Escaping Reality; Come Back to Earth

By Glennisha Morgan

On a daily basis most of us escape reality without even knowing it. Every time we turn on the television in attempt to watch a show we’re escaping reality. Even watching “reality” TV is escaping reality. When we read books and magazines we take seconds away from our own lives to peer into others even if they are fiction. Sometimes we don’t even need things like television and books to escape reality. We may often find ourselves in a daze while painting fantasy like pictures in our minds. This, like the rest helps us escape.

Sometimes we may not even realize what exactly we’re escaping from. Maybe it’s a rough day at work or an ongoing argument with a significant other. It doesn’t always have to be that deep either. We may escape something as simple as minor stress from standing in a long line at the grocery store or trouble finding a parking space. There is nothing wrong with escaping reality but, sometimes we need to come back to earth.

When we become too far gone in a fantasy world we tend to forget what’s real. There is a problem when you can’t see the forest from the trees. If you notice that you’re a little out of touch with the “real world” I’d advise that you turn off the television, put down the magazines, and stop fantasizing.

Don’t Blame It On Religion

By Cherina Jones

When you talk about religion and politics, someone is likely to walk away with a broken ego or broken nose—or both. People take their politics and god seriously, so we are always warned to walk light. But most times we go hard, with every intention of breaking up the beliefs of our opponents, noting how trivial and nonsensical their logic is. Granted if everyone believed the same, this would be a pretty boring world. We fuck with each other for entertainment. I get it.

I use to go hard on religion with people, especially after my salvation OUT of religion. Not finding God the way I was seeking it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Like a kid with a new toy, it was my sincere mission to usher people over to my way of thinking. I set out to prove how idiotic and hypocritical it was to “serve” god, at least how I was taught. After awhile what I was doing made even less sense. I was doing what a lot of religious folk do when speaking about their religion. I was telling them they were wrong and they should think like me. I became an asshole who was no more enlightened than a crooked Baptist preacher screwing the whole missionary board.

Religion is not corrupt—people are. Religion is used as a status symbol and stage to entertain egos. I’ve realized that many people need religion and the reasoning is far less spiritual than one can assume. If a young woman says she refuses to kill because she belongs to the Greater Emmanuel Hezekiah Walker Tubman Phyllis Dillard COGIC international Baptist Holiness church, and her pastor says so, then I am glad she found religion. I am sure I wouldn’t agree with the doctrine, but she does, and it is that doctrine that keeps her out of the streets and into the safety of like minded individuals.

I’m not saying the practice of religion can’t be dangerous, because erroneous application of any doctrine to suit desires and misdeeds is a recipe for disaster. We see corruption all the time, priests raping and molesting children, pastors committing adultery with other church staff, monies being stolen from church organizations to support the personal habits of preachers and pastors, and people killing themselves and others in the name of their god. It’s actually pretty disgusting when you think about it.

I don’t follow any specific religion. I probably never will again. In no way am I anti-religion, because I think certain people need certain things to keep them balanced and spiritually strong. I don’t necessarily believe that, from what I hear, churches are completely devoted to the individual spiritual growth of their parishioners, but that is not for me to judge. I do believe that church organizations need to strengthen whatever spiritual foundation they have and leave the rest alone. Church “corporations” scare me. What this world needs right now is healing, and healing can’t come from showering each other with irrelevant criticism about how they acknowledge or don’t acknowledge god. There are far more people who acknowledge god than not, and for those who don’t—let them be. Spiritual freedom given or taken by force is really not freedom at all.

I implore people to put aside petty religious difference. There is a greater goal and challenge ahead that we all will participate in, and frankly there is no time to bicker over bullshit.

Out of Turn

by Cherina Jones

Today I read that De’angelo Wilson committed suicide. It hit me personally because De’angelo went to Kent State with me. We met when I worked at the student center and we would hang out sometimes. I remember when he told a couple of us that he was going to Hollywood—I didn’t believe him. A friend later told me that he was in the movie 8 mile, and I later saw him in Antwon Fisher. I was happy that he was able to set a goal for himself and achieve it. Personal victories are always sweet and most times catapult us into more successful endeavors, so imagine my surprise to hear he had hung himself.

No doubt everyone will go. As sure as you live, physically you will also die. Most of us don’t think about dying because we are too busy living, but it is always discouraging to know that there are people battling demons, convincing them to die. Suicide can’t be a noble option when life has challenged you so much you cease finding value in yourself. I don’t know what specifically causes depression, and I am sure the triggers are different for each person.

Due to the onset of this economic recession I am sure people are feeling helpless and hopeless. Situations are presenting themselves that can’t seem to be fixed by a “hang in there.” But words of encouragement never hurt. Going forward, it is going to be up to all of us as individuals to encourage each other. It is the power of our interconnectedness that will sustain us in the coming years.

I am always sad when young people commit suicide. Young people hold our futures in the center of their palms, and the more discouraged they are, the more discouraging our future begins to look. You never know what people are going through. We don’t live inside our own private bubbles unfortunately. What we do and say surely affect those around us.

As I mature and learn more, I have grown patience. We all have bad days, but we are not all aware of what others are going through. Sometimes your concern for others can depend on whether or not they feel like fighting another day.

Granted I didn’t know the person De’Angelo had become and it is unfortunate that he decided to end his life so abruptly, but it emphasizes the urgency placed on us to think and feel outside our own bubbles, our own islands. We are entering a moment in time that calls for us to take care of each other, to sift out what we know to be true, and shift into what we thought to be impossible. I am not expecting everyone to hold hands, hug and sing Kumbaya, but then again, it wouldn’t hurt.

Growing Up

By Saundra Bunton

Over the course of this Thanksgiving weekend, I spent a lot of time listening to Beyonce's new album, I Am... Sasha Fierce. Knowing some people who are hardcore fans of hers, I called them up to share with them my apparent surprise at the quality of her song choices. I was particularly impressed with the ballads as well as several of the more upbeat songs. As Beyonce and I are about the same age I have been insistent for several years now that her music should be maturing as she does, and I felt, with this album, that she had begun to move in that direction, which pleased me to no end.

Oddly enough, those people who I spoke to about her album were a bit less enthused. In fact, they were ready to throw away their fan club membership cards.

You should know that this is not about Beyonce. This is about disappointment.

This morning I was reading a book titled Complementarity. In one passage the author states that in Western society people are encouraged to maintain an immature childlike state all throughout their adulthood. This is evidenced in our appreciation for material possessions over spiritual development, as well as our greed and need to hoard items and money, living well past our means and owning way more than we'll ever need. Look no further than hip-hop if you need assistance with understanding this concept.

Hip-hop has nurtured an entire generation of folks who have no intention of growing up, a generation of people who resent anyone who does. It is insane that one should expect that an artist is going to stay the same throughout his/her entire career. Jay-Z suffered through the same criticism when he released his Kingdom Come album in 2006. Fans commented that he had lost touch with his roots and forgot where he came from, but the truth is that Jay-Z is not the same man today that he was when he recorded Reasonable Doubt. He has been president of Def Jam. He is recently married. He has been in a committed relationship for at least eight years. He is not standing on anyone's corner, selling anyone's drugs -- that is no longer his reality. How can you expect him to continue to talk about a life that he no longer has to live?

Rather than being happy that he has grown out of that stage in his life, rather than embracing the natural evolution that we all must eventually take, hip-hop has wholeheartedly embraced the Westernized and incredibly capitalist perspective that one must remain a perpetual child in order to be liked and appreciated.

This isn't just the standard that we hold up for artists. There are so many people who should have well outgrown the teenage stages of hip-hop and have yet to do so. Men in their forties and fifties who have no stocks, no bonds, no 401K, who continue to wear their jeans around their knees and rock backwards caps to the club. Women who have three and four children putting on the same miniskirts that they wore to their high school homecoming dance. What kind of examples are you setting for our children? When is it time for you to grow up?

So, I'm disappointed. That's what this is about. I have never liked Beyonce but I give props where props are due -- she proved with this album that she is maturing and that she is capable of taking her artistry to a more adult place. Unfortunately her fans seem to be unforgiving. And that's what disappoints me.