I come from a tradition of people who were highly intelligent though not degreed, by that I mean regular people who understood how to use what they knew to provide for themselves, their family and their community-- that was intelligence. And if you happened to find a way to marry that with mud and root wisdom and a kind of spiritual potency that helped others see the world in bolder ways that freed our imaginations to envision newer, fuller freedoms, well that was genius. I am not alone, many of us-- perhaps most of us-- have been breastfed by this tradition. Those of us who were sent off to get degrees were not sent off to become brilliant or intelligent- we were that before we stepped on any campus. We were sent to gain skills, expertly learnt and skillfully applied to the problems that comfort our people. Evidence of genius is in the amelioration of our peoples condition, evidence of our beauty is in our service. The degrees were merely signals to our people that we had disciplined ourselves and made necessary sacrifices, to return to our communities, wherever they were or wherever we found them and work with those who stayed, to collectively work to share skills expertly learnt, skillfully applied and married with mud and root of wisdom and spiritual potency that helps others see the world in bolder ways that free our imaginations, to envision newer, fuller freedoms. Our degrees are not passports to bigger houses, more expensive cars, tv appearances, or unstated escape routes seeking refuge away from our people, they are ancestral permission slips written in tears, laughter and blood. It is our people across the ages conferring upon us their seal of approval, saying to us: We are proud you came from us. You have done the initiatory work to prepare yourself to serve, and in doing so, you have added meaning to our sacrifices. Remember: dont stand above your people and dont stand under your people, stand with them, and go and pay it forward. Its a beautiful damn struggle. Its not easy, but striving to achieve genius rarely is. We are the ones we have been waiting for-- all of us.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:52:25 +0000
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