A man

       What is the capacity of a man measured in, from time to time we lose sight of what it means to be a man, we get lost in what we want and not what should be? See I can be a soldier, I can be a philanthropist, I could be a networking genius, and all that glitters is gold, but is that what makes me a man. Now, I have layed up in my bed and contemplate where do I thread in this grand quilt of life, and after years of contemplation I have come to this conclusion.
    To be a man worth on,  grand halls of leadership, one must first, follow so one day when he does lead; he has essential knowledge of those who are following him. So being a leader makes a man.
    To be a man of worth one must provide, but this provision that is provided is not for one to gorge but to satisfy. Se when a man empties his cup, for those around him seeking nourishment, he gives an enough to sustain them and leave enough to sustain himself.
     To be a man of worth one must be the balance, being the balance is the most defiant thing a man can do, in a universe that by nature is chaotic. Walk into a room of gossip mongering, and all your silence cut through the air like the razor blade.
     Finally, to be a man you must discipline dissonance. It is true that by the time your body will grow and mature into manhood, and while everyone is physically growing, most remain spiritually adolescent. See it is easy to feel, one's body maturing as boys go into puberty we experience growing pains, and we grow no matter what this pain is inescapable but what of the pains of a maturing mind.

Greatness

"What is greatness!" "Is it a whisper, or is it a grand orchestra?" Can, we judge the son by the achievements of his father, but if we do that, the father will inevitably wane. So lest not make a system by comparison, because greatness if contrasted implies hegemony, thus dichotomy becomes absent of its function. "What is greatness!" "Is the humble brick, or the grand castle?" Well, if we are to have a quantitative study, then indeed the castle is far Superior too brick but not with out a subtle taste of irony. And, what if the brick were to rebuttal and say, " I am the keystone," now the grand castle will fall, without this austere brick. "What if, greatness?" "Is it the thought, or the action?" Well, great men have always been men, of great minds but what is a thought to an action, well I guess it is better then an action with out thought, "but I digress." The truth is, "it is all relative!" For example a, a man who has nightmare's goes to a therapist and inquires, " Why, do such nightmares plague me," and the therapist said, " well drams are often our minds, dealing with our interpretations of our realities." So to put it frankly, if you are afraid to dream, then you are afraid to live and your dreams are not different from your reality. Synthesis of my thought "Greatness is simply being!" -Sergio Velazquez 4/4/2015 In Crappy Dorm Room, while eating left over, Taco Bell.

Don't Cry LOVE

They cried, “I don't deserve him, I don't deserve her!”

       Well then, why do you feel that way, do you think you deserve yourself? You say you are in love, and you are in love but, love is not about you becoming acquiescent to your partner's whims and it will never. Love is not indentured servitude, and pop-culture has a lot to do with this pretense.

    We all are guilty, of craving love, and once you accept that it is ok too long for someone then, you can begin to cope, with the ever presence loneliness. Ever present "aloneness" is a part of the human condition. It is often romanticized that you will find love and never feel alone again.

      Love is not about feeling, never being alone again. Love is about mutual understanding. If you love someone they will open you, and even when they, leave you will be changed for the better.

I'm sure you had the experience of being with someone and feeling alone, but compare that to someone you just met, and now it is like the whole is not as harsh and regardless of how dark the world seems, you take solace in know that people like him or her exist.

       No matter where they are the world is just that much brighter.See love doesn't have a title, love does not have a proximity, and love does not have a time scale. Love is ever presence and the act of being in love just allowing that love to resonate. 

Life and Death!

      If, this shall be the end let us go into the darkness as courageously as we came into the light. Let us unforgivably give of ourselves, and mold this life as our own mothers gave life to us. See all space,time and matter are based upon ones own relativity. It is the mind that is the womb and in it this life that takes place our child.
         As we go into the darkness, truth is revealed, that truth being this child, this life will go on and from the moment we brought it into existence this child it is no longer ours.So live,laugh and love courageously.
           Live so courageously,that you inspire wonder and every shooting star speaks of that one time they saw fearless man.
Love so infectiously, that even the most pious and clean long to be stricken by your sickness.
And laugh, as if you we sinking to the bottom of the ocean, and with every out burst you were given one breath.
           If, this is to end then know that it is because I made it so, because deep down we all know there is no such thing.Those who love for ever live in us, and they act in our actions.
            Funny how, me and Friend use to feed the poor every Sunday. Then one week my friend grew sick and died. I stopped feeding the poor for many years, until one day I felt his presents and decided to go again. After a Sunday of feeding the poor a man with out a home told me, "you are kind you remind of this man who use to feed us every Sunday,You don't look a thing like him, but you remind of him." I smiled and thought, " yes, I know he is physically not here, but spiritually we couldn't be any closer."
        Yes, we all exist at some point but, to live, to live is priceless because for those who truly live, we all know one could never just die.

Happy Holidays

The message is simple! You are loved, regardless of what mistakes you have made. Your are loved regardless of how think you look. You matter and it may seem at times you are alone, but you are not. People may not going around announcing, but it is Simple we are all in this together. I hope on this day, you feel loved, loved your self and always try your best to get out their and start Loving One Another !!!

Cure the Disease not the Symptom

In recent weeks I have come across many articles talking about Florida and its prison population and most of the articles showed a direct correlation between failing students and youth in prison.  Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy discussed how students who were doing poorly in school would be funneled into the prison system, “Schools indirectly drive children into the juvenile justice system by criminalizing a wide variety of student behavior, including behavior as minor as tardiness, absences, noncompliance, and disrespect” (Castillo). Most of this minor behavior will evolve into a life time of crime, but if we establish better policies in school we can stop this trend of turning students into prisoners.

The prison industrial complex in the United States continues to grow and expand, not because of a growing rate of criminals but because a growing rate of repeat offenders. “More than fifty percent of prisoners will be arrested again just after sixteen months of their release” (Barret). This statistic shows that the prison industrial complex is not resolving the psychological issues of our inmates. After years of incarceration, inmates become well-adjusted to the prison life style and cannot assimilate back to the civilian life style. In order to resolve this growing problem we must start reforming our schools because it is often delinquent children who grow into offending adults. In Florida it seems like a trend that the students go directly from the school system into the prison industrial complex. Most of the repeat violent offenders have a history of violence that trails back to their childhood. If we started providing counseling and alternative methods of discipline for our at risk youth, we will be able to control the rising prison population. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” (Frederick Douglass).

Some schools in Florida look at all students acting out in a black and white manor allowing no room for a shade of grey. Regardless of what is going in in the child’s life, the child is at fault and needs to be punished. Many examples were found, in a one example, “a six year old was handcuffed, arrested, and driven away from school after throwing a tantrum in her kindergarten class. Because of her small stature, the handcuffs were placed around her biceps. She was subsequently taken to county jail, fingerprinted, had a mug shot taken, and was charged with a felony and two misdemeanors” (Walter, S., Lambie, G. & Ngazimbi, E.). Regardless of the child’s age or reason for acting out, the 6 six year old was severely punished. In other cases children were placed in jail, with criminals. Regardless of if the child gets his or her record expunged at the age of 18, the child will have to live with the trauma of being incarcerated. In addition to that, the child will only have more resentment towards the school and this will cause more out breaks. For some children the school is the only safe place they know they can get a full meal and be safe.

Not all students are bad, most students who act out have not been taught proper way of managing their emotions. In many cases, children acting out were showing symptoms of child abuse. The scholarly journal A Choice Theory Counseling Group Succeeds with Middle School Students Who Displayed Disciplinary Problems exposes how school may be the child’s last safe place and chastising a student may push that child into the dark. Some other methods of disciplining students have shown great promise such as Reality Therapy, “Reality Therapy may be seen as the implementation of Choice Theory, where the educator teaches students the basic tenet of Choice Theory: the only person I can control is myself” (Walter, S., Lambie, G. & Ngazimbi, E.) After taking these lessons a student is better fit for the rigors of life and can adjust better to the school environment.  Students have strengths and weaknesses across the board when it comes to school, but when it comes to emotional health the school disciplinary system is blind to this. Not all students have the same emotional capabilities, so it is unfair to judge with the same rules as regular students. Some student come from unstable homes, “We must understand their needs. In addition to their physical needs - food, clothing, and shelter - kids need fun, freedom, power, and a sense of belonging. If these needs aren't met in positive ways, problems develop” (Diana Browning Wright). The main problem with the school system is its consistent failure to flag down students who show signs of learning difficulties at an early age. Once a child is discovered as an at risk youth, the school should be notified that this student should be viewed under special conditions. Children are resilient but only if they have the tools .Teaching students that they have control over their own live is an empowering experience for the students.

The issue of school policies and its disciplinary methods being indifferent toward the plight of all students is as relevant today as it was in the past. We must all come together to ensure the student have the power to develop their own wellbeing psychologically. A poem that resonates with me and this topic is Invictus by William Ernest Henley because everyone deserves the right tools, to make sound judgment. Every student deserves a chance and a part of this poem expresses that we are all in charge of our lives “Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”(Henley)

Works Cited

Barret, D. “Prison Firm CCA Seeks to Reduce Number of Repeat Offenders.” Wall Street

Journal. 12 Sep. 2014. http://online.wsj.com/articles/prison-firm-cca-seeks-to-reduce-number-of-repeat-offenders-1410561176

Castillo, Jennifer. "Tolerance in Schools for Latino Students: Dismantling the School-to-Prison

Pipeline." Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy 26 (2014): 43-58. ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.

 http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu/docview/1618349164?accountid=4870

Walter, S., Lambie, G. & Ngazimbi, E. “A Choice Theory Counseling Group Succeeds with

Middle School Students Who Displayed Disciplinary Problems.” Middle School Journal, 40(2), 4-12. Nov. 2008. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu/docview/217441116?accountid=4870

Wright, B, Diana. “Changing Children's Behavior in School” Great Schools. Web.2012

http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/behavior-discipline/711-helping-change-behavior.gs

Henley, W, William. “Invictus” Poetry Foundation. Web. 1888

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182194

Love is simple

Love is natural, and love is simple even animals are capable of love. Why do we make love into this maze, or Rubix cube? Where does the convolution of love spawn?

 

I believe that love gets entangled, in the ideas of what we think should be and what is. In truth, you are a young man or woman whose life focus should be maintaining homeostasis but in actuality you are out trying to find love based on pretense. When you choose a mate, your mind subconsciously goes through every movie you watched, book you've read, etc. So we walk around with the preconceived notion that every love should be a replica of the prescribed love provided in pill form by mass media that we've ingested.

 

Every failed relationship becomes a striking resemblance, to when we found out Santa Claus was not real. Now please do not take this wrong, I do believe in love, and I do believe it not only exist but it is necessary for survival. Love has become an addiction and not real love but the pill form love. Think about it, all the dating sites and finding love sites created, "that is easy money for anybody with the soulless intent inspired by making money off of desperate people and their attempts to find love."

 

 

What I am saying is love takes time, and most people will falter because patience is a virtue we lack. If you are American the need to go faster is intoxicating, so when the prospect of love comes into our midst we swarm over it. It is only human to fall to such a stimuli, so no one should feel ashamed for falling, falling in love.

 

If you are male or female, the first kiss is coming into an endless sea of bliss and euphoria. Now it is once again only human to assume that intercourse is worse than a kiss, but in all actuality the kiss is the beginning of love.