I pray you and your loved ones are healthy and safe. Please know that I am not simply saying the same thing as a filler for each newsletter. I really and truly mean it. It is an honor and a privilege for me to be here, able to write to you with a positive word at this time and I really do hope and pray you and your loved ones are doing ok.
Last week, I posted a note on my blog to two of my Readers: 1 who is from the Ukraine and the other from Russia. Thanks to the nosiness of the internet, you can gain a sense of where your audience is accessing your materials.
I must admit and have mentioned before, I am always humbled (and a bit giddy) looking at all of the countries my words have traveled. Places I have yet to visit physically. I often wonder about what the people are like and what they are experiencing in their lives as they read my posts.
However, last week, I did not need to wonder about the two readers I mentioned.
When we talk about the hellishness of war, we can watch or listen in gruesome detail anytime of the day or night and on any device. And, it is because of this barrage of images and information that have many/most of us feeling helpless, scared, angry, alone and afraid, that I enter into today’s message:
You are DOPE even when the world says NOPE (bars)
So listen, the world is going to do what the world does. That is EXACTLY why we need you and all of your dopeness every single day.
Quick record scratch for clarity for my international audience or those unfamiliar with Hip Hop vernacular:
I recognize that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the noun “Dope” as either an unintelligent person (it actually says “a stupid person,” but mama used to tell us stupid was a bad word) or “an illicit drug (such as heroin or cocaine) used for its intoxicating or euphoric effects.”
Thank you for your input, MWD.
Since I am about centering the voices of the global majority (and Hip Hop is hella global), I turn to the online resource The Right Rhymes for the definition of the adjective “Dope:”
DOPE (adj.): Excellent; attractive; exciting
The Right Rhymes online
Thank you once again to the Hip Hop community for bringing more texture and color to a drab planet.
Yes! Even in the midst of an apocalypse, gas prices soaring and the grocery store running out of our favorite brand of Key Lime Pie, this is your time to do all of the amazing things you have been placed on this ashy planet to do!
We need your brilliance, your excellence, your stories, your beauty, your talent, your creativity, your excitement, your dopeness, your you-ness (I know that’s not a word. Don’t come for me).
It is your time. If there ever was a moment for you to actualize love, justice and liberation in your life, like Kenny Loggins sang “This is It (or was that Michael McDonald?)!
Please know that I am not saying ignore the atrocities going on in the world. I’m also not saying to be so consumed by what is happening in our world that you lose hope and lose you. There are some folx who are waiting for the blessing of you, just as you are…
So, what are you going to do about it?!?
In Solidarity.
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