Keeping It Real?

Dear Arbiters of Blackness,

The Blacker than Thou lobby is designed not only to shape and define a people, but also to demand a certain kind of conformity from them - forcing its members to swear allegiance to their side. With that, my new Intake column is up where I question the idea of what it means to “Keep it Real”.

Love,

Maurice (go to my website to direct your hate mail)

P.S.

I was interviewed for a new blog by my friend Lisa Baker that will reflect on various environmental issues, concerns, and events from a spiritual perspective. I was asked about my actual day job, as an environmental toxicologist for Commonwealth Biomonitoring. If you’re so inclined, you can read it here.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Black Self-Image

A teenage girl stirred up quite a bit of controversy with her documentary re-creating Dr. Clark’s doll test that was used to make the case against segregation (in Brown vs. the Board of Education). The results of her experiment every are every bit as tragic today as it was in the 60s. Something in our culture still propagates this destructive (self-)image.

There was a reason for Amiri Baraka having to start a “Black is beautiful” movement and a reason why Ossie Davis said in his eulogy of Malcolm X, “Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people.” It was about the reclamation of dignity. As the documentary makes painfully obvious, it is important to continue to have conversations and ask questions.

We continue to have debates about racism (what it is and how it affects people differently), reparations, affirmative action and so on. Too many times it is seen as black people wallowing in self-pity, a mentality of victimhood (although some folks also feel threatened by the rhetoric of escaping this victimhood). There is an assumed hubris of knowing the “answers” to the “Negro problem” because, as I will inevitably hear it, black people are too ignorant to work out our own solution.

It’s usually at this point in the conversation that white friends of mine feel unduly put upon. “They didn’t own slaves” and so on. They sometimes get defensive around discussions about white privilege. Why? Because the tricky part about conversations is that we aren’t always hearing the same thing. White privilege is not “all white people are evil.” It is not that all white people are out to get black people. It is not all white people are racist or “benefit” from racism. It is, however, the acknowledgment of the reality that there is a legacy of racism.

I don’t care if you agree with it or not. What I am saying is that there is a point of view, a mindset, a perspective that I’m coming from. Our story is the paradigm from which we operate. You might not “get it”, maybe because your story seems so removed from mine. You could see if you could contribute to the solution. You could see what you can do to challenge your thinking. You could see where you can find and recognize injustice and fight it where you are.

Or you could listen.

Let me try this another way. There is also male privilege in our culture. It doesn’t mean all men are evil or that they hate women. It does, however, point to the (historical) fact that the mentality that went into the founding of our society, that created the infrastructure of the culture we live in, was patriarchal. There is a legacy of patriarchal though that we have to deal with, systemic issues as well as heart issues - neither of which are easily rooted out. From closing the inequality of pay gap between the sexes to sexist attitudes in the work place as “old boy clubs/networks” are dismantled.

It’s the (sometimes perceived) attitude built into the system that causes so many to give up before they begin. It’s why I care so much about images and depictions of black people in news, movies, television, etc. It’s why I keep harping on the power of words. It’s why my mother so impressed upon us why we shouldn’t buy into being told what we can and can’t do. Look at the recent rise of black quarterback. It’s not like black people suddenly learned how to throw the football. The mentality was that black men weren’t smart enough to be a quarterback. So they were steered towards being a wide receiver or a running back. You don’t become “firsts” by buying into old stereotypes and accepting old barriers.

Progress has been made, but some battles still need to be fought. Hearts changed and lingering hatreds rooted out. This year’s Super Bowl marks the first time a black coach (much less two) has coached their team to the championship game. Lovie Smith, when asked about the significance of possibly being the first said that “Progress will really be made when something like this is not news.” The sad fact that he had to then concede was that “we’re not there yet.”

But we’re trying. One conversation at a time.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Go Colts!

Well, I got one of my Indianapolis Wish List items: the Colts made it to the Super Bowl. The question before me now is will the Colts win the big game?

I could talk about the running tandem of Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes or the money of Adam Vinatieri’s leg. I could talk about this being a team of character and heart, how we’ve gotten rid of grumblers and bad eggs and have only become stronger. I could talk about the defense finding new life after being told by so many that they couldn’t. However, that would require the kind of sports expertise beyond my casual brand of interest. To my mind, though, this game boils down to two men: Dungy and Manning.

Coach Tony Dungy joined Chicago Bear’s coach, Lovie Smith, in making Super Bowl history by being the first black coaches to lead their teams to the Super Bowl. One more barrier broken, another cultural advancement achieved - and another step toward this not being an issue. In the NFL, where nearly 70 percent of the players are black, only seven of 32 head coaches this season were black. The NFL has aggressively fought for diversity and their efforts have paid off. Save me your blather about affirmative action, covert racism is something difficult to root out. People are people and still cling to those they are comfortable with. We aren’t quite to the colorblind utopia we all hope for and keep talking about. Should either of these two friends, Lovie or Tony, win, we will be one step, on a still long journey, closer.

QB Peyton Manning has finally proven he can win the big game. In the AFC Championship game, he exorcized a lot of demons. He came from 18 points down, went through arch-rivals: coach Bill Belichick, QB Tom Brady, and the rest of the New England Patriots. However, he is still an elite quarterback haunted by the ghosts of Dan Marino: incredible individual talent that has yet to win the championship ring. He has nothing left to prove to his critics, but he is in need of the last measure of greatness. Should Manning win the Super Bowl, however, everyone should shut up.

I like our chances. In the end, I just want Dungy and Manning with championship rings to signify what we already know. They are men of integrity, passion, and greatness. Of prodigious talent and quiet dignity. Part of a team who play the game and win the way they should. And they can do it on the largest stage available. In other words, go Colts!


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

To Pen Name or Not to Pen Name

My friend, Simon Wood, recently wrote over on Murderati about him “splitting” his writing career by starting to write under a pen name. That got me thinking about whether or not I or any author should choose pen names and when they should do that...

Continued on Blogging in Black: "To Pen Name or Not to Pen Name."


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Friday Night Date Place - Break Ups Part III: Forgiving

(Or “Did God mean I have to forgive them, too?”)

(a.k.a. Keepin’ the hate)

I'm very quick to forgive, or to offer apologies, when offense is given or taken. Forgiveness is an emotional lubricant and a learning opportunity, at least for me. As mentioned before, it's important to me to get along with people, and I am genuinely horrified when having given offense, most especially the unintended kind. But long-term forgiveness, when, for example, someone has a change of heart, can be a real challenge for me.

How often have we gotten out of a relationship, a bad break up, and it not been clean? He did you wrong. She cheated on you. He hurt you. She tore out your heart. Somewhere along the line, the two of you got lost in a spiral of betrayal, anger, hurt, and even hate. Then we wear the scars into our next relationship. However, at some point we have to wrestle with what it means to best love one another. This includes forgiving one another.

During the grieving of the relationship, the mourning time allows us to process the hurt and lessons of a relationship. We often think of forgiveness as something that someone who has done us wrong must ask of us. It is much harder to offer forgiveness to the person who has wronged you, especially if they haven’t asked for it or won’t hear it; but forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.

It is tempting to hold on to the anger, resentment and the sense of betrayal that may come with a break up, but you can’t keep holding onto things that happened in the past. It only leads to problems with the health of your future relationships. It’s like we get stuck in an emotional rut.

Scripture teaches us that we must forgive, because Christ forgave us. India.Arie sings “If Jesus can forgive crucifixion; surely we can survive and find a resolution.” I do not know if we can ever recapture our friendship, but we can ensure that there is no resentment between us. Forgiveness does not happen in a moment. It’s a process. Today, I choose to begin that process. The completion of that journey will not happen tomorrow or next week, but hopefully soon.

There are times when we are called to be a peacemaker. Let’s not forget that our former Significant Other was a part of your life. You carved out time for them, carved out space for them, they became part of your routine. Sometimes we have to villify the other person in order to move on, or more precisely, have a sense of moving on. We burn the bridge so that we don’t, or aren’t tempted to, keep going over and over it again. Yet it may be more healthy for us to forgive in order for us to move on.

Look, forgiveness is a choice, not always an easy one, but “forgive and forget” is a lie we tell ourselves. You’re much better off believing in forgive and remember; forgive and learn; as long as you forgive and move on. Moving on, any kind of transformation, is a process and the power of forgiveness and love is in the process: starting with absolute honesty (confession), owning up to what you have done, your part in things. Acknowledging that what you have done doesn’t define you. And then letting it go, as forgiveness opens the door for a new beginning.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean a restoration of the relationship. Sometimes the loving thing is to walk away. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) As much as I’d like to conveniently toss out the words of the apostle Paul, we’re to try our best to live at peace with one another.

Jesus’ forgiveness is a living parable that teaches God’s forgiveness is not dependent on our worthiness, ability, or even our deeds of repentance. It is completely a product of God’s grace. “I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake; And I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).

You’ve been forgiven (by God) and need to move on. Forgive them and move on. And don’t forget to forgive yourself. And move on.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

The Catheter Incident

The last two weeks of Grey’s Anatomy have been particularly uncomfortable to watch. It’s my wife’s favorite show and she forgot to warn me about it One of the storylines featured a character who had a form of severe scoliosis. I had scoliosis and had to have surgery to correct it. It’s been 20 years now and I still remember the surgery like it was yesterday. Particularly what I will refer to as “the catheter incident.”

My parents began having me checked for scoliosis in fourth grade. Every year I got checked out and every year I was told that there was a slight curvature but “we’d” keep an eye on. Well, one year “we” decided that some time between the previous year and that year, the curve went from slight to “in need of surgery to correct”. I was fifteen years old.

The night before the surgery, the doctor and nurse come in to go over the procedure of the next day. The briefly mentioned something about a catheter and moved on to issues of anaesthesia, recovery, etc. Since I was more concerned about the risks of paralysis, I never stopped to ask about what exactly this “catheter” thing was.

The next morning, 5 in the morning (since time has little meaning in a hospital), a nurse comes in to begin all of the pre-op stuff they had to do. She ended with, “I’ll be back to put in your catheter.” When she comes in, she has the “stuff” and let’s me know that it was time to put in the catheter. So I open my mouth.

“What are you doing?”
“You have to put in my catheter, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like taking my temperature, right?”
“Not exactly. This,” she pointed to the tubing, “has to go, in there.”

I didn’t like where she pointed next.

“You’re kidding.” I started to laugh, waiting for the Candid Camera guy to pop out (hey, this was nearly 20 years before Punk’d).
“No. Didn’t someone explain this to you?”
“Obviously not clear enough. That’s thicker than a pencil and there’s no way THAT is going THERE.” Not to mention, THERE, sensing a threat, was begin to experience what we’ll refer to as a “turtling effect”. “Can’t you put me to sleep to put it in?”
“No. And we don’t have all day. The sooner we get started, the sooner it will be over.”
Apparently she underestimated my resolve.

Now, I’m not exactly proud of the next few moments. It began with the nurse grabbing THERE and my foot reflexively responding to "push away" the threat. Then came the chase, which involved me running around my bed in a desperate bid to keep THAT from going THERE. Apparently there was some girl-like yelling involved because my mother popped her head in to ask what the problem was. The nurse explained the situation and my mom, also being a nurse, quickly got the picture. My mom turned to me and assured me “I’ll handle this,” then walked the nurse outside. She came back in a few minutes later and told me that they had come to a different arrangement and there was nothing to worry about. I needed to get back into bed until the doctor arrived.

My mother. My savior.

I got back into bed and asked “what sort of arrangements?”

My mother then jumped on my chest and yelled “Got him!” The nurse rushed in while my mother had me pinned to the bed. Then the nurse quickly and roughly, in part a payback for the kick, put THAT ... THERE.

It was the longest morning of my life.

Luckily, the surgery went picture perfect. I even got used to the catheter thing. Sure, I had the occasional hospital visitor make fun of it, but I began thinking of it as an extension of me. I even began listing practical uses for it. Why? Because it was in now and in case you missed that part about me living by a code, no one was messing with THERE if I could help it. New rod along my spine or no, I still had two feet that said no nurse would be messing with me. So when the nurse came in with gloves on and that “I don’t want to have to do this” look on her face, I told her that THAT was simply going to have to come home with me. She left for a few minutes, then came back and said “fine, do what you want. It’s not worth the hassle anyway.”

Just then, the phone rang.

“Hello.”
“Hey son.”
“Hey mom. What’s up?”
“Yeah, sorry about this.”

At which point the nurse grabbed THERE and whisked THAT out of me to the sound of another girl-ish scream that sounded like her soul was being removed. Thus endeth the catheter incident. Ironically enough, a childhood friend of mine was due to have the exact same surgery as me the following weekend. Same doctor, same hospital. Oddly enough, they put him to sleep before they put THAT ... THERE.

Sort of put a damper on this song, doesn’t it? All this because I'm about to sit down and what this week's episode ... with one eye open.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Responsibility of the Artist

A few ideas have been running through my head about the nature of how ideas are propagated and disseminated in our culture. I’ve been mulling over the “food chain” of ideas:

-philosophers/theologians/scientists - the generators of ideas, of new ways of looking at reality

-artists - the communicators of those ideas, transmitting them to the (pop) culture at large.

-audience/culture - consumers of those ideas

Discuss.

In the meantime, my column for Intake. “Living Life in Light of Death.”


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Broaddus Family Scares

My wife bit my head off the other morning.

Not that this is so unusual that I considered it blog worthy, but this time I was actually not guilty of anything. In fact, I was pretty pleased with myself because I had taken it upon myself to do all of the laundry as a surprise for my wife. I’m a bit of a night owl, and in a combination of mania and procrastination from a writing deadline, I washed all the dirty clothes in the house. Six loads worth. She woke up to baskets of folded clothes.

That isn’t why she bit my head off.

Well, the next day, my wife blew up, not in a biting my head off way, but in a “why am I so swollen” way. Huge red splotches covered her body. She itched, was uncomfortable, and couldn’t sleep. Now, you have to understand, my wife is allergic to just about everything. Fish, pollen, grass, water (she’s on special medication: there’s something in tap water she’s allergic to. Without the medication, a shower leaves her looking like she was attacked by a swarm of bees). Me, I have no allergies. I can roll around naked in poison ivy.

Through some detective work, she found out the source of her allergies. Our laundry detergent apparently switched formulas on us, a new color safe bleach alternative. This all led to her having to go to the doctor to do something about the severity of her reaction. The last time her body went so crazy was when we found out that she was pregnant with our second child, which is how we found out we were expecting so early.

It was at this point when the doctor explained that we were going to have to test to see if she was pregnant. You see, my wife got fixed soon after the birth of our second son (and, for the record, she loves it when I refer to her procedure as “getting fixed”. I’m guaranteed not to hear about that one). However, we’ve all heard the stories: how you can have your tubes “fried, tied, and laid to the side and still find yourself pregnant inside” (thank you, my o so supportive brother-in-law). Did I mention that she was two months “late”?

Which was when I got my head bit off.

The merest suggestion of the possibility of more kids put her in a bad mood. She got fixed for a reason. We were pretty set in staying at two. A lot of thought went into the decision. For one thing, the reality of children killed the dream of children. When we first got married, I said that I would like to have five children, enough for a starting basketball squad (ironic considering that I suck at basketball). After our first was born, I told my wife that I would be content with three kids. Then after our second, I informed her that I was done. (She, however, always had the number two in mind and simply waited for me to come to my senses).

The thing about going from two kids to three, is that you have to go from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense. I love my kids, but I know me and I know how much time I can effectively give to my children. Two isn’t dividing my attention and I can usually outsmart two brains. I can still get free babysitters with two, even people VOLUNTEERING to watch my two. The odds greatly decrease once you hit three and I’m not trying to be stuck at home all the time with the kids. Plus, I still cling to the dream of affordable family vacations.

It’s why I have crazy respect for single parents and families who have no other hobbies than breeding.

Not that we wouldn’t have loved a third child, we had merely gotten comfortable with our routine and you know how people get with their plans, especially with the threat of those carefully laid plans being disrupted. Anyway, I give my wife enough reasons to bite my head off with the two that we have.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

I Love Sin Taxes ...

... as long as you aren’t taxing my sins of choice. There is an old saying that, "if you want less of something, tax it." That is the rationale for "sin taxes," high taxes on things like cigarettes and booze, although there are “sins” we like, such as gambling. So why the rant today?

The Republican governor's plan calls for covering at least 120,000 low-income adults by hiking cigarette taxes by at least 25 cents per pack. It is one of six or more proposals being considered by the Democrat-controlled House as it wrestles with how to provide insurance to the estimated 850,000 Indiana residents who now lack it.

Our governor is attempting to push through his version of an “extort Peter to pay for Peter’s eventual costs on society” tax scheme. On the surface it seems like we’re trying to kill two (good) birds with one (questionable) stone: find a way to fund an insurance for those who don’t have it (good) and lower the amount of folks who smoke (good). As a way of changing people’s behavior, it’s a start, I guess. We’ve been waging our war on smokers for a long time. You can tell it’s a real war because we haven’t “officially” declared war on them. They just woke up one day under siege and treated like second class citizens. They can no longer smoke in restaurants (because we apparently decided that restaurants were making too much money). But like I said, just don’t attack MY sins. I’m not a smoker and I appreciate being able to breathe free in restaurants, so I’m not complaining too loudly. The government hasn’t come for me. Yet.

Actually, we might as well raise the price of cigarettes a dollar a pack. A quarter isn’t going to deter anyone, not even that fifteen year old who is thinking about picking up the habit (and isn’t that who we do these things for? The children?). The smokers I know would pay the extra dollar, because they’re addicted. And it’s the state’s role to exploit the addicted and the ignorant (need I mention the lottery thing again?)

It becomes harder and harder to call myself a Republican because I’m not seeing any clear delineation between the parties much anymore. If we’re against taxes, we should want to see taxes go down across the board wherever we can. What happened to “the desire to return power and control of our economic resources to the grass roots people of this country. THAT is our agenda. It is not a money agenda. It is the moral agenda of self-government.”? What happened to seeing taxes as a moral issue, governmental racketeering and money laundering with tax cuts merely the State giving us back the money we’ve earned?

At this rate, and by this rationale, I’m surprised that the government hasn’t legalized “soft” drugs, like marijuana, and prostitution if only to tax them. Those would seem to be consistent with this line of thinking. I’m sure it won’t stop there. Frankly, I keep waiting on the transfat tax, especially in the land of State Fairs. Come on, right now there are redneck scientists in their basements trying to deep fry something new to debut this year (we’ve had deep fried Twinkies, chocolate covered strawberries, moon pies. However, I’m here to testify, deep fried Snicker bars will be served in heaven.)

However, in the final analysis, nothing is free. Not health care, not education, not any of the things that government has to do. And the money has to come from somewhere. In the ideal system, everyone would pay their fair share. In our world, we seem to want more from those who have more (the rich) and those who “benefit” more from the system (the poor). Nothing about that seems particularly fair to me. But hey, I’m in the middle somewhere and you aren’t taxing my sins. Yet.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

American Idol: the Editor’s Dilemma

If the American Idol auditions are like writers submitting their stories to a slush pile, then that would make the judges the equivalent of editors. I want the record to reflect that I want all of my editors to be as drunk as Paula Abdul when reading my stories (you hear that Sizemore?!? You too, Puglisi!). Let me tell you, if I had to read the equivalent of these auditions as slush, I’d be drinking, too. Heavily.

What kills me is how frivolously some people take their opportunities, though I try to take the American Idol auditions with a grain of salt since, after all, they are mostly teenagers. Here you have judges dressed like normal people and you have people showing up in costume in the name of standing out. If we want to talk about being professional, this is the same as sending in your manuscript on colored paper or sticking glitter in the envelope.

Here’s the thing, editors have a job to do. Just as the Simon Cowell et. al. are searching for the most marketable talent, editors are trying to find stories they want to publish. They have magazines, anthologies, and web space to fill and want to find the best stories to do so. They especially want to be the ones to break new talent. They aren’t the enemy and aren’t out to get you. Realize that you are not the exception: read the guidelines and submit your best work. Sure, you might get a rejection letter from them, but if you’re lucky, you will get feedback from them also. Feedback aimed at why your story didn’t work for them and how you can make your story better.

So then how do we as artists respond to our judges, critics, or editors having to reject us? Too many are quick to respond with “they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re a frustrated [insert vocation of choice]”. Worse, they put that response in print and hit the send button (much less those who do it on camera on American Idol), fearless as to how many bridges they may burn, due to their lack of professionalism, in the process. We have to remember, it is only that editor’s opinion that matters ... but only for that market. (And it’s funny how we respect/crave their opinion before the audition/submission, but their opinion holds no water should you flop). To quote Nick Mamatas from a Shocklines discussion:

I don't think musicians or fine artists or automotive manufacturers or chefs should respond to their critics either, except insofar as defamation may be at issue (e.g., a review claiming that a safe car is unsafe). The reasons are simple:

1. It doesn't matter. What can one say? "No, my book is scary! My flavor pairing were appropriate! My car does make your penis feel larger!" There will be no persuasion, so one may as well save one's energy.

2.The public has a right of response and responses will always be varied. There's no substance to negative complaints about the response because of this diversity of response.

Now, reviews can be poorly written, and God knows that in genre fiction they frequently are, and the public has a right of response there too. But when the only complaints one can make is about reviews of one's own work, it becomes transparently obvious that one is just whining and cares nothing about reviewing itself as an art or craft. A writer can respond to reviews as a reader of reviews, and talk about reviews generally, but shouldn't complain about his reviews.

If you have to respond, and I mean, if the voices in your head won’t leave you alone until you say something to your reviewer, at least keep it to e-mail (actually, it’d be best if you wrote that e-mail, printed it out, and put it in your trash can). What you really don’t want to do is go to message boards griping about your review. You will only look like a cry-baby (and you can probably consider that reviewer site dead to you).

American Idol" judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul say they're no crueler than usual this year, and that people who audition should know what they're going to get.

I imagine that editors reading a slush pile probably do sound a lot like Simon. Thank God I’m not actually at ground zero when they are reading my stories. All I have to put up with is the occasional self-addressed stamped envelope with a rejection letter in it. (And I know how to take rejections, even from friends.) At their first stop, the judges picked 17 people to move on to the next round out of 10,000 applicants. That’s a worse average than most slush piles (where, at the risk of antagonizing yet another editor before I submit to them), where it’s close to 1 story in 100 moving up the editorial ladder. Our job as writers is to be that 1 in 100.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

American Idol: the Writer’s Dilemma

So because we run Creative Space on Tuesday nights, it fell on our family to record the season premiere of American Idol so that some of the participants would be able to still feed their addiction. We can sacrifice many things in the name of ministry, but not American Idol. My wife and my sister, who love the show (and, frankly, far too much reality television) would never let me hear the end of it.

Welcome to my corner of hell.

Anyway, suffering through another season of A.I., I was once again struck by the similarities between the whole audition process and submitting a story for publication. In fact, I concluded that watching the auditions is the equivalent to reading a slush pile.

This season, like in seasons past, we were baffled by the amount of people who don’t recognize their own lack of talent. Granted, they might be tone deaf, but you would think that they would have friends or family who weren’t. How do people who claim to like you not inform you that you are the worse thing to happen to, well, sound? It could be chalked up to an inflated sense of self (the end result of going through life with people coddling each other’s self-esteem), it just seemed interesting that (plants aside), the worse the singer, the more adamant they are that they are good. Or it could be as simple as people hearing what they want to hear. I ran across an interesting study from Cornell.

... according to his research, most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent. On the contrary. People who do things badly, Dunning has found in studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well.

This deficiency in ``self-monitoring skills,'' the researchers said, helps explain the tendency of the humor-impaired to persist in telling jokes that are not funny, of day traders to repeatedly jump into the market -- and repeatedly lose out -- and of the politically clueless to continue holding forth at dinner parties on the fine points of campaign strategy.

Part of screwing together the easy courage to stand in an audition line (or write and submit a story for publication) stems from the idea, spoken or not, that anyone can do it. Anyone can sing. Anyone can write. Not everyone can do so well (contrary to the evidence proffered by the number of crap CDs and books churned out each year). I don’t know what the writer’s equivalent to tone deafness would be. Maybe believing that everything you write is gold. Maybe it’s the inability to take constructive criticism.

Whenever a contestant begins by naming their credentials, essentially the same as a writer’s submission cover letter, and they can only list things like “I’ve had ten years of training” or “I’ve been doing (singing in this case) all of their life”, all I hear is the writing career equivalent: “I’ve been giving away my stories on the Internet”, “I’ve paid a company to publish my story”. All the lies we’ve bought into in the name of garnering exposure.

Interestingly enough, the last stage in the process is the part that counts the most: the actual product music itself. All the gimics, persona, and costumes in the world aren’t going to help you if in the final analysis, you have little to no discernible talent. Artists of all stripes need to find their own, distinct voice. Not picking up an affectation or doing a pale imitation of another artist. It has to be more than karaoke (the writing equivalent might be fanfic).

If nothing else, respecting the audition process should teach all aspiring artists to make the most of opportunities when they come up, be they auditions, pitch sessions, or new markets. Take them seriously and professionally. Be yourself, be confident, but let your work speak for itself, because in the end, it does.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Friday Night Date Place - Smother Much?

Relationships have certain milestones. The first date. The first kiss. Meeting the folks. Markers that indicates an ever deepening of the relationship. I get that folks get all these romantic notions about relationships, and try to live out all the ideas they’ve had stored up in their heads about how relationships should work.

Now, can I ask you something? When should one person back the heck off?

There were times when I was known to power date in my day. I was in one relationship where we’d do 6-8 hour dates five times a week. Actually, five times in one week. Here’s a shock, we got burned out on each other. You know what? It’s easy to smother a person. We become eager to be around them, want to spend time with them, rarely do we stop to think about how much is too much. A lot of times it’s for seemingly good reasons, but there can still be shadows of pressure when:

-they may want to constantly take care of you
-they may want to see you all the time
-they may want to call you all the time
-they may not be able to get enough of you
-they may want to talk about marriage a couple times a week

Look, I doubt I am unusual in this, but I need me some me time. You probably need some you time. At the very least, go away so that I can miss you and better appreciate the time we have together. No one should have to get to the point where they loathe hearing the phone ring for fear that it might be you.

People move at different relational speeds and they aren’t always on the same page, which is one reason why channels of communication are so important and need to be always open. You need to mention when you’re feeling smothered. If they don’t know, they don’t have the opportunity to do anything about it.

There might be some hurt and some awkwardness, but it’s always best to maintain clear lines of communications. Admit how you feel. Above all, just talk. Don’t feel guilty that you and your significant other aren’t at the same emotional place. There will be times you are more into the relationship and there will be times your S.O. will be more into things. You aren’t in a race. Dating should be enjoyed. It is the process of getting to know each other. It shouldn’t be rushed. Give it room to breathe.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

No Solicitation

Sometimes I miss our old neighborhood. Sure, it had its issues, but I never had to worry about vacuum salesmen coming to our door. The occasional Jehovah’s Witness (heck, yeah I let them in. They brought a turkey.) or a Mormon (admittedly, this time I answered the door in my underwear and kept asking about their nursery). Maybe the occasional meat guy (what do you mean you’ve never had a guy come to your door selling meat out of his trunk?). Never a vacuum salesmen.

I’ve answered the phone as my own German maid. I’ve been the house-sitter and explained that “Maurice was off in the Olympics” (and was pressed for what events so they could watch me). My wife used to chide me because sometimes I’d just randomly take calls (yes, we have caller id) knowing they were sales calls just to chat with folks sometimes. I kept one AT&T on the line for an hour and a half. I did end up buying something from her because I felt a little guilty on that one.

Anyway, here’s the new Intake column. “No Solicitation.”


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Squadron Supreme

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist:
Publisher: Marvel MAX

There does seem to be a bit of a convergence of ideas, a trend of superheroes submitting to (or registering themselves for) government oversight. This is probably a commentary in itself on how we see (fear) government: we can’t just have a group of powers walking around uncontrolled, unregulated. The New Avengers. Powers. Ultimates. Now Squadron Supreme.

Squadron Supreme is an ersatz version of DC’s Justice League of America (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.) done for Marvel Comics (Hyperion, Nighthawk, Power Princess, etc.). This current incarnation of the Squadron Supreme re-visits the threads from Mark Gruenwalds legendary Squadron Supreme mini-series, a pre-Watchman look at super heroes operating in “reality”; and examines the question of how long would super-heroes remain under the control of anyone else before they decided they knew best to solve the world’s problem. How long before supreme power corrupted supremely?

It has taken a long time to get here. The comic book started as Supreme Power, which laid the groundwork for Squadron Supreme, then the story ran through a couple of mini-series, before becoming Squadron Supreme. All this to say that the story moves at a deliberate pace we’ve come to expect as typical of J. Michael Straczynski stories. He took six issues to re-tell the origin of Dr. Strange. Rising Stars could have easily been trimmed by a third were it not for his devoting whole issues to exploring a character, even peripheral ones. However, that’s what we want from Straczynski: character driven stories over flash-bang plots.

As another consideration, the characters he’s (re-)created are far from the one-dimensional copies of existing heroes they once were. They have been completely re-imagined. From Hypericon as the alien outcast (distrusted as opposed to being embraced as Superman is) to the quite possibly mad Princess Power, their relationships with one another are absolutely fascinating to watch.

“We are the message and fear is the communications frequency of choice.” –Hypericon

Their first missions operating under the mandate of the U.S. government were to Africa, Middle East. Even the heroes wrestled with the idea of them being dispatched to fight “the other” and the attitude behind it. Such events lead them to already begin to consider the repercussions of their actions and whether or not this is the best way for change to be accomplished. While it may be only a matter of time before they throw off the yoke of such colonialistic action, this brand of imperialism is long entrenched.

An aspect of colonialism is its conquest mentality that works by making other cultures less than human, debasing one while exalting the colonizer’s. The western imperialist colonizers viewed Africa, for example, as an untamed land with ungodly people; that there was nothing good in this dark and scary continent–other than its resources–and that its people were entirely under the power of the devil. Ironically, the United States is a revolutionary country in that it threw off the shackles of its own colonial masters. The hypocritical conceit of the country was that while our founding fathers held that all men were created equal, they also held slaves. That central kind of hypocrisy affects the character of a nation; finds its way into the system of the society, the hearts and minds of the individuals that make up the system and becomes ingrained.

Somehow, we have to get from this sort of mentality to joining in a ministry of reconciliation.

For reconciliation to be done, there has to be a coming together of equals. For things to be on equal terms, there has to be a relationship not built on fear or oppression. There must be a recognizing and respecting of each other’s stories. So there is a continual cycle of hostility, racism, hatred - these things make it impossible to just “forget” the past. We need a tool more active than simply “forgetting.” When I look at how Jesus started the movement that eventually became the church, it’s important to note that it began by changing the hearts of a few individuals. The individuals formed impacting communities. Then the communities impacted the social order. Your identity, your individual stories, are caught up in a greater story.

Long term, it would be better to embrace a path of peace and forgiveness, quietly working to change people’s hearts while they go about their mission. However, since this is a super-hero comic book, the characters will have to wrestle with how or if to use their power to force their will on others. And we will have to wait to see it play out and the consequences of that course.

The bottom line, this is a great comic. Adult themes explored in adult ways, you wouldn’t recognize these characters as the JLA-ripoffs they once were. These are fully fleshed out characters telling stories we’ve seen shades of in some of Straczynski’s previous (and best) work. The art has the force of almost being its own character, unobtrusive and clean, with a realistic style to it. I will say that it may be best to wait for the trade paperbacks of this one. The individual issues are frustrating, not quite providing enough story (or maybe it’s the sheer anxiousness of wanting to keep reading more of it) to justify the month to month wait. Basically, it’s the same reason I now only watch 24 when I buy the collected seasons. Read back-to-back, Straczynski once again proves why he is such a fan favorite.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Iphone Saddam Macworld Apple Youtube Somalia

I just wanted to let you know that I have a couple of columns up over at INtake: Heart for Justice and Kwanzaa Remembrances. In lieu of any other actual content, I thought I’d list the top search words from Technorati as my title.

Britney Spears!


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Take Your Ass Home

Dear Pastor, Ministry Worker, or Non-Profit Person:

Before I decided to work, part-time though it may be, at The Dwelling Place, I went around and talked to a lot of folks that I know in ministry. From pastors, to people who do other full-time ministry or charity work, one particular warning kept popping up: your first ministry is to your family.

Take your ass home.

Are we family here? Let’s be real then: you ain’t that important to Kingdom work. Yes, we are called to be missional and join in a ministry of reconciliation, but you aren’t irreplaceable. The work will be there tomorrow. You can’t sacrifice your family, (especially) not even in the name of the Lord or doing His work.

Consider this a welcome to leadership lesson two. It took me a long time to get comfortable (well, first that I’m a leader, and then) with the idea of what it means to be a leader in the Biblical sense. Being a leader doesn’t require sinless perfection. It doesn’t require academically qualified or highly skilled (we may not outright say it, but we tend to expect our leaders to have initials after their name if they are going to speak or write). A piece of paper doesn’t make anyone a good leader. It’s more about their character. Their honesty (with people and money). The stability of their personal/family life. An ability to teach. A maturity as a believer.

Take your ass home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got next to zero self-control in this area. Left to my own devices, every waking moment would be filled with me volunteering for one group or another. My wife is already suspicious that I may be committing “ministry adultery” with all of my recent writing about Outreach, Inc. (Though, combining it with existing ministries is fine. However, she is, for real, tired of me volunteering for things, be it writing or “in the name of the Lord”). Here’s how we solved the problem for us: she’s in charge of my time. It’s similar to submitting to who is gifted in what area.

She’s better at balancing a checkbook and making (and sticking to) budgets, so she runs that aspect of our life. My heart and mind want to prioritize my family, but it’s funny how “work” can make us lose sight of these things. To ensure that I wouldn’t, I asked her to hold me to account for making sure I spent however much time she needed me to at home (this includes regular date nights). I have a day job, I work for the church, and I write - to which she’s been quite sacrificial in accommodating. To ensure that my time/priorities don’t topple out of order, for every “new” venture I decide to adopt, I have to drop something else I do. She also gets a veto on how many evenings I book up with “stuff” (everything we do gets cleared on the Family Calendar Board), because neither one of us wants to be constantly “busy”. It’s our system, but I know how this “mutual submission” talk makes some folks nervous, so your mileage may vary.

The bottom line is that too many of us think that we’re indispensable. That we have to be at church, our ministry, our vocation, our whatever, from sun up to sundown. Yes, sacrifice is often required and there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. However, your family is not that sacrifice. Tuck in your kids and kiss your spouse because if you’re neglecting your family, you’re neglecting your first ministry.

Take your ass home.

Love and kisses,

Maurice

P.S.

Dear LJ Friends,

Sorry that Blogger doesn’t always play nice with you. Bad as I can be sometimes, I really didn’t post a dozen new reviews this weekend.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

We Need More than a Prayer Meeting

Local ministers and community leaders will hold a news conference today to discuss crime in Indianapolis. Rev. Charles Harrison, pastor of Barnes United Methodist Church, was a victim of a robbery over the weekend. While at church Sunday evening, he was robbed by three young men. The group will discuss that and other crime issues at 1 p.m. at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and 30th streets.

What was it that Chris Rock said you should do if you found yourself lost on MLK Jr Street at night? Run! This is more sad than funny as we are coming off one of the most murderous years in our city's history.

We keep waiting for folks, politicians, churches, and community leaders to do more than talk. There comes a point where talk is cheap. When you’ve done all you can do to draw attention to a problem and have to come up or join in with a solution. Maybe we–the people, the community–need to do more to stem the tide of violence where we can. Bear our share of the burden. Warehousing criminals, again, sounds good but isn’t a real solution. That’s society saying that we’ve given up so when you go bad, we’ll just lock you up. Yep, statistically crime will drop. Yep, we will “feel” safer knowing that we’ve thrown away the key. However, this country already has too long a sad history of putting people in chains and we can’t afford any more of those long-term scars on our collective soul.

Too many of us live in an utter state of self-delusion. We think danger is black, brown and poor, and if we can just move far enough away from "those people" in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find an "all-American" town, life will be better, because "things like this just don't happen here." What has gone wrong and is not TV, rap music, video games or a lack of prayer in school. What went wrong is that we, as a society, decided to ignore dysfunction and violence when it only affected other communities, and thereby blinded themselves to the inevitable creeping of chaos which never remains isolated too long.

Churches are a good correct place to start in the war on crime. The church is supposed to be a reproducing community of authentic disciples who are being equipped as missionaries to be sent out by God. We listen to the questions asked by our community and dialogue over those questions. We don’t force questions that we think our community “should” be asking and provide those answers. That’s not real helpful.

As Christians, we have our identity in Christ. We find our mission in Christ. Missional people might not spend as much time at church because their whole lives are missions. And that mission is connected to social action, the key word being “action”. Not just “press conferences”. But you know what? I know in my heart that these leaders won’t be stopping at this press conference. I’d be willing to bet that this press conference is the beginning of a conversation. A laying out of a vision that will then be taken off camera as people assemble to put “feet” to the vision and do the work.

At least that’s my hope.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

All Critics Aren’t Created Evil*

There’s been a lot of chatter on the old blogosphere about what does a writer does and does not owe a reader, which has me thinking about the ownership of writing; this strange connection between writer and reader. Accepting what they say about what the writer owes the reader, I’m left wondering what does the reader owe the writer?

Let’s face it, for many writers, their relationship with their readers ends with the reader plunking down the money (or clicking on their blog) for the writer’s product. On the one hand, I wrote it, it is what it is, I don’t care what you think. (That’s my hang up: I tend to react the same to fans as well as critics when it comes to discussing my work. If I “buy” the praise, I have to “buy” the criticism. I’m working on it.) On the other hand, all critics don’t have to be heard.

"He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow." - George Eliot

I have a theory that there is a sort of “reader’s hubris” - that in this day an age, it’s a lot easier for readers to directly let the writer know what they think. Like sports fans who feel entitled to sometimes behave in an out of control manner because they have paid their money, readers sometimes think that their opinion is valid (which it is), that their opinions are thought provoking or worthy of consideration (which is questionable), and that the writer should hear them (which many writers love to hear from their readers, good or bad. I’m working on it. Brian Keene keeps telling me to respect my readers, especially as an up-and-coming writer, and not call them nobs, even when they’re nobs. I can however call him, and HE can call them nobs.)

You write, you expect (and want) to be reviewed. Complaining about reviewers is like actors complaining about the paparazzi: they all need them to get noticed (and to validate them being worthy of being photographed). Hopefully you can tell which critics have opinions worth paying attention to by the quality and thoughtfulness of their criticisms and weight them appropriately. The rest you learn to dismiss. It’s easy for people to type “you’re an idiot” in an e-mail and hit enter with all of the bravery that the Internet and a keyboard affords them.

"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." - George Eliot

[NOTE: this quote is used with a certain amount of irony, considering my blogs]

Though, you have to keep in mind that being criticized is part of the game when you put yourself out there. Here’s my fear, if you haven’t learned when to not listen to your critics: that you start writing for your critics. Or worse, not write at all. It’s why so many writers finish things, then leave them in their desk drawers. The story belongs to the reader. It’s like parenting: you birth the child, raise it (through re-writes), prepare it to make it on its own (accepted for publication), and then send it out into the world (to be read). The simple fact of the matter is that some people just have to tell you what they think. Why do I have to hear it? Because, it completes the cycle, fulfills the relationship between writer and reader. Though, I’ve been told that the reason to listen to the praise is to help carry you through the barrage of criticism that will come your way.

Take this for what it’s worth. I don’t care either way. But I’m working on it.


*Um, actual, that was a bit of a Freudian slip of a typo that I let stand. I meant to type that all critics aren’t created equal.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Dream Girls

Adapting the Broadway musical that was first staged in 1981, director Bill Condon puts together a movie that moves at whirlwind pace in its first hour and then levels out. I really wanted to love Dreamgirls. Maybe that was the problem: too high of expectations. It had a lot of the things I love about musicals: great songs, great singers, great performers, great performances, great choreography, and great star power to drive the thing home.

A thinly veiled version of the rise of the Supremes and Berry Gordy's Motown, the movie mimics the music ... my dad ... grew up with. So part of the fun of the movie was guessing who was based on whom. The movie begins at an amateur night at a Detroit theater, with the Dreamettes being cheated out of a win. Fortunately, Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) a Detroit car salesman turned would-be record producer, manages to wrangle them as backup singers for James ''Thunder'' Early (Eddie Murphy), a sort of James Brown via Marvin Gaye.

The movie is backlit with the politics of race. The overall all arc of the movie almost follows the history of pop music, with the idealism of Black musicians wanting to make and control our own music. From Blues, jazz, Gospel, R&B, to Soul, we see the music co-opted by white artists and businessmen. This sets the backdrop for much of what drives the movie. Due to the music industry's racism, Curtis pays off radio stations, a necessary evil for the day. He replaces the dark-skinned, thick lead singer, Effie White (Jennifer Hudson - channeling the voice of a young Aretha Franklin), with the light-skinned, twig-physiqued backup singer Deena Jones (Beyoncé Knowles). It's not just a cosmetic change, as Curtis tells Effie, her voice is too ''special'' (read: “too black”). However, by strange coincidence, the movie that began with such fury and passion stultified the more the career arc of the group moves to cross over appeal.

“You want all the privileges and none of the responsibilities.” –Marty Madison (Danny Glover)

Dreamgirls has the opposite problem of Idlewild: it uses the music to cover the lack of drama. Ostensibly the movie wants to be about the power and responsibility of family; what happens when you sacrifice for your dream and your dream is stolen. However, just like the protagonist of the movie Requiem for a Dream is actually addiction, the hero of Dreamgirls is “the dream.”

The movie examines the price of “making it,” never quite answering the question of whether any of them truly “makes it,” and the sacrifices required to make the dream a reality. Unfortunately, with the dream being the protagonist, mostly what we are left with are cardboard characters. Don’t get me wrong, Jennifer Hudson easily walks away with the movie, as Effie is the pathos storm of the century. Her showstopper number, ''And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going'' (one of those American Idol “big” songs that when done right is chilling, but when the voice isn’t up to the task is calamitous) is a staggering piece of musical acting. It was a moving lament that had our audience bursting out into applause (which didn’t happen when Beyonce performed her own show stopper number, “Listen”). In fact, Beyonce has little to nothing to do other than stand around and be manipulated.

“All my life I've been a fool/Who said I could do it all alone
How many good friends have I already lost?/How many dark nights have I known?
Walking down that wrong road, there was nothing I could find
All those years of darkness-can make a person blind/But now I can see.”

The group started off with a sincere desire: to use the gifts they were blessed with and be who they were meant to be. Somehow that simple, good dream was corrupted. At some point, something crept into the vision, unnoticed at first. Maybe pride, maybe greed, but something caused the dream to go awry. Once set on this different path, it eventually lead to loneliness, despair, fear. Something has to break this cycle.

Chasing after the trappings of success is a hollow endeavor. Instead, we are called to be missional, to seek to have a life as a community sent by God into its place in the world. We are to live an alternative vision of success as defined by our society's culture, socio-political, and economic structures. And, if nothing else, appreciate the power of community and family, because life boils down to relationships.

Because no character’s story is particularly followed, we’re left with half-concerns. Effie’s fall into despair doesn’t really grab us (we’re told she blew through half a million dollars in booze in two years, but barely see a couple of drinks). Dreamgirls needed to be bigger somehow, do more with its inspiration/source material and be more melodramatic. The movie constantly undersells many of the key emotional moments (from Deena and Effie reconciling, to Curtis figuring out who the father of Effie’s daughter is). They undercut any potential high drama by turning Deena into a saint, not responsible for any of the tragedy that befalls Effie. Even Jamie Foxx seemed to have turned his charisma down to “simmer” and has a constant look of vague discomfort. Which is similar to how I felt about the movie. I really wanted to like it, and was expecting Oscar worthy turns from most of the cast. Instead, I left liking the movie, but was vaguely disappointed.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Spider-Man: The Other

Writers: Peter David, Reginald Hudlin, and J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Mike Deodato and Joe Pimentel, Pat Lee and Dream Engine, and Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel
Published by: Marvel Comics

“Evolve or Die”

Spider-Man has seen a variety of changes over the years. He’s had multiple arms, been a giant spider, worn an alien costume, and then there was the clone saga (oy! The clone saga). Obviously not afraid of messing with the mythos of Spider-Man (since many fans still haven’t forgiven him for his retro-fitting of the story of Gwen Stacy), Straczynski has been working toward this story for years.

“Never understood. What you were. What you are. What you are becoming.” –Spider Spirit


The heart of the story revolves around the idea that Spider-Man’s powers are totemic in nature. Expanding the mythos into one of archtypes. DC comics went through this trend in the late 80s/early 90s as several of their characters were revealed to be elemental in nature (Swamp Thing, Red Tornado, Firestorm, etc.).

Since this story was going to fundamentally change the very character of Spider-Man, the story ran through all of his major titles: The Amazing Spider-Man 525-528, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man 1-4, and Marvel Knights Spider-Man 19-22. The storyline also got to utilize the talents of three fan-favorite writers: Reginald Hudlin (Black Panther), Peter David (Incredible Hulk, Fallen Angel, X-Factor), and J. Michael Straczynski (Rising Stars, Strange).

“You treated the gift that you had been given as though it were a toy. You did not look too deeply into what you had become of what you could do. You committed the crime ... of superficiality.” –Spider Spirit

The Other follows Spider-Man’s spiritual journey as he searches within himself, learns who he is, and is led to confront both the “spider within” as well as the Spider Spirit. You see, Peter Parker (Spider-Man) was guilty of something that many folks are guilty of when it comes to their spiritual life: no self-examination. He never questioned, never dug deeper. While having a simple faith is good, being simple about one’s faith is not. Part of him was afraid of finding answers that might be disturbing. Instead he chose to not look beneath the surface, accepting the limits of what he thought he could do, and place his faith in a comfortable box.

He abandoned the journey of becoming a disciple.

The best way for me to think about discipleship is in terms of apprenticeship. I’m a student, Jesus is the teacher, and my goal is to become as much like him as possible. Discipleship would involve a changed in three areas: belief (we turn to Christ, expressing our desire to see him as he is, not simply how he’s been represented to us), behavior (our lives become slowly transformed, centering our lives around living out the kingdom mission; putting feet–action–to our faith and knowledge), and belonging (we join a specific faith community).

Discipleship, simply defined, can be seen as a process of how we transform everything we do in order to “take on,” or becoming more like, Jesus. You figure out what it means for you to live and work in light of being a blessing to your neighbor and to the world. It takes time and in our culture’s need for immediate gratification, we’ve forgotten that this can be a long process.

“You’ve got what every human being has asked for: a fresh start, a clean slate ... You’ve been reborn.” –Tony Stark (Iron Man)

The end goal is for Spider-Man to be born again. Literally “Reborn as what? And perhaps just as important ... why?” he asked before being baptized in the Hudson River. He becomes healed, inside and out; free of the past, of the person he was as he embraces the person he could be. Like many on a deepening spiritual journey, Spider-Man discovers new gifts, develop new spiritual fruit if you will.

All told, The Other’s story could have been told in a lot fewer issues, the story felt a little padded. Peter David, no stranger to writing Spider-Man, is great, but the story rather drags a bit when written by Reginald Hudlin. J. Michael Straczynski’s issues are back to the typical Straczynski sense of pacing. However, no one loses sight of what makes Spider-Man great: he’s a regular guy simply trying the best he can.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Moon Knight

Writer: Charlie Huston
Artist: David Finch
Publisher: Marvel

“The Bottom”
I remember the first issue of Moon Knight that I ever purchased. I knew nothing about the character, but to be honest, he looked like Marvel’s answer to Batman. However, the cover drew me to it. It was drawn by then little known artist, Frank Miller (Dark Knight Returns, Sin City) with interior pencils by then little known artist, Bill Sienkiewicz (both would one day team up for the seminal, Elektra: Assassin).

Like Ghost Rider, Moon Knight is a fan favorite that keeps being resurrected; a character searching for an identity because no writer quite seems to be able to get a handle on him after Doug Moench’s initial run (much like The Punisher until Garth Ennis managed to get to the core of the character).

“Someone has to do this.” –Moon Knight

Mercenary Marc Spector found himself betrayed and left for dead in a tomb. He was resurrected to became the avatar of an Egyptian god, Khonshu. Transformed in the desert, essentially he repented, turned his back on the lifestyle he led, in order to craft a new life. From killer to hero, he became a soldier in service to his God, His “blade of vengeance.” Thus he became a silver wraith, an all white cowl and cape outfit which were akin to priest vestments.

The twist was that he had four secret identities: Marc Spector, Jake Lockley, Steven Grant, and Moon Knight. Each personality had their own quirks and morality clutching to sanity while seeking redemption. Even with his/their new lease on life, at best he/they were a “cracked vessel,” far from perfect, but struggling to be of use. In other words, his/their spiritual journey was just like the rest of ours.

“How could I live any other way?” –Moon Knight

I suspect that the chief draw of characters like Black Panther, Captain America, Batman, and Moon Knight is that they are fully human. Not being super-powered, it seems almost believable that any of us could be them with enough training and dedication. They are more relatable, their struggles mirror our struggles. This might even apply to their spiritual struggles.

Spiritual journeys have all sorts of twists and turns, peaks and valleys. There are times when you can hear God’s voice so clearly, feel Him moving in your life so purely. Then there are times, dark nights of the soul, when His voice seems silent. When you feel alone or that you’ve turned your back on the things you once knew. Where do you go from there?

Many of us are haunted by our pasts, feeling like we can’t get past mistakes we’ve made and people we’ve hurt. Or we’ve become, like Marc Spector, disillusioned when our ideas about our God can’t be reconciled with the reality of God. When it got hard, Marc Spector quit everything. He blamed God, turned his back on his community of friends, everyone but himself. He turned to alcohol and pills to try and dull the constant shrill of pain that his life had become. Until he hit rock bottom.

The thing about bottoming out is that if you let it, it provides prospective. For one, you have little choice but to look up, since you can’t get any lower, and maybe have one of those end of self moments. Sometimes we just need reminders of who we are, who were meant to be, what God has done in the past. In those quiet times, like Marc Spector, we may realize that our God has been with us the whole time, calling us, waiting for us to return, and sustaining us all along. Maybe we’ll experience another spiritual resurrection and have the opportunity to once again become a warrior-priest.

The Fist of Khonshu is set to return to the heights of his glory thanks to that able skill of acclaimed novelist Charlie Huston (Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things, and Already Dead). He’s been teamed with fan-favorite artist, David Finch (New Avengers). The story is long on mood and atmosphere, wrestling with the idea of what to do when you are broken and you feel like your God has forsaken you. It’s the narration that sets the book apart. Huston’s take on the character, both self-absorbed and possibly insane, longing to be a hero and yet pitiable, doesn’t make for typical comic fare. However, the story arc has Taskmaster and I’ve always loved him when done right and treated seriously.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Friday Night Date Place - Singleness is a Sin

"I'm going to speak of the sin I think besets this generation. It is the sin of delaying marriage as a lifestyle option among those who intend someday to get married, but they just haven't yet. This is a problem shared by men and women, but it's a problem primarily of men." Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky

This wasn’t the first time I head of this school of thought. There is a prevalent attitude, in action if not in word; in fact, I heard it from a pulpit not too long ago. The implication seems to be that we aren’t taking marriage seriously. I would contend the exact opposite. I guess we're overlooking the fact that our parent's generation did marriage so well. What happened to not entering into marriage lightly? Or a person simply not finding the right person yet? It's almost like they are advocating "you better settle for whoever by the time you're 30" as if marriage was the point of life. Their indignation at this generation of singles flies in the face of their belief in the sovereignty of God. Unless they are going to say that it’s God’s will that you get married by your early 20s: "If you're 17, 18, 19, 20, in your early 20s—what are you waiting for?"

Here are the plain facts: According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the first marriage for a white male is now at age 27.5. For white females, the age is slightly lower. This amounts to a delay that often has devastating consequences. With puberty coming at earlier ages than ever before--certainly in the early teens for most Americans--the period of time between sexual maturity and marriage is now stretching out into something like an average of ten to fifteen years. The accompanying statistics related to premarital sexual activity parallel the statistics related to the delay of marriage. Can anyone be surprised?

The assumption that the delay is due to “young people” sowing their wild oats, every body’s doing it, and no one is capable of learning the discipline of chastity. I get that there is a generation of folks who refer to said singles as “younger folk” and who are more comfortable with the days when women stayed home and fulfilled their established role in life, however, this is also a symptom of the school of thought that has turned the family into an idol. Yeah, I said it. Too often, the singles of the church are neither reached out to nor truly appreciated, but treated like second class citizens within the church (because you haven’t fulfilled your role as a man or woman until you’ve gotten married and had children). Singles have all of this mythical disposable income since they don’t have a family to support and they are always available to run the church nursery so that real Christians can hear the sermon.

As one who believes wholeheartedly in the biblical pattern of complementarity and in the male responsibility to lead, I charge young men with far greater responsibility for this failure. The extension of a "boy culture" into the twenties and thirties, along with a sense of uncertainty about the true nature of male leadership has led many young men to focus on career, friends, sports, and any number of other satisfactions when they should be preparing themselves for marriage and taking responsibility to grow up, be the man, and show God's glory as husband and father.

Do you know why it is the men’s fault? Primarily because it was women who raised the ruckus when he first talked about the sin of singleness. I guess we could blame the guys, but I suspect there’s a dearth of dating across the board. One of the things that plays into this extended dating time is that it is taking our generation(s) longer to find themselves. (My personal theory is because we haven't had to. There's been no major cultural event that has forced us to "grow up," no major war (not like a World War or anything involving a draft), no Depression, no defining societal moment. It’s just a theory.)

That and Jesus was still single in his 30s. Couch that in “he had a mission” all you want, but the truth is that we all are to join in with his ministry and frankly, we are more able to be about kingdom work without the divided distraction of the idol of family. Some people take the apostle Paul seriously about not being hindered by marriage. Be content where you are. If you’re about the “hunt”, you miss opportunities to live life where you are. Be aware of the hunt, not focused on it. If someone comes along, good; if not, we have our work, our life, to be about.

Just a few thoughts.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Creative Space: Lessons Learned

Sometimes we have to go with an idea, run as hard and as fast as we can, spend whatever resources we have in order to find out we’re wasting our time that much sooner. We have to experiment ... and fail. Learn and start again, and not be afraid to fail. Realize that something is not working and not be afraid to shut it down, even if a remnant is still benefitting from it. Or that could be me rationalizing why I shut down Creative Space for the summer.

Officially, it was on hiatus, I simply had no intentions of starting it back up. I figured if God wanted it, He’d provide the people for it. Actually, it isn’t what I figured. I was a little bitter that my vision hadn’t taken off and was off pouting in silence. One of the things that I realized was that Creative Space, the first go around, was my vision. It went exactly as I envisioned and planned it ... and flopped on its face. Thus, any pride of being able to say “I did it” or even “We (the Dwelling Place) did this” was gone. That was one of the lessons I learned in its down time.

However, some folks started whispering in my ear that we ought to start the ministry back up. Which was fine, I just wasn’t going to be the person leading it. You quickly find out who was serious about it by putting the burden of starting it on their shoulders. Once I started hearing “how can I help?” I was ready to start seeing about putting together the structure - one that could run without me. That was lesson number two, allowing the right people room to come in and do what they are passionate about.

My next step was to talk to people. People inside the Dwelling Place and outside (as a couple of the voices prodding me didn’t even go to my church, but wanted to see a ministry like it take off). Lesson number three, if you want to be able to best use your people, find out what they do and what they want to do. I only pursued as step as I found people interested in helping with it.

With that in mind, here's what the overall plan currently is:
-Creative Space will start back up in January of 2007 (January 9, 2007 to be precise)
-it will meet Tuesday nights at the Dwelling Place starting at 6:30 pm
-we will be working with some of the teens from Outreach Incorporated. What we’ve seen is that art speaks right to where they are and cuts through the crap of life. We will be acting as mentors for them to help them express themselves (however that may be) as well as collaborating with them on a few projects.
-in addition to the loose format of an open gym night for projects, there will be six areas of interest:

1) Film. We will be working on creating a movie for our Christmas 2007 service. We like the idea of using people's artistic gifts to do a production, however, to be honest, I hate cantatass. The movie will be written, directed, and filmed by the folks at Creative Space. We may even do the next Outreach documentary.

2) Writing. One of our projects will be a book/photography project with the working title "The Face of Homeless Teens." We will be helping the teens tell their stories alongside photo essays of them.

3) Art. Artists from creative space will be doing a series of paintings, poems, and photographs so that the story of the bible will be told around the main room of the Dwelling Place.

4) Music. Some of our people will be helping the kids lay down tracks and helping them fulfill their music vision. We’ve even made contacts who would be willing to sell the CDs. Others under this area of the ministry will be helping score the movie or documentary projects.

5) Dance/Drama. We have people who want to be able to express themselves through dance. Also, these will be the people who will act in the film.

6) Individual projects. This was our sole area of interest the first time around and this will still be a place for artists to come and encourage each other. We have free wireless at the Dwelling Place, so bloggers can blog and other writers can research. In addition to the other artful expressions, folks can scrap-book (okay, that's actually a concession for my wife).

Our goal is to eventually be able to do a once a month a gallery showing/open mic night, complete with a coffee bar. We’re partnering with other churches, too. Helping them where we can in doing what they do within the arts community; why reinvent the wheel? It’s not about who gets the credit, but getting the work done. That’s where we are - we’ll see how it goes.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Who Are You Having These Conversations With? Part II

So, I’m getting caught up on the various blogs I read when “He Who Would Be Head Pastor” points out to me that me and one of my message board moderators were on a list of folks called out by someone “looking for a fight.”

Christians love a good fight.

There’s nothing that gets the old spiritual blood pumping like going to war knowing you are on the side of truth. Even when you have apparently run out of targets and have to turn on each other. I’d daresay we spend more time fighting with each other than anyone else. Probably because we have to know “teh truth!1!” before we can proclaim it to anyone else. And you know, this sort of fractious behavior is definitely what we’re called to do, who needs all that silly reconciliation?

If you want to engage me in a conversation, engage me. Don’t try to maneuver me into some manufactured debate-cum-marketing scam. If picking fights is your idea of reaching out in love, then, well, go with your conscious. I tell folks on my message board all the time that just because an ass brays in a field, that doesn’t fill me with the need to jump down and bray alongside him.

Postmodern Negro sums it up best for me:

I saw my name on the list so I thought I’d put in my two cents. I remember reading Walter Martin’s “Kingdom of the Cults” years ago. I remember the end of each chapter where he’d compare each religious cult with the ‘clear teaching of scripture’. He’d say this is what the Mormons say and this is what the ‘bible’ says. And so forth. It would have been better for him to have said this is what Mormons say and this is what my own Christian tradition, Fundamentalist/Evangelical Protestantism says. He would have been a bit more honest if he had said that. The same goes for the many ‘critics’ of emergent and Brian McLaren in particular. Rather than say emergents say this and the bible says that it would be a bit more helpful for this discussion if there was a bit more transparency. That’s one issue. These guys don’t speak for ‘Christianity’! They speak from their on tradition-dependent concerns.

Which leads to why I haven’t responded to these guys. For the most part these guys don’t hang around my cultural orbit. I like to read some white male theologians…mainly the ones that are open to discussing broader issues. The guys that have mostly criticized emergent tend to be a white male theological conservative ghetto…so they don’t really speak to the concerns I have as an African-american Christian deeply wedded to the black prophetic Christian tradition. The issues these guys mostly raise are issues of concern for folks who hold to a foundationalist Euro-centric reading of the gospel. Its mainly out of my orbit…so I don’t really pay attention to it.

One of the things I’ve appreciated about emergents are their posture of learning and listening. I’ve tried to emulate their humility when talking to people (emphasis on trying - I’m not there yet). Come to find out it’s the arrogance, the certainty, of having answers for everything that turns a lot of folks off to the church, that makes them turn a deaf ear. I’m not a part of that Christian ghetto culture. Most portraits of Emergents are probably as fair as my “conversation starter” that involved me intimating that D.A. Carson is a racist. I’m a horror writer who is a Christian. I help run what many would label an emergent church. I walk outside the church ghetto with people who challenge my views and way of thinking. I listen to them, I respect them, and I even, wait for it, learn from them. And they listen. Why? Because I’m not here to pick fights or declare war on them. It’s how conversations happen.

All of which brings me back to my friend.* I explained to him that most of the misunderstandings we have boil down to differences in ministry styles. The point of my article which he objected to was th at you start conversations with what you have in common, by listening to one another; not by saying “here’s where you’re wrong (because I obviously know more than you).” I can’t whip out Bible verses to “prove myself” because the Bible has authority if you have faith in it. What I can do is be the Bible. Be the message. If folks aren’t seeing Christ’s love in me and how I live and talk, then I’m wasting my breath anyway (again, emphasis on becoming - I’m not there yet). People need to belong before they believe, even if they never believe.

I just don’t have the time energy nor inclination to be baited into a fight. That’s fore better Christians than me, I guess.

*To be completely honest, my friend’s humility and contriteness after our conversation is exactly why I have hope, and love, for the church. Neither one of us had to “prove” ourselves right. We were too busy trying to figure out how to best love one another.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Who Are You Having These Conversations With? Part I

Recently, I was involved in a misunderstanding with a person I used to attend church with. These sort of misunderstandings have been happening a lot more lately because my church has been labeled emergent. That’s fine. People are often guilty of relational laziness and need these sorts of labels rather than engage the people around them. Our church describes itself as missional because we’d rather be “being” the church than talking about it. Since I’m just as guilty of using labels as crutches as anyone else, I’ll describe my friend as a mainstream Evangelical with a fundamentalist streak.

This friend took umbrage with an article I wrote because, to his reading, I was losing sight of the “ontology of Christ”. Once I got wind that he had concerns, I called him. We talked about his concerns. To his absolute credit, he apologized to me and then, in an all too rare demonstration of what it means to follow Christ, he volunteered to go back and apologize to the people whom he had talked to about me.

One of my points to him was that I don’t have time for “ontology of Christ” debates. Honestly, whom am I going to have that conversation with? Other Christians who have spent too much time in church, around other Christians who’ve learned a lot. Which is fine, I’m called to love them, too. But that’s not where I spend a lot of my time.

Since this is mostly aimed at my Christian brethren, let me put this in jargon you’ll understand: I hang out with the “lost” (an ironic term, since my friends like Wrath James White, Harlequin, and Paul Puglisi know exactly where they are). Why? Because I don’t want to spend my days talking about whatever new doctrinal burr is up some people’s butts. A lot of the times those conversations boil down to one person who know everything talking to someone else who has everything figured out. They want to play who’s head is puffed up more or who has the biggest doctrinal penis. That’s a game I’m not interested in playing.

Of course these are unfair caricaturizations, but it sets up what I really want to talk about.

Tomorrow.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Writing Goals 2007

Looking at the results, I think I got about half of my goals and resolutions for 2006 accomplished. This year, I’m keeping it simple. I want to finish two short stories, a novella, and a novel this year. I have the ideas for all of them already, I just need to find the time to work on them. I have a bunch of projects lined up for 2007, far too few of them involve me actually writing beyond my regular blogs and columns. Although, to be honest, I am trying to leave myself some flexibility for stories and articles that I’ll be asked to write. I’m just saying.

In the meantime, I need to finish my novella collaboration with Wrath James White. One reason I dreamt of doing this was to stretch me, to experiment with each other’s wheelhouse, and it’s pretty much going as I expected. Mental note: don’t bait Wrath (in one of our e-mail exchanges, he said that we “were ready for a teleological argument for God”. I said that I wanted to cut a woman in half first. He then wrote back, rather ominously, “really, is that how we’re playing now?”). Wrath will always rise to that occasion. A friend of mine is reading the rough draft so far in the other room. I keep hearing shouts of “Oh my God”. I’m just going to pretend that he’s having an impromptu praise service.

I also need to finish my novel collaboration with Steve Shrewsbury. Steve is what I’m now calling a “testosterone plotter”. I’m doing my level best to hang on and provide the atmosphere and grounding for the mayhem.

Simple goals. At least it sounds simple right now.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

I’m Not Really A Writer...

... I just play one on the Internet. At least that's the feeling I had up until this year. So this has been the year of Maurice, my coming out party of sorts. At long last, stories of mine have finally started coming out, giving tangible evidence of me being a “real” writer (as opposed to someone who writes a lot about being a writer and only has an Internet/convention presence). So I am doing a year in review before making any resolutions.

“In the Shadows of Meido” came out through IDW Publishing Comics. I was profiled in a local paper, INtake Weekly, and then asked to blog for them on a regular basis. My story “Family Business” came out in Weird Tales followed by “Black Frontiers” in the anthology, Voices from the Other Side: Dark Dreams II.

I got sucked into becoming the comic books review editor at Hollywood Jesus, thus having yet another excuse to have to keep buying comics. My oddest writing assignment of the year came with me writing for the American Tract Society. Blogging for INtake led to a regular column with them. However, since I can’t blog often enough, or in enough places, I also began blogging for Blogging in Black.

I ended the year with my story, “Since We Can Die But Once,” coming out in the DeathGrip: Exit Laughing anthology. Then seven of my reviews were picked up for the Hollywood Jesus Reviews 2005-2006. I was interviewed for two podcasts: one for Snark Infested Waters about my horror writing and the other for The Studio Upstairs about my work for Hollywood Jesus.

Not to mention, I’ve written the equivalent of two novels for this blog during 2006.

2006 was a good year. I have already had critical essay accepted for Cutting Edge (“The Passion of the Christ”) as well as a short story accepted for the Eldritch Steel: Swords and Mythos Sorcery anthology (“The Iron Hut”) due out in 2007. I’m officially up to the level of a nobody in the writing community.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Kwanzaa Day 7 - Imani

January 1st - the Nguzo Saba principle of the day is Imani (ee-mah-nee), which means Faith.

To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Focuses on honoring the best of our traditions, draws upon the best in ourselves and helps us strive for a higher level of life for humankind, by affirming our self-worth and confidence in our ability to succeed and triumph in righteous struggle.

Today, the final green candle is lit.

Today is the time to answer soberly and humbly the three Kawaida questions:
-who am I?
-am I really who I say I am?
-am I all I ought to be?

We discussed the importance of faith and what our religious beliefs mean to our lives. The last day of Kwanzaa is capped with a feast. This coincides with our family tradition of everyone getting together at my uncle’s house for the smorgasbord that he prepares each year:

lobster, roast beef, curried goat, spicy shrimp, Jamaican patties, fried rice (with shrimp, pork, and chicken), macaroni and cheese, white rice, greens, stuffing, breadsticks/rolls (however, I saw through their evil plan: to fill us up with bread so that there’d be less room for the lobster). Dessert was four different kinds of pie and ice cream.

And because we haven’t had enough family time in the last week or so, the boys’ cousin is spending the night for a “boy party.” With will culminate with a marathon of Robin Hood, Cars, and the Nightmare Before Christmas. I can’t begin to describe to you how hilarious a rap contest between 4-6 year olds is. Freestyling for the next generation.

If I had to sum up Kwanzaa, it is a time of remembrance and appreciation. To remember where we’ve come from as a people and to value our time with family and community. It is a time of refocusing, reminding us of where we want to be and committing ourselves to getting there.

Libation Statement:
For the Motherland, cradle of civilization.
For the ancestors and their indomitable spirit.
For the elders, from whom we can learn much.
For our youth, who represent the promise of tomorrow.
For our people, the original people.
For our struggle and in remembrance of those who have struggled on our behalf.
For Umoja, the principle of unity which should guide us in all that we do.
For the Creator, who provides all things great and small.

Harambee, Harambee, Harambee, Harambee, Harambee, Harambee, Harambee*

*Swahili for “Let’s all pull together” - We use the track from the Sounds of Blackness’ The Evolution of Gospel.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.