Too Short "Gettin It" and how life is like the free market

Classic track from those 14 year-old summer days when I used to sleep in till noon, then wake up and lay in bed trying to decide if I was fully rested or wanted to sleep some more. Just contemplate life and the day ahead in the most unhassled fashion one could imagine. Start my day by listening to Too Short kickin game about "Gettin it while the gettin is good" because nothing lasts forever, and to a larger context over-saturation occurs and new doors must be opened...

Which brings me to another thought.... About how life is like the Free Market. It seems like good times always come to pass. I've often asked myself why is that?

Well I've eventually came to the realization (after consulting Libertarian thoughts on the subject). That life is somewhat like a free-market. That when something good is found, it can only be exploited for so long before it becomes over-saturated.

Take early to mid-90's rap music for example. After a couple decades of growth rap music finally hit a climax. Artists, labels, and those covering the culture were generating great profits, having a great time, and supplying millions of fans with quality art/music. This lasted for some time but eventually the market caught up. Soon rappers less artistic than the pioneers would come along and follow the same formula. They would water down the art form. Likewise, petty and less emotionally invested fans wanted to join in on the fun and take part in a culture while in it's climax. They began to water down the consumer market. Slowly, what was once a good thing became over-saturated, and you now have the outgrowth of that in what we see today in rap music. Where 2pac now becomes the ugly outgrowth of Lil Wayne; and Lauryn Hill has been discarded for Niki Minaj.

But this theory of exploitation and then over-saturation holds true in many avenues of life. Imagine the lover who finds his gem. Who's found a partner that others overlooked. Treats them so great and they share a great love. Soon others see what a good thing they have going. Competitors enter the market, and the two engaged in the relationship suddenly realize they have many options outside the relationship. Soon their relationship can be threatened and broken apart.

...and so on in many aspects of social life and economics.

How too much safety has resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin...

Back in late 2,000 I read a book by William Upski Wimsatt called "No More Prisons". The theory behind the project was that we had put ourselves in artificial prisons in America, by locking all our doors to our cars, houses, and belongings; and fearing one another. This isolated cultural life had actually made us less safe and more fearful of one another.

The author advocated for people to move about freely into "dangerous" parts of town, to begin picking up hitchhikers and so on and so forth. As a way of removing our fear of strangers. He even put this idea to the test, by promoting his book in all the most dangerous cities of America, standing on street corners alone late at night. And sure enough, no harm ever came to him. Although, once he said he did get beat up; "but then again, everybody needs a good as kicking every now and then", he said.

But in general he says if you are polite and non-confrontational, you can go about safely in any city at any time in America. Such a refreshing position is greatly needed in American society today.

Just recently we had the case of Trayvon Martin. A teenager who was shot by a suspicious neighborhood watchmen. The murder was a paranoid psycho-path, who had made something like 45 calls to police over suspected incidents in the year.

We always hear so much about making our communities safe. But what about making our communities courageous? What about teaching people to have enough courage to open up to "outsiders"?

On Converting To Islam back in late 2,000.

"When the hand of Life is heavy and night songless, it is the time for love and trust. And how light the hand life becomes and how songful the night, when one is loving and trusting all." Khalil Gibran

The above quote by Khalil Gibran explains a great deal about how I came to Islam in 2,000. I was amongst the walking dead. It seemed so to me, that many people in my city walked about lifeless, and it was becoming that I was one of them. I felt that there was no joy left in my life. I could remember some happy times in my life. I remembered the mid-90's and a lost relationship I'd had with a girlfriend of mine. I longed for those days. I made a trip out to see her where she had moved to another state. It was a last desperate attempt to recapture my lost self. She disconnected the phone on me and wouldn't talk. Bewildered and bemused from the events, I contemplated death and dying.

I read in the Qu'ran a verse that said, "Don't speak of those who are have passed as if they are dead; Nay, they are living, if you but knew".

Knowing very little about Islam, and even less about the politics involved. And how controversial such verses would later become in public discourse. I understood the verse in my own unique way. As I took it as since I was already amongst the walking dead, why not live a life of dignity and righteousness? If I was going to lose all that I loved in life and if I was to be disregarded and forgotten by life, then what if I suffered the same affliction, yet under as a submitter to God rather than a defeated has-been.

I decided to put my trust in God, and to trust those who likewise, believed and submitted to God. Suddenly the world became light and I was willing to accept whatever hand life had dealt me. Since Allah was the source, all happiness and sorrow was only his offspring.

Such an idea would later lead me to yet another set a problems and entanglements. But for a period of years this train of thought allowed me a breath of fresh air, and though it was temporary; I knew if I could capitalize on such spiritual energy, I just may be able to open up a window into a new life more meaningful.

My thought on Eldridge Cleaver

I consider Eldridge Cleaver to be the most articulate (save for Malcolm X) voice out of The Sixties counterculture revolution.

His whole intellectual curiosity was sparked in prison when one of the guards confiscated his poster of a white women. The guard said he would only allow him to pin up a poster of a black women. This bemused Cleaver as to why he adored white women and disregarded black. The train of thought would soon lead him to a spiritual and intellectual awakening that would help define a generation.

When I first read his book, Soul on Ice, (in the summer of 2001 as a 19 year old) it was way over my head. The idea for reading his book actually came from a rapper named Ras Kass, who had an album under the same title. That album was a favorite of mine at the time, and featured such classic politico-rap tracks as "Nature of The Thread".

I had to consult a dictionary nearly every other sentence. I wasn't sure if the meaning I was extracting from the book was the intended meaning of the author. But since I could vaguely grasp some meaning or understanding from the book I read on. I finished it and read it again once more. I was delighted to find as I researched more and talked to others that I had in fact understood his words correctly!
 This lead to my ability to take on other challenging works of literature and to understand the public discourse in newspapers and television that had before been unattainable to me.

I wrote this poem around the same time I was reading this book;

“Philosophize with me...
Look deeply into my eyes...
Death comes a thousand times in our lives
And in a thousand different forms,
Everytime our heart breaks,
that's death once more,
You ever read a book before?
And from it, meaning you received,
But you just weren't sure,
If that was the intended meaning of the author?
That's what my life is like right now”