The principle we focus on today, this third day of Kwanzaa, is Ujima. It's a word that points to the idea of collective work and responsibility, which is a concept that I feel is missing from so many of our communities. One of the things that binds a society together is this very ideal, that … Continue reading Kwanzaa 2015: Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
Category: Self-Reflection
Kwanzaa 2015: Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
I am a gay black man. I am a Zen Buddhist. (Thank you, Kevin.) I am agnostic -- I don't know if there is a God, but I don't believe that being a good person should be dependent on that. I am a writer, gamer, geek, lover of animals, myths, and the intersection between them. … Continue reading Kwanzaa 2015: Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
(Personal) Choices
It's that time. Best of the year lists are popping up all over the pop-culture and entertainment blogs. Books, movies, TV shows, art installations, plays and musicals, even memes are being reviewed so we can try to make sense of the past twelve months. We spent how much time obsessed over that back in February? … Continue reading (Personal) Choices
(Friday Fiction) Br’ers – Break
And here's the next little bit. Still figuring out the setting while trying to make connections between Greggory's experience and experiences I've had being a "black face in a white space". This one stems from SO MANY TIMES being the only black guy with the feeling of "you don't belong here" heavy in the air. … Continue reading (Friday Fiction) Br’ers – Break
(Personal) Going Back to Go Forward
My childhood was spent in a procession of hostile places. At home, I had a severe, distant mother and an alcoholic father to tend with; my sister got into trouble a lot and ran away from home several times, so there was always something terrible going on there. At school I was a poor, shy … Continue reading (Personal) Going Back to Go Forward
(Personal) Three Pounds of Flax
A monk asked Tozan when he was weighing some flax: "What is Buddha?" Tozan said: "This flax weighs three pounds." It is so impossibly hard to do one thing at a time in this day and age. As I sit to write this, I'm thinking about a number of other things -- the 500 words … Continue reading (Personal) Three Pounds of Flax
(Personal) A Rabbit Thinks About Fear
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and I'm still wrapping my brain around it. I never thought of myself as a particularly anxious person; sure, there were a lot of things that I had an outsized reaction against, but I always thought that was tied up with self-esteem issues or concentration … Continue reading (Personal) A Rabbit Thinks About Fear
Spillage
There's a Zen story that goes something like this: a Buddhist scholar comes to a Zen master and asks him for teaching. The scholar then proceeds to establish his credentials, talking about how long he's studied, the doctorate he's received, the professors he's associated with, the whole thing. The master listens while pouring the scholar … Continue reading Spillage
My Writing Guide to November 2015
October was a pretty intense month. I went in for full training on changing my position at work, which means there are a LOT of holes in my technical knowledge that need to be filled. The shift also means that I'm down in the trenches with coworkers a bit more, and that means an opportunity … Continue reading My Writing Guide to November 2015
What It Is (Personal)
When I'm not hopping around as a jackalope online, I'm this chubby black dude who has a day job at a tech company. That much you know. I'm going to talk a little bit about what's going on with me personally here, but I'll try to be vague enough that there's not so much overlap … Continue reading What It Is (Personal)
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 