Friday, September 28, 2007

I helped out at my neighbor’s financial seminar the other month. During a portion of it the speaker discussed “givers” and “takers”, their qualities and traits, how they make you feel when in action. At one point, he clarified: we are not givers or takers, but giving and taking, constantly becoming or being, we are not static or set.

I might go outside and feel cold, wish the weather were warmer. I might visualize myself being comfortable in a T-shirt. In the summer I might visualize the fall or winter. Cole pointed out that the problem with The Secret, the self-help phenomenon based on positive visualization is that the complexity of a given situation can get lost in the push of what a situation could be (rather than what it is).

I’ve been sitting on a bus for the last four hours. There was an interesting conversation in the back of the bus about racism, between an attractive Puerto Rican woman, an African American man and a Caucasian man. It made me think of the kid I’m sitting next to, afraid to speak to me and maybe vice versa, but our hips are pressed up against each other. The smell of a black boy.