rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

wisdom tales: take 1

 

MONDAY, a good week or more later

some days are diamonds, some days are stone, but whats amazing is i been
able to maintain production in spite of schoolhouse and the ups and downs of

the spirit, some days i feel like this is a worthy project, some days i feel like im
wasting my time, but ima hang with it till its done, then i will judge it, not before

been interesting watching the deconstruction of ben carson

a fraudulent opportunist who has been selling market tested fantasies of blackness long before he started rebranding himself for the tea party as the antiobama, still he spends as much time on book tour as he does on campaign and still he denies he shilled for mannatech, hes just a hustler shamelessly selling himself on the slaveblock - but i wish lamestream media would cut him some slack until after the repubs nominate him, wait till theyve commited, tilll then give him the same pass they giving him, then cripple him - can you imagine that low info candidate trying to debate hillary clinton, i was so looking forward to hillary eating him for lunch

 

 

FRIDAY

yesterday i was flying high, still researching but decided time to start knocking manuscript into shape
so im reading thru it now trying to make it coherent page by page and its so discouraging, its weak

selfhelp stuff that im wading thru now, i will be glad when
i get thru this phase and dig into some good mythwork

got some discouraging feedback on an article i did based
on the 81 movements but it just reinforces what i already

know, i have to do books, i have to give folk the whole vision
give them pieces of it and they dont see it, they dis me, got

to do the book - then if they dont see it, so what, done
my part - so be it - quit whining about the drudge, gotta

do what i tell my students and ignore the fact that its trash
i have to have faith it will work one day, i have to have faith

in the process - buckle down rick, wade thru

recently unfriend folk on FB who defend police actions like the one w/kid in SC, reactionary folk who insist that if blackfolk just respected authority and do whatever the police tell them to there wouldn't be a problem - but thats not always the case, thats what slavers said & i suspect hitler would agree, martin luther king would not - last time i got stopped for driving while black the cop told me he stopped me because i was 'leaning' - I'm like i was what? we went thru the whole dance cause i don't huff and puff cop encounters, not my style - but i recently saw a post pose the question - should authority always be respected even when its wrong, is that not a police state - authority needs to respect its citizens if it wants to be respected in return 

 

 

MONDAY

Back in the day Man and Woman was equal in all things when one day Man decide he want to
rule over Woman and Everything Else so he go find God lounging around in Paradise and ask if
he can have Strength to rule over all things.  Everything, he say.  Including Woman? ask God
dubiously.  Specially Woman, say Man.  God not sure this is going to work but he give Man
a heaping helping of Strength and send him on his way.  Fore you know it Man ruling everything,
naming the animals and all, claiming everything, sitting pretty.  When Woman come home that
evening he say he is in charge now, cause God give me all the Strength, I am the boss, don't
you worry though, Ima be a benevolent boss, cause you cool with me.  Woman don't appreciate
this not one bit so she go to Paradise and ask God to give her Strength to match Mans and God
say, sorry, I cant do that, what I give I don't take back.  That's when Woman notice a sack of
Wisdom over in the corner and say well can I have the that there sack of Wisdom then and God
say what you gon do with all that Wisdom, Ima tell you, God say, that Wisdom more trouble than
its worth and Woman say don't you worry none about that God, just give me that Wisdom there
and we gon call it square.  And so it come to pass that they was equal again.  More or less.

 

on a life of the spirit

SUNDAY MORNING  10/25

like bernie i like bernie a lot but im voting for hillary, im supporting hillary full out, cause i want to win, no, let me rephrase that, we've got to win - the idea of the repubs winning the presidency and keeping congress i dont want to imagine, youve seen what happens when they gain one party control in the states (or congress and/or supreme court for that matter) chaos on chaos and mean spirited policies - what little obama has achieved will be wiped away, humane policies we have fought hard for will be just wiped away and replaced with god knows what - -

folk want to dis hillary because she is a player, aint that what we need, a serious hardcore player up in here - cause repubs these days are ruthless, theyve painted themselves into a corner and keep doubling down, voter suppression and other practices once considered political anathema do not shame them, we are 'governed' by folk who have nothing but contempt for governance, who want to cripple america (drown in bathtub) much like ISIS and other such assorted enemies -

for us to nominate bernie would be like the repubs nominating trump, a base rouser thats going nowhere w/the general population, we cant afford delusional politics - i say unleash hillary on them, i know she will embarrass me occasionally, just like obama does, but i accept the payoff - we just cant afford to lose this one, cant afford to burn off energy and resources on protest votes and pull hillary so far left she cant get back to the center in the general -

i will let you folk who want to vote with their hearts do so in the primary but when come time to throw down you folk are going to have to mount up, as for myself these are serious times and im just too old for protest votes

 

WEDNESDAY morning  10/20

photo, inside kasumus room by dawoud bey

spirit (   ) one of my weak segments, no reason i got a lot to say about spirit
so for the weak ones ima just riff of the top of my head when i can, had this
to say about spirit this morning:

on the value of living a life of the spirit there are many - increased quality of life, health, relationships, decision making, personal satisfaction and peace of mind among them, greater contributions to the enhancement of the human condition, a certain transcendent grace - everything benefits from the conscious life, but most intriguing are the cosmic calculations - there are certain questions, life after death among them, or the nature of god, for which there are no answers, none we can actually know - we do what we can, we muddle through, we speculate - choosing whatever makes us stronger in the world, stronger in our lifetimes – I speculate that if one is strong in the spirit, if one lives in the spirit, it is more likely that spirit will live on beyond the death of the body – now as to what that experience would entail, who can know, different religions/traditions have wildly different speculations but truthfully who can know, this one thing however I will assume: whatever it is it will entail struggle, my experience has been that there are no time outs - everyday is struggle

me and my wisdom stories

so what im doing now is working my way thru all these books of myth and wisdom stories et all, hoping they inspire my own versions, many of which will play off babajohn killens, my mentor, so im going thru this wisdom tales from around the world by hellen forrest and she starts with a poem based on a story told by maggid of dunbo, 18th century rabbi, it start writing down her version to redo it later and in the writing about halfway thru started telling it in my own voice, then just went ahead and did my own version, its still raw, 1st draft but already, 5:42am, ive had a good day, ima put this one in presentation,

Naked Truth and Parable

naked truth walked down the street one day, people turned their eyes away
parable arrived, draped in decoration, people greeted parable with celebration
naked truth sat alone, sad and unattired, why so miserable, parable inquired
naked truth say im not welcome anymore, folk chase me from their door

DIDNT FEEL LIKE TYPING UP THE "QUOTE" MARKS AND THATS WHEN I STARTED
USING MY OWN VOICE, FIGURED THATS WHERE IM TAKING THIS ANYWAY

that's cause you got no presentation, parable explain and parable fix old truth
style truth with some nice threads, some advice on carriage, fix truth up

with a potion composed of metaphor, poise, heros and gods and tricksters
throw in some laughter and some tears and some outright joy and send
old boy back out there and folk loved truth adorned, they always have

THIS WAS A SURPRISE WATCHING THIS COME OUT, THEN I DECIDE TO TRY IT IN MY OWN VOICE

so truth come down the street one day looking all sad and bedraggled, beggar bowl in hand, when it happen up on the babajohn out for his daily constitutional.  this of course offend the great griot and he inquire about truth condition, I don't recall ever seeing you this bad, the babajohn venture, and truth say times been truly hard, the internet and all, media, the way data flow these days, its been hard for me to keep up, say truth, folk don't have time for me anymore, not like they used to but babajohn say, no no no, you still good, your style has gotten a little thin, you damn near naked and naked truth always had a rough row to hoe, let me work on your presentation with you - and the babajohn style truth up with some nice threads, conservative cut, the kind that's always timely, loose garments tolerant of imperfections and accessorizations that suggest stylee, he fix truth up a potion composed of metaphor and an ear for the language, he mix in some good storylines and heap of narrative grace, he throw in some tears and laughter and delicate endgames of ineffable melancholy, a few, just a few, instances of outright joy and a little undertow of vision working the mix, the babajohn turn truth this way and that till he satisfied and send truth on out into the marketplace and truth don't necessarily get paid but enuf to make a way and that's all truth need, to make a way, folk always appreciate truth if you adorn it a little, drape it in a little stylee

 

 

moving on - on the nature of stealing

WEDNESDAY

im in that awful stage where the more you work the deeper you dig yourself into a hole
so my latest fiasco, im reading that chop wood draw water book and in front of every

chapter they have a wisdom tale, like that classic nasruddin tale where the stickler
for form chastizes his practice as not right but when he leaves his book and gets on

a boat, here comes nasruddin walking across water to tell him he left his text
so im already thinking a story for each of the 81 movements and they are mostly

animal stories so far because african and african american folklore thats what you get
but now im wanting wisdom tradition folklore like the sufis et al have but we dont have

that tradition so im thinking i will start one, i think about a story ive often told about when
i was a cub and hardcore, a full out man of power and babajohn pulled me aside one day

and said you a brilliant writer but with a little compassion you could be profound
im thinkijng thats one i could retell as a wisdom story, then i think

babajohn and the conqueror, a series about the spiritual training interactions
of babajohn killens and the conqueror, then i think i dont want that to be one

gender, got to open that up, i consider making the conqueror gender nuetral
maybe i can have other players in that universe like high haints both dead

and living, like the windwalker maybe, anyway, so now, if i dont use my brer rabbits
i need 81 wisdom tales - i got one about the 1st hoodoo monkey tribe doctor to stand upright
i might be able to use the one about my father owning all the kids on the south side???

what i like about this babajohn and the conqueror series is that one it allows me to fruther mythologize the conqueror as concept and two, it allows me to further mythologize babajohn in a way that potentialls is

much more powerful than the essays iv have been writing about him and immortalizing babajohn
making sure he gets the respect as a litrary visionary that he deserves, isw part of my mission

so this is a rough draft of the revised babajohn and the conqueror:

in his youth the conqueror was a full on conqueror, a hard man with a hard plan, basically to gather blackfolk into a conquering horde and fling them into battle, one day babajohn called him to the sacre ground and sat him down, you a brilliant conjuror, say babajohn, one of the best ive every trained, but with a little compassion you could be profound

all the conqueror heard was brilliant, wasnt until he himself was an elder that he realized what babajohn was trying to do, trying ot insure that the conquerors legacy, as his student would not be hard and chilling but warm and loving, want until he was older that he realizes the value of the compassion of o killens in everything you do

oky, it needs work but you get the idea, now i need 81 of them
got about 5 i say, ima try to do one rough draft a day

my 2nd year grad class did a production and revision discussion yesterday
i had them write out their production process and pass them out and then

we discussed them and the importance of constantly refining both process & revision
hopefully it was useful, i got to go, i got to set up this story document - thats todays task

a new document, my outline (the 81 geas movements) then a story under each
that i will be constantly refining over next year or so, so i want it as a separate document -

okay im gone, so much to do, so few productive years left but at least this thread excites me
im burnt out on the self help thread - though that dont stop me from doing it just no joy in it

im gone

 

 

SATURDAY
that draw water chop wood turned out to be a disappointment
it was good with the mundanes but it faltered on higher registers

also im worried about my craft, doing all these spiritual platitudes
i fear it will corrupt my fiction when i go back but i tell my students

all the time, once you start a major project you finish it
push those anxieties to the side and finish it

just fiinsh it . .

 

THURSDAY 10/2

had the most wonderful idea today, was thinking of ways to further seed my maxims in the world
and was thinking film, was seeing images like this one,  then i thought performance, ima do them
as a performance piece - boom shaka laka - me n my kalimba and sometime w/guest musicians -
ask warrington to do a video screen, clock it in in about 40 mintues, performance length w/q&a
get it on film . . .

ok let me put some thought on that . . . mean 1st i got to memorize them, thats gon be tedious . . .
it would be good game though, one question will be how to make it compelling narrative . .

gon be a big distraction, ima do it cause of game value and the challenge of it as a performer
but lord knows i dont have the wherewithal to initiate another major project . . .im tired . .

anthony map posted this on FB in response to a post i had made about the longgame and the black
lives matter folk, i found it provocative on many levels, told him ima use it, both quote & conceptuals:
-
"To me..the "long game" has great emphasis within the world of the various arts, literature and
entertainment venues. Throughout time there has never been lasting social or political change
unless reinforced by differing mediums. I continue to challenge those within the arts communities
to add more permanent presences to the Black Lives Matter moment by creating signposts to serve
as visible, spiritual and psychological markers that last long after the marchers have gone from
the streets and back into their homes."

 

 

TUESDAY 9/30

been told i should watch out for 'cultural bandits' stealing my maxims and claiming them as their own,
i took that into consideration when i put them online, its almost inevitable they get stole, anything you

put online you giving it away, its part of being in the digital dialogue, somebody stealing earlydraft stuff
get what they deserve, trash (course my trash gon be of a higher quality than most but it's still trash) -

only way it becomes a problem is if i don't actually do the book, thats on me - for me its not as much
about getting paid as it is making my sacred work part of the culture, my vision part of the dialogue -

working w/both hands, print & digital, like a 21st century player should, like jeff parker taught me
folk stealing your stuff all they doing is further embedding your vision into the culture, even if not

under your name, its all good, when you a player, trying to stay one step ahead of the game

that said i would like to get paid, get little respect for what i do - in my lifetime -
every move has consequences, all you can do is get on out here and dance

been seeding the maxims on the internet, i see ow i should have used the specific link instead
of to the whole blog, been stalling further commentary so anybody interested can check it out

but i got to move on so im putting it up permanent on rootwork.com
well at least as permanent as the internet allow

still trying to decide just how much of this work ima put online, i think
i will just put that off til i finish the draft, this made me even more determined

to put this puppy to bed, im tired of being ignored, not that me getting the work done mean
it wont be ignored, didnt help my other works but thats life in the visionary lane

when you write for the future you sometime blow your own
but if i write for current generations i will bore the future

thats a felony: want to be a visonary got to pay the dues
so the maxims are here: rootwork.com

im gone, got todays pages need clocking - still extracting
(stealing?) from chop wood, draw water,

difficult for me to complain about other folk extracting when
i do it everyday - just that there is a right and a wrong

way, if you use it to stimulate your own thinking
digest it so its yours - thats considered legit

that old quote, 'amateurs borrow, professionals steal'

i gotta go, every post i do here is 15 minutes i could have been
fixing a passage in the hoodoo book of flowers, every move

has consequence and the use of your time more than most

all my love