Monthly Archives: January 2016

Another one

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If you know me, you know I talk and sing about love often.

Romantic, platonic, familial, self, overwhelming – whatever kind of love it might be, I like to explore it.

I woke up this morning, the last day of winter break before classes begin tomorrow, in a small bed in a small apart in a small town. I woke up with the need, the desire to help people work through what love means to them on different levels and through different spaces in our lives.

As an educator of college-aged young minds, I find there to be a responsibility in making them think. It is not just about me giving answers, or me telling them my prospective, but how do I share moments with them, in hope that they can learn to think and express their thoughts? My first idea is that we must share in a safe space our likes, dislikes, opinions and perspectives. A friend and I speak often about music and good vs. bad, if there is a good vs. bad and what it all means. The one word that comes up so often is context. Everything in life happens in context. As an artist, some feel context should matter, some feel it shouldn’t. As a Black mixed Woman in the United States, context always plays a role in my day to day.

Love, for me, is accepting and honoring EVERYTHING about what it is you love. I love Black People. I love my Black culture. That means ALL of it, some stuff that I may find distasteful, some stuff I secretly bump to, but cannot let all my circles know, some stuff I praise unknowingly and some that you can’t tell me not to like! I love my curly hair. Not everyday do I like it, not everyday is it perfect, but those should not matter when it comes to love.

If I love you, it, that, him, she, they… whatever it is, my goal is to never degrade or dishonor that in which I love. I may not agree, I may not like, I may loathe something about it, but that does not mean stop loving it.

Loving something means helping it be its best, for itself, not for anyone or anything else. But this means, whatever you love, whoever you love has to know what’s best for it. This means, there has to be an honoring and a self love and appreciation that happens. Quiet times, educational times, exploring times, fun times, relaxing times, hard times; We are multi-faceted, life is not a straight path. You cannot expect to behave the same in every situation. You cannot expect everyone who you love to behave like you. You cannot expect everyone to love you. (Whatever you is at this point, place in any noun with the word “you”)

Love is a word. This word is used in so many ways. I just looked up the meaning of this word at dictionary.com-I have to say I did not love the definitions. Be careful how you use it. Context is important, so is intent.

Love, to me, is an idea, an action. With it, we can change the world, we can change our worlds. With it, we have the power to be better than ever imagined. It’s just about understanding it.

What is love to you? How do you express it? What is something that you love? What is something you don’t like about the thing that you love?

With love,

JB