Life out of Context

This past Sunday I hosted ‘the ladies who love to read book club,’ started by two lovely ladies I have a high respect for. Being an extreme introvert I enjoyed listening to these young ladies chat about life, events and themselves. I am always amazed at how much enthusiasm and joy oozes out of extroverted humans.

Wewere discussing Walter Mosley's “Life out of Context.” In my living room sat eight  accomplished, beautiful and intelligent women. I was awed at how similar we all are apart from all the credentials we carry. We all question the status quo of our people in this country from a global perspective. I was slightly taken aback at Mosley indication of the plight of our people not being in state of war. We however, agreed that there is a war against us. But we never stop to think that this war is not being fought with a sword and shield.We are a very strong people and the only we can be destroyed is through the destruction of our minds. We as a people do not know this, I guess in many ways we have come to believe that we are less than; a people mentally and physically inferior and because of this we reject our own culture and norms and embrace anything else but what is akin to us. We are constantly bombarded with agendas to distract us from our plight and fight and we are unconscious of who we are and too entangled in other peoples culture that we are disconnected from who we really are. 

I wondered for a moment as I looked around me, asking myself, "How important are my degrees? Have my degrees brought me to a place where I want to be or are they only an illusion of success? What is success? Who defines it? Five of us migrated to the States for varied reasons but hey, we are all here living lives out of context without necessarily knowing it. We study food, health and human rights laws of  culture that sometimes appears to be against our very own existence. We are conscious yet completely unconscious. 

The concept of consciousness sweeping over our people today is characterized by avoiding MacDonald’s and other fast food places, questioning and doubting the media, and recognizing that there is a war against us and yet not defining the enemy. Not because we do not know who the enemy is, but because our lives are entirely wrapped up in what could be against us that we cannot separate ourselves from it. In a sense we have become our own enemy and this is part of the war. Unless we start to disentangle ourselves from what is not us or for us, we are never going to be free. This life of ours will always be a life out of context.

I believe in retro; in going back to the roots to being grounded, literally and metaphorically. I am the kind of person who has to understand ideas and issues from the root otherwise am hopeless at making decisions. I need details, why and how? A couple of years ago, I had many questions because I had done everything I wanted to do but I was never getting where I wanted to be. Today, on this retro path, my life is slowly finding context.