cleansing. We are erasing history, knowledge by allowing it to be erased. History and knowledge that are the only leg of hope for the populations slaughtered before us. We have no room to come for Zionists, when we are turning a blind eye to our own native population begging us to see them TOO. And not just see them and post about it and tell all your followers how educated you are, and how moved you are by their experience. No, they want us to do something about it, make ourselves uncomfortable. At the very least, stop celebrating Thanksgiving. 

So the next time we inevitably celebrate one of these grief stricken holidays, lets shift our perspective. Challenge not just our families ideas, but our own. If they don't get it, shame them, educate them, in a nice way of course, but don't allow someone to hold that belief comfortably. Not even yourself.

 America, Israel and many other places all around the world known and unknown to us are attempting to erase more than just the physical entity of these people. They want the thought of them gone too. Celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving is just another way to do that. We so easily are allowing ethnic cleansing to occur in our own homes, our own minds. We are the puppets, we need to realize that despite thinking other wise, the strings are still very much attached. 

For the love of GOD, don't forget about watching the video<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZvWt29OG0s

You Go Into a Library...

You go into a library,

and you stumble upon a really good book.

You take it home and begin to read.

Now...this book takes you through a rollercoaster of 

emotions. 

It's exciting. It's passionate. 

It's sad at times, but the emotions felt—

they're the most captivating thing about this book. 

It's captured you, 

giving you an illusion of time not passing at all.

But believe me, 500 pages is a lot to get through.

This book consumes you.

You have to keep reading, you need to get to the end to see what happens—and then the end comes 

And then—

...

The book is done.

You close it as nostalgia already begins to creep in.

It's over.

All those feelings.

Moments.

Trapped inside the front and back cover of the book.

Only to be experienced when opened.

Only—

the experience is not the same.

It's nowhere near it. 

It never will be.

Not with the same book at least.

You don't then sit there and 

try to add pages to the book to extend its life.

No.

You go back into the library.

You put it back on the shelf.

You allow another to experience all the greatness 

that you did—

all the stories that were told, 

all the lessons that were learned, 

all the feelings that were felt.

...

That's the beauty of books.

I think that's the beauty of people too.

P.S. Don't forget to follow the simplest rule of this blog and watch the video💜

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJL1e_ftUY

All Because A Man Was Standing Shirtless

The freedom, this untasted freedom that a man feels walking shirtless down Castro St at 9am on a Monday. Standing at the crosswalk in all this glory, unbothered. Not a care in the world so it seems. One thing I know for sure that is not on this man's mind is, "Why did I decide to go shirtless today?" The mere acknowledgement of said man's shirtlessness isn't really in anyone's mind when seeing him walking down the street. Not for more than a moment at least.

Pause, before you begin to mistake this process of me developing and presenting my thoughts to you for me coming for this man’s comfortability in his own body. I can assure you that is not the case, but exactly the point. This man should feel comfortable in his body. So comfortable that he does not fear anything related to his exposed chest, except for the rude awakening that he should have worn his shirt cause its fucking cold at 9am, but that’s besides the point. The point is, why can’t a woman do that? Why can’t a woman walk down Castro street at 9am shirtless? And before you annoy me with the boring and wasted “well she can if she wanted to” argument, please save it. Or don’t, but clearly you are not my intended audience if that is what you are thinking thus far.

Allow me to elaborate. The seemingly obvious answer is because women have boobs, but what is it about boobs? These fat deposits that sit on our pex. These sacs of fat that hold milk ducts to later be sucked out of us dry by our infants. Is that where the sex appeal comes from? Does that really do it for you guys? Don’t answer that.

You know what I think it is about the woman's body. What it is about these sacs of fat on our chest that are just so irresistible we have to cover them up. What is so sexy and irresistible about that, is that those sacs of fat can be dominated. That is what is sexy about a woman’s body, that it can be owned. It can be conquered, it can be chased. It can be left to the fantasies of a man, whether women want it to or not. 

Don’t believe me? Well if you can think of some other reason why a woman must adhere to a certain set of societal rules, rules might I add that are completely dependent on that societies’ view of that individual’s gender and not on the actual individual, please do tell me. For the better of both of us, disregard the condescending tone in which you most likely read that sentence. While I do admit I can’t help refrain myself from such a tone, I do genuinely want to hear other reasons as to why a woman cannot walk down Castro street shirtless at 9am. I ask for reasons that have nothing to do with her gender or the sacs of fat on her chest that may or not be there because lets face it, a 10 year old girl could not walk down Castro street shirtless either. Such reasons would just prove my point and I want to be challenged with something meaningful. 

Back to my point of female domination being the root of sex appeal for most men. By presenting to you the dangerousness that comes with the inner workings of a man’s sexual desires, I am in no way refuting the existence of female predators. Who too share the same twisted thoughts when engaged in the process of sexualizing something. Female predators exist you guys, and this should put it into perspective for you. Despite their existence, female predators do not pose enough of a threat to men. Please refrain from getting that confused with the idea that female predators do not pose a threat at all, because while that is far from the case, it is far from relevancy to my point.

What is funny about all of this is this average Joe, just standing at a crosswalk shirtless at 9am. He probably never thought about the conversation his act of bodily autonomy sparked in my mind, demanding to be conversed. Which brings me to my next and final point that I hope will bring some rigorous and opinionated conversation…

Men don’t think about anyone but themselves…why? Because they don’t have to. If they had to, it would be a test of their character if they would.

Take this stance as foreshadowing to a later thought I plan to develop and engage with, with the help of those who comment their own ideas. It is a stance that is rooted in my response after reading the book "What Men Don't Want Women to Know" Read the book, but ladies especially, prepare yourself to read the book. I will call my response, "What Women Want Men To Wake The Fuck Up To" :)

I hope this sparked some words in your mind, please share them below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H77fRz1rybs

DISCLAIMER PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING

 This blog is intended to be a space for all of us, not just me. It is not intended to be a place of my thoughts and my thoughts only. While you will see I have a whole lot to say, I know the reader does too. I want to hear it, and I want others to hear it. That is the sole purpose of this blog. A place for ideas to be shared, collected, and further pondered. I encourage the reader to comment directly on each post that resonates with them. As little or as much as they want to share.

 This is where our ideas can come to wander. To be developed and criticized. To be challenged and to be refined. Please do not confuse this space as an arena for fact wars. While I encourage all of us to be practical when it comes to the information we share, I find critical thinking to be the most stimulating and productive form of coming to conclusions.

 Remember, this is a place for brain wandering. Think of it as a diary... or a journal I should say. I don't want to scare off any men who are attempting to release themselves of the emasculating power simple words seem to have over them. I do also hope that sentence didn't scare them off either, however it also serves as a clear indication of who my respected audience is and where my sense of humor lies. And no, that humorous sentence does not make me a man hater despite what the plethora of men who were offended by that sentence will say.  ANYWAYS, what I am trying to say is that the points of conversation here are endless, but at times will be ruthless. Stripped down to their barest form for sake of exciting, vigorous, and compelling conversation. Conversation starters will most definitely range from something seemingly meaningless like a random YouTube video I stumbled upon, to an organized Socratic discussion about the current events going on like in Haiti, Palestine, Sudan, and many other places. 

Above all else these ideas and topics are to be conversed about respectfully. These conversations I intend for us to have will be genuine and they will be meaningful. This is a space for dialogue. A safe space for the thoughts of all of us. No judgments allowed. No wrong questions. No wrong answers. Humor and sarcasm greatly appreciated :)

Now while I highly encourage opposing opinions to engage with one another, my patience is small when it comes to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. I will happily and quickly remove one's access from engaging in discussions and sharing ideas if they show any signs of hateful speech. With that being said, I can assure to the people that are here for the right reasons, I intend to maintain this platform as a safe space. A safe space for us to talk, so that hopefully one day we can build a better place than the shithole we are currently in.

PS; There will be a YouTube link at the bottom of each blog post. Play it in the background. Before you read or after, but definitely while you reply, or don't however I think it would greatly enhance one's experience, do what you will. In this space we will create together, I will go by C. Selena Nerina. It is significant to me and me only, no need for outside minds, but I intend to be referred to and thought about as such in regards to this blog. If you would like to be referred to as something else as it pertains to this blog, sign your reply with what you want to be thought of. 

Happy Thinking❤

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qpyDUfMq-8