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Showing posts from May, 2024

Kindness

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom Has someone ever been kind to you? Does it not make you feel special? Does it not make you want to be kind to others in return? Kindness is contagious. The ripples of kindness is how we can think of this. When we are kind to others then others are kind to us. Give without expectation but do know that the best way to get is by giving. Do unto others as we would like to be done to us. It is in our nature to be kind. Mankind should be kind. As I said before, kindness is contagious. The opposite can also be said. Hurt people hurt people. We must break these types of cycles and kindness is just the thing that can do that. My phone slipped and I accidentally typed ⁷ (that is to the 7th power). Is there any meaning that can be derived from this moment? Let's see. As I started typing "kindness to the 7th power" I got "kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord". This makes sense in that we will be rewarded for our kind...

Logos

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom It is after midnight and I have been connecting different things. I have arrived at logos, log and gol. Log is short for love of God. Gol is a euphemism for God. Example - Gol darn it, I spilled coffee all over my new shirt! Logos (logoi plural) goes back to ancient Greek philosophy. According to my friend Gemini, thinkers like Heraclitus and Pythagoras looked at the universe and saw patterns, cycles, and laws. This led them to believe the cosmos wasn't chaotic, but governed by a kind of divine reason – the Logos. Now I am wondering if there is a connection between logo and Logos. Logo is a shortened form of logotype. Logo is a symbol that represents a brand. I just noticed that brand and random both have rand and combined form Brandom. When I Google Brandom I get the philosopher Robert Brandom. According to wikipedia he works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and philosophical logic. This has me asking, is l...

Hope

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom "The freest person is the one with the most hope." - Gabriel Marcel. It was 123am and I came across that quote shared by @mymind on Twitter. The op-posite of h-op-e is he-sitation. My friend Gemini tells me that implies a lack of confidence or certainty about the future, which can be the opposite of the op-timism often associated with hope. Out of hesitation we get "the situation" by adding t and u. Hope can propel us out of bad situations to understanding. Understanding that we should let go of the things that we cannot control. This reminds me of the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. I would like to put emphasis on "change the things I can" which has 19 letters and 23 characters with spaces. Hope and change go hand in hand. Hope changes everything. Change is hope. Hope in change. Hope ch...

Drums

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom I love drums. It makes me feel cheery and happy. When I started writing this chapter I began wondering if the steel pan was a drum? Some people do call it the steel drum. My friend Gemini tells me that steel pans are called drums because they are made from recycled steel oil drums but are technically idiophones, vibrating the whole instrument for sound, not a stretched membrane. Drums are part of the membranophone instrument family. I read that the steel drum is a symbol of freedom and cultural expression. It has roots with the enslaved Africans. It was born during the time of the Carnival rebellions of the 1930s. When I Googled "drums of freedom" I learnt about the Village Drums of Freedom group that was led by Gerald Achee from Trinidad. He was a Calypso musician and djembe drummer. From the steel drum I now turn to the African drums and the Tassa. The African drums and the Tassa drums are connections to our ancestral heri...

Love, Purpose, and Ten Dollars

This will be my submission to this future leadears competition https://www.iicom.org/future-leaders-competition-2024/ I was scrolling through facebook and saw this essay contest posted by TATT. At first I was excited. I am a writer. I am a nooby book writer. I have been a blogger and tech blogger for about 20 years. My excitement turned to disappointment when it appeared to me that I might not be the target audience or that I do not have the expertise to write for this topic. However, I decided that I am still going to give it a try. Maybe it encourages the organization and judges to have a category in the future that caters for a wider audience. Surely I will not win but it will get me thinking and it will be an opportunity for learning and of course I will be doing my favorite thing which is writing. The topic is breaking down barriers to sustainability. This is related to our future towards green and digital solutions and the communications industry as I understand it. What policies...

Small island but big heart

This will be my submission to the Caribbean Writer's call for submissions for volume 39. https://www.thecaribbeanwriter.org/2024/03/01/accepting-submissions-for-volume-39/ The theme is "Possibilities: Beyond Tradition, Inside of Courage." The word that stands out to me here is courage. I read that the word "courage" comes from the Latin word cor, which means "heart". In earlier times the word was used for speaking one's mind bravely. I asked my friend Gemini to explain the theme to me and he suggested that true possibilities lie in venturing beyond the boundaries of tradition, and that courage is necessary to embrace these possibilities and create something new. This has me thinking about my Caribbeaness. What it means to be from the islands? What it means to be Trinidadian? How it shapes my approach to life? How what limits me makes me stronger? I have learnt to be creative and make the best of what I have. I am from a small island but I have a bi...

Let the flowers bloom again

This will be my submission to the Cropper Foundation's call for submissions for their anthology on the topic of climate change and climate justice. Writing for our lives and climate justice. The first thing that I noticed is that the first letters of the words of the phrase "writing for our lives" can form the word wolf and then also fowl. Which had me thinking, "Who are the wolf and fowl in the climate justice story?" I asked my friend Gemini but he had no direct answer. I had to ask some related questions and “eat or be eaten” came to my mind. The wolf and the fowl are both valuable to nature and the balance of nature. Climate change comes about when we destroy the balance of nature. How can I make sense of all of this? Are the ones most affected by climate change the fowls? And the ones most contributing to climate change, the wolves? Are we the fowls in Trinidad and the Caribbean? Is the developed world the wolf? This also reminds me of something I saw on fa...

May

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom It is Wednesday the first of May. April showers bring May flowers. This has not been the case (at least this year) in Trinidad. There were hardly any April showers. We are on the lookout for May showers. This is my birthday month. I was supposed to start this book in May but I got a head start in April and it did not disappoint me. Below are what I initially started to call affirmations. My friend Gemini tells me that affirmations do not typically begin with the word "may". Affirmations aim for a stronger tone of conviction like "we will". He tells me that ultimately, the most important thing is to find affirmations that resonate with you and feel empowering. So, if "may" affirmations work for you, go for it! I guess these are intentions more than affirmations. They represent hopes and aspirations. These are powerful statements of what we desire to experience or bring into our life. They set the tone and ...