Don't play with it

There's something about getting older and watching your friends either a) get married, b) pop out babies or c) do both to make you start to think about your own life and desires. On top of that, I've started reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, if I didn't need things pushing me to question placement and position.

So this post is inspired by an incident that occurred on a shared Facebook picture (a meme). The original photo was shared on January 24th. I shared it on the day after. Several days later, I've come to the realization that many were offended by the post - the original and the shared copies.

So this sent me in a whirlwind of questions... Would I have been offended - had it been me? What would my reaction have been? Was it fair? Is it a just assumption?

From the comments I read on mine, as well as the original, I saw commentary about political references as well as defaming of the brand and undermining local industry.
What was this meme/comic strip about?

                           


In all fairness, after all the unnecessary hype and argument that ensued I was forced to examine this picture on a deeper level than probably required. In fact, in writing this, I feel like one of those people who go to an art gallery, see a black spot on a white canvas titled "black spot on white canvas" and spend an hour trying to get into the depths of the artist's mind when... as an artist myself, sometimes... what we really mean is "black spot on a white canvas" - there isn't necessarily a Shakespearean story following to explain what could be a genuinely simple idea.

So the general gist of offenses gathered was, the picture supports the undermining disparaging of local industry, makes vague irrelevant political references and that the maker was an anonymous cowardly attention seeker. How do I know this? Was it a collection of rumours I heard circulating? Was it someone misrepresenting the brand or the politicians? Was it a few malicious individuals looking to air their voices? No. I'm aware of what was said because the comments were posted directly from individuals - some in well written paragraphs, others in hyped up rants - on the very public domain of Facebook for all to see.

My initial response to the picture? I thought it was funny. A few days prior, a close friend and I had just discussed the mindless following of some trends in Grenada - which is arguably valid for countries other than Grenada, including the US. We were lamenting about how many of these young folk just jump on a bandwagon of perceived coolness and swagger without understanding the origins of the trend or even knowing what the trend means to them personally.

We did reference local brands being launched as well. However, it wasn't in a manner to take away from the brands because --- we admire the work done. I find it impressive to know there are young people (teenagers and young adults) on our tiny island taking initiative to become entrepreneurs and successfully brand themselves into households names. This is the kind of thing you read in Cosmogirl magazine or see on tv. However, we're now doing it with our own people which is pretty awesome. Hell, I want to buy their stuff.

That being said does not mean one cannot be allowed to have an opinion. We did question what exactly were the intentions of some local endeavours - brands, parties, etc. A lot of these endeavours push images with young people throwing up their middle fingers or scantily clothed or just what is often perceived as a negative message to the masses. Which led us to ask, what really is the intention or the message they are trying to get across? What does being 'cool', 'fun', 'rebellious', 'artistic', 'unique' and so forth mean to them and what aspect of the meaning are they hoping to cover... because I swear the upcoming generations in the (arguably as it's what I see on tv) Western Hemisphere need a lot more than Jesus' descent from the Heavens to save them and little incentive to hasten them down the wrong road.

All of this to say what? Getting back to the picture. Reading the artist's comment on the pic itself, I saw the note about "certain local brands" and "politicians" these days. Fair enough reason to get upset I guess. I'm not sure if I would've been upset and/or reacted similarly since I'm more hesitant about commenting on anything on Facebook.



Ultimately, I think you can't avoid negative reactions towards anything you do be it a good or bad endeavour, "haters" if you want to call it as such. It's not what you called but what you react to... and when you react to it, how you handle a situation. For me? I think the more professional way to handle it would've been to simply ask first and foremost as an inboxed message "Can you take down this?" and/or a similar message on the photo itself. If it doesn't work, report it to Facebook or learn to ignore it. In the real world, it's hard to do great things and not gather unwanted heat. If this is the manner chosen to react to every situation on a personal level of attack, how can one make it to Kanye, Jay-Z, Beyonce, P. Diddy level? Where these successful folks, with clothing lines, albums, brands, etc. have to deal with more than just some random person throwing up memes online? One's initial reaction cannot be to throw a tantrum or get caught up in petty back and forth public arguments. If you're a boss, be a boss about yo' biz.

And the "anonymous coward attention seeker" (paraphrased) he does this online comic thing all the time. Some of his stuff is kinda controversial, others are hilarious and then there are a few that make you think. He tries to apply real life situations into his work because like any good artist you could only speak what you know right? People only seem to react to things that strike a nerve directly anyways as this is the first time I've seen all of this hype and he's said "worse."

Now in order to "hate" people must value what you offer right? I felt compelled after to peruse my buddy list and ask them if they saw an issue with the picture (viewed solely without the comments). You know how many of them even knew of the label? How many of them were offended? How many of them understood what the problem was? NONE. In fact, they thought it was hilarious and true to life. One guy said after reading the comments, "maybe the dude was honoured to be mentioned and didn't know how to respond."

 So 10 more people, than those who knew already, now know about this all brand and politics drama because ONE guy decided to allude to a local situation that somehow resonates within their being. They should take him out and buy him a beer.

And for those of who have a problem LOVING your "HATERS" 
---- > Read this "Loving my haters"

The end.
Bless.

Greetings everyone! At the end of the first month of 2013, I bid you an abundance of blessings and well wishes for the remainder of the year. By this time, you should have been able to see the follies of some of your resolutions and made decisions to follow through...or not, since it only takes 21 days to form or break a habit.

With that said, I encourage y'all to invest in yourselves this year. Upon reflection, I've realized it's rather easy to get caught up with having high expectations of others with hopes and dreams to usher them into the realm of converting that "potential to be great" into actual "greatness" - be it your friend, family, child, spouse, etc. However, one must accept several things.

Firstly, not everyone comes upon their realization of self at the same time. Some people can remain the same until late age and suddenly have an epiphany and change their lives around. Secondly, some people are genuinely comfortable as they are. It's often said there are two types of people ultimately --- sheep and shepherds. Having the potential to lead doesn't necessarily mean one has to leave the comfort of being led. Some people can go through their lives just fine being average. Which brings me to my last point, sometimes, you just have to accept that because someone or something has "potential" does not mean it shall necessarily manifest itself as such.

So, love the people around you, but don't try to force them to live their lives a certain way. It might be difficult for those who want to evolve and become more to accept that others are quite comfortable as they are. But it's not enough to want better for someone, if they don't want it for themselves.

Accept that some people may end up on a different path because you outgrow them, or vice versa.

Accept that some people may remain the same way throughout their lives, that's just who they are.

And accept that, at the end of the day, you still owe it to them and most importantly, yourself, to be the best version of you regardless of your situation or the decisions of those around you.

The only person you can change is yourself... and as Sher would say...


Because if you change constantly to suit you may simply find yourself going in circles, spiraling quickly in the direction of "nowhere."

Deuces!

I had a rather eventful weekend- an epic win and fail at the same time...


For some inexplicable reason I was a bit sad for the whole day Friday. I'm inclined to think that I'm still getting used to having classes on a Friday, coupled with the recent heat wave we've seemingly been having the last couple of days. After moping around campus I finally left and came to town and decided to make the best of my afternoon while I waited on confirmation of the night's events.

Funnily enough, I met up with Sher and we went to Jazz & Poetry upstairs the museum (1st Friday of every month). The Museum Bistro was also opened for service as advertised on this month's Jazz & Poetry flyer. Why is this a "funnily enough" moment? It is because this is the first time I've been to the event for the year. I've been hiding and scheming to avoid performing as sadly... I haven't really written that many fresh pieces for the year as I've been more caught up with trying to get my art off the ground. And having been one of the regular performers from last year, I feel somewhat guilty about going to the event and not performing.

This time I made it to the event, all happy and inspired to perform and participate in the event. The piece I wanted to perform was a piece I wrote a long while back about someone dear to me at a point in time when our relationship was very dramatic. Now, the piece ironically is as is and still relevant. It's not a love poem but a happy poem about being in love perhaps? And normally I perform according to which of my pieces speak to me, as that would also be the piece I could immerse myself in best and fall into character.

What ended up happening? Sher and I made it to the event. Neither of us performed. Algie wasn't there so the show took a different path than it usually does - good nuntheless just different. Algie normally would host and call the performers onto the stage once he's well aware of your capabilities to perform well - hence why I went into hiding and I didn't want to perform unless I was up to my par.

The night was still just as fun though. I've been bouncing into lots of old friends these days. Friday night... Eamon randomly popped up to collect his phone from Cemal, who also I didn't expect to see. Then Richie surprise visited with his cousin after work. Russel and his belle dropped by too, haven't seen him since earlier up this summer. A couple of Sher's friends that I met from previous excursions dropped by as well... Thus, it was an adventure.

***

Sitting by the Museum Bistro

Sher decided to be a girly girl for once, decked out in a flouncy skirt.

Richie finally got around to peek-see the event since he's also a poet/musician.

I left Sher's friend with my camera and she ran around taking shots of everyone, whether they were paying mind or not.

So the heart of Sher and Eamon's relationship lies with an onslaught of insults as greetings and such --- this is how their love. Thus, a "let's hug" photo is not unlikely since they are friends but a mean mugging shot is more possible...

Eamon n Sher. Mind you, this was the second time I've seen this dude over the entire summer! And it's fortunate we ran into each other 'cuz he flew back out already...smh

Kevin & Russel (Russel is the Russo from earlier posts). Now, Kevin is Richie's cousin. Richie is among a few close friends that calls me 'Shells' so he introduced me as much subconsciously without thought. His cousin in turn called me by my right name and said that he knows me from school. Now it's easy for me to timeline people because very few people call me by my right name today as 'Shelli' is easier to remember and pronounce. Turns out we went to kindergarten together. Small world huh?

Cemal a.k.a Shamz (if you've read my earlier posts)

Then it was time to leave the Museum Bistro. How'd we realize this? One of the caretakers came and showed us where the light switches were along with instructions on how to padlock the gate properly... It was only then that we took the time to look around and see that not only was the restaurant locked up but so was the room where Jazz & Poetry gets hosted. Naturally, who wants the responsibility of locking up a property that isn't theirs? The group of us started walking out to meet the tunnel and head to town to catch a bus.

Upon which we discovered there's a new Blackberry and Android store in town downstairs Bruce St. Mall.

Avi, Eamon & Shamz

Sher and I slightly perturbed at not getting the perfect shots we wanted.

This is as good as it got with Sher's iPad...sigh

Don't ask me when this happened...

And then Saturday night, Sher and I got bored and decided to dress up pretty and head to umbrellas. Sher lost one side of a pair of earrings that I gave her for her birthday before I even got to town. So she was sulky... When we got to Umbrellas the service was the fastest ever --- I think we got served within 10 minutes of our order. But the food was sub-par to what we're accustomed to, but ok nuntheless.


Upon leaving Umbrellas, we heard music coming from the SGU campus and decided to take our fastness and go see. We made it all the way into the yoga gazebo area only to realize that the party wasn't on campus but on the other side of the fence. Despair not, we had fun taking shots as I doubt we'd be willingly walking all the way back on SGU Grand Anse campus just for fun...

Myself

Sher

And then we got stranded in town... We took the chance as Bingo was happening at the stadium, therefore buses must run late right? Correct. However, it's more of a matter of when will the buses leave than it is whether you'd get one - it took Sherry until minutes to 2 in the morning to get home.

Posed off in front of the stadium waiting patiently...

Trying to make the best of it...!

Alls well, that ends well..
Deuces.

Meanwhile, back at base... St. George's University

Well life certainly has been one hell of a ricochet. If I had to say specifically, I'd say I've been walking around  inhaling deep breaths of that surrounding air of despondency. I can't even complain for myself without feeling self-centered because everyone's crying out right now really and truly. For one, government has yet to pay their workers for the month of August and although I've been crying about my school's long, tedious wait to get my summer student paychecks... and by workers I mean everyone within the various Ministries - be it teacher or tax man. It kinda seems absurd for me to complain still, no, yes, maybe?

~ ~ ~

Then this semester while initially gave the illusion of being light with 3 classes is probably even heavier than last semester with 6. One being science and the other two upper level senior courses, my life as I know it for the next 3 months consists of sifting through endless peer-reviewed/scholarly written papers/journals, field research and when I'm not under a stack of papers or writing a paper, I'll be calculating chemistry equations. The only good part of this whole arrangement is that I actually like field work - being granted the opportunity to see the island in the way most may never see? Always sounds good to me. This semester we're going to be doing research regarding the Grenada Hook-Billed Kite. A gorgeous bird, hopefully I'll get some shots and it won't be like our elusive Mona monkey in the last project.

Also, Dr. Pilcher always blows my mind with the professors she gets to come teach us. Last year, if you recall, I had posts about the botanist Dr. Lyons who had extensive experience in Madagascar and shared many of those experiences with us that I feel relatively well versed in some of the conservation issues over there. Then Dr. Kirkley last semester, our birds expert - first time I ever got to see a wild (but dead) owl that close and be able to touch one. And there are a few others that I can't remember the names of, but the tales of their experiences have always stuck. This semester? This semester we have Dr. Eves and her husband, two mammalogists who have a lot of experience working in Africa with the largest terrestrial mammals on Earth - elephants. And yes, I know what you're thinking - I was thinking it too. Elephants? *perked eyebrows* *rolls eyes* But in just 4-5 class sessions I've heard so much about them that it's changed my perceptions and heightened my awareness as to their importance - a reminder of every organisms importance on this planet... But that's another blog post coming soon.

~ ~ ~

Back to this posts original theme...

Thus, with the seemingly set pace for the rest of the year, I found myself trudging around campus, killing time between classes, slightly annoyed at having to be in school on a Friday... I had wanted to go to the beach so badly but I ended up taking an alternative route to school and forgot my beach stuff at home in all my haste. My thwarted plans leading to a quiet acceptance that I should just accept my fate, go home, wash some clothes or do some chores that I was planning to do on Saturday, and set some movies to stream for the night. However, Sher's been reminding me a lot these days that this is not the Shelli she knows - Shelli that she knows is a cheery, optimist and could have fun anywhere, broke or not. So I contacted her and we decided to have a beach day --- well prepared or not.  It was our first beach day in a long time - matter of fact, first time I saw her in a while too, if two weeks is considered a while...

Grand Anse beach

I decided to make a concerted effort to do this more often - after class every day if I can afford the time. When I used to teach, I used to come to the beach every weekend by myself and just enjoy the ambiance. There's something about the sea that just makes one feel at peace with the world and an inner calm with oneself. Of course, granted there isn't a million people with their children running up and down or boys looking for attention with their boomboxes parading up and down trying to display their not-so-accurate Jamaican dancehall moves. But even that provides some sort of entertainment to distract from the stresses of the outside world. It's as if all problems come to a halt as soon as your toes touch the sand and that blue-green water is within your line of vision. A few deep breaths of that clean, sea air to fill your lungs and your set for the night with a tranquil night's rest, the next day with a cheerful spirit in kinship with the shorebirds that fly freely and fishes than swim without bounds.

Honestly, who doesn't need a humbling reminder at one time or another that there's a world out there bigger than whatever we may be dealing with at the time. A world without boundaries with vast opportunities waiting to be conquered regardless of if we live on an island or not - in fact, as Dr. Eve's husband put it 'In case, you haven't realized... Earth is an island, our island" ...and the reminder that we always have the freedom to do and go beyond, lest we allow ourselves to be stopped by ourselves by the little pebbles that throw themselves in our paths.

Sher & I

Sher editing shots on her iPad.

And there's always a rainbow... if you just look for it.

Sun's about to set...

Laugh, Live, Love

And there ended the day...
Hope the photos of the beach brightened up your day a bit as being there brightened up ours.

Deuces!