The Unemployed Bum

Just because you have a million and one things to do, doesn't mean you will be guaranteed to get them done. And just because your present intentions are sincere, doesn't mean they get immunity from circumstances beyond your control to execute them. So yeah, I have sickle cell.... yada yada yah, and I'm also an author (more yada yah). I'm also a person do doesn't take kindly to being told she can't. I'm stubborn to a fault, and I don't know when to quit.

It confuses the hell out of me when people that are 100% healthy are not just unemployed (shit happens, none of us are immune to that), but choose to wallow in their situation and even blame their lack of 'xyz' on there inability to improve it. I'm self-employed (which at the moment is barely a stones throw from unemployed when we look at it from a financial perspective), but what keeps me busy, whether paid or not, is what I do in spite of not having a weekday 9-5 and a meagre monthly salary. I work, and damn it oftentime I work more hours than your average 9-5er and for less pay too. I do it not only because I can, I do it because I must. I do it to prove to myself that it is possible, that I'm not a waste of space and I because have children that need a role model. I will not have my short peeps grow up thinking they don't have to try, after all, mummy sat on her arse doing nothing. Hecks naw! I take my role as a mother very seriously and I believe that much of being a parent is a combination of 'do as I say' and 'do as I do'. How do I encourage my children to work hard and BE their best, if I'm doing nothing of the sort?

I don't just do it for them though, I do it for my sanity. How the hell does someone who is not limited by the contraints of their body, sit at home doing nothing but eat, shit 'n' sleep, day in - day out? If I don't achieve something, no matter how small everyday, I feel as if I may as well not exist. I'm little more than a useless eater, totally out of synch with the universe, because all that is natural and in accordance with oneness does not only take, it gives too. Just like the tides can not only ebb, they must also flow.

It's been about a year and a half since I last earned a monthly paycheck, but if a future employer were to ask me, 'What have you been doing since your last form of employment?' I could hold my head up and give an exhaustive list of new skills I have attained from writing and promoting books to hosting a radio show and becoming a motivational speaker.

It's not about having formal papers to tell you that you have a right to BE. After all, qualifications are just a socially accepted measure of your ability to perform well within a particular environment. In the age where wikipedia rules, how to's and tutorials are freely available on the internet, Joe Randoms are becoming experts in all areas. So why not enhance yourself and become an authority in your field of interest? I know a person who taught themself how to read, I know peeps who have learned how to install telephone extensions, and I have taught myself how to sell books that I've written, simply through creative application of what I already knew, and thus I know more for having done so. You don't have to move mountians, but beyond your overdrawn bank statements, prove to yourself that you exist. When your time on this plane has expired, aside from a bitter after-taste, what will be the proof that you came, saw and conquered? What have you done with your life today?

Black To The Future

On writing my book, 'The Mouth of Babes' I wasn't thinking about the impact it would have on some people, but British film director/screen writer, Menelik Shabazz, was so awed by my novel that he left a message in my local bookstore 'D'jed', for me to contact him asap and so I did.

During our conversation, he gave me serious food for thought. He mentioned that very few nubians write sci-fi and that it was almost as if we didn't see ourselves in the future. He labelled me a pioneer, for aparently before myself, there have been no other British black authors for this genre. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, and have been searching hard to prove him wrong, but so far I'm coming up empty. So wait, we are in the 21st century, and only now we have a Black British presence in science fiction? Funny thing is, I wrote and published the book two years ago, but didn't make it available for sale til May 2009, because I didn't think anyone would be interested. Initially I had no intention in publishing, I was content enough to leave it sitting idly on my PC.

I'm still chewing over the part that 'black people don't see themselves in the future'. Do we really envision a world where we do not feature as a people? Or is it that we don't care to think beyond a seeing our children grow up? Could this be a factor as to why we have so much black on black crime? Because deep down we feel don't see ourselves as making enough waves to contribute to a future worth looking forward to?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not trying to be looking at Orion's Belt from down here forever. I got gods/goddess that I need to bump shoulders with, and ships I need to catch a ride to Arcturus on. And I damn well know my co-pilot is going to be BLACK, the designer of my craft is going to be BLACK, I will be welcomed by ambassadors that are BLACK. If the advancement in technology makes access to the stars in my current physical incarnation unavailable to me, I will continue to write to set a precedence for my people to know they better do the dayum thing on my behalf! The future is bright, the future is BLACK.

Now talk to me, where do we as a people see ourselves say, 50, 100, 200 years from now?

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Destiny Kingsley, affectionately known as Teeny, falls into a sudden inexplicable coma, leaving her divorced parents to face their worst fears. Unbeknown to them, their daughter's loss of consciousness has been induced by her late grandmother for the sake of delivering an important message; "Don't forget to BE".

During Teeny's unprecedented hiatus, she learns of things that shatter her world whilst at the same time prepare her for a new one; She is the Crystal Child daughter of two Indigo parents with an imperative mission that must be accomplished at all costs.

The first in a trilogy, The Mouth of Babes is a spiritual science fiction novel based on the new age concept of 'Crystal' and 'Indigo' children destined to bring forth world change.