It’s 2021, but it’s not the 2021 that I thought it would be back in the early ‘70s.
In the early ‘70s we all thought it would be a Jetsons-like existence of flying cars and futuristic gadgetry that would scream out, we are in the future’.
We thought of the advances in technology but never knew that our unity would not move forward, but actually regress. What good is it to advance in technology and stagnate in our own human nature, love for each other, and advancement as a people?
What’s the point?
We have all of the things that we could’ve ever wanted to make a wonderful life, yet we are worse off than we have ever been as a people.
I know that I’m not the only one thinking this, but I often say please take back the cell phone, please take back the flat-screen TV, please
take back these modern vehicles that are like spaceships on wheels, please take it all back and bring me back to a time when none of those things existed.
Take me back to that time when things were a lot slower, when we wore Afro’s proudly, when we were extremely overjoyed to call ourselves
Black as opposed to the face bleachers who feel that their Blackness is a curse. Take me back to that time when, even against the rules of
our schools, we brazenly celebrated Black Solidarity Day, in the faces of our Jewish and white teachers.
We stood tall, even as preteens and young teens, because we had the blessings of our parents to stay home that day and make a statement to
the world. While we always had minor disputes as kids, we always seemed to come together when any other people came at us in a way that
wasn’t proper.
Just like that lyrics in the old “All In The Family” television sitcom back in the ’70’s: “THOSE WERE THE DAYS!”
Yes, we had our issues back in the golden days in the black community.
We had heroin addicts, we had crime, we also had other minor differences, but those differences never prevented us from coming together when needed, and necessary.
Beyond those issues we had love, we had an uncompromised culture that was ours and not manufactured as it is today. We had our parties, we had our gatherings, and we had our community.
Today we would be hard pressed to find a true Black community, in the original sense, anywhere, even though we do have ‘neighborhoods’.
I just feel so alone, as someone who is about to turn 58 years old, and feel cheated in the present that is not a “present”. but a bait and
switch reality that I never expected to manifest.
Is this what I worked hard for and yearned for all of these years?
To have all of this modern technology and not even have the people in the same good old mindset that we had back in the day. What’s so good about that?
What happened to meeting a Sister or Brother, who we technically didn’t know, who was actually a stranger, but after a few moments of
conversation we felt like we’ve known each other for a lifetime?
What happened to walking down that street that we never ventured down before, and invited in by total strangers who asked us if we wanted
to have a plate of food, simply because they were having a backyard family cookout? Who does that now? That reality used to be the norm in my world in those days!
What happened to those old barbershop conversations that made you want to stay an extra three or four hours, or even until the barbershop
closed?
I don’t know about you, but life in 2021 is a lot different than life in 1973. Granted, you can pick your own personal set of years that are
golden to you, but the story will still be the same: “Today is not what we thought it would be, and the sweetness of yesteryear is not present.”
Now we can make a difference, but it appears that we don’t want to. It appears as though we are sold out on the superficial, but yet we don’t
realize that we’ve lost our souls.
We’ve lost that divine connection, and someone else has intercepted that connection and created something else that will never bring us
together. Therefore we cannot vibe with each other the way we used to because of our tragic missteps from the righteous path.
It’s lonely in this world right now when you understand the sweetness of yesteryear. We seek out others who look like us, who we feel may be
the antidote to the inner voids that we experience now, and bring back that love and overwhelming joy that we felt years ago.
As we further investigate this false reality, we often find that it’s nothing but a paper thin facsimile of what we are looking for, but will never find.
Many of us who look like us have either lost that connection to the good old days or have given up, and settled for the illusionary matrix
in a world that doesn’t love us.
While most will feel like giving up, I won’t give up, because I know that there are people out there like me.
We need to see ourselves from a more universal perspective, understanding that we are a global people even though we’re not monolithic.
I know that there are people out there who feel the same way that I do, who have that original love for our ever diminishing culture and
community.
Ever since I can remember, our culture had begun to go through an unseen process of destruction because of a shrewd enemy who despised
us for showing love to each other.
It made it so much easier for me to move to the motherland, because the love that I sought, that I used to get in America in my own community, was not there anymore.
Now here in the motherland, where although I look like my sisters and brothers, and my upbringing may be slightly different, the warmth that many of them give to me is reminiscent of what I used to feel back when I was younger.
Sometimes you have to move away from where you are in order to get what it is that you want. Staying in one space is comparable to cows
grazing on all the grass in one spot, and expecting more grass to appear after it’s all consumed.
And even though there are language and cultural barriers, which are the things that come along with moving to a new continent, the
bottom line is that at least I finally have a chance to feel what my heart has always yearned for.
Instead of seeking out the differences, that will be there, let us find that common denominator to embrace and build with each other.
Our existence is not about what the white man has done to us. We’ve got to understand that that history will always be there, but if we
focus our time and energies on the negative things that happened, we will lose out on the love that we should be sharing with each other, in the present.
We need to focus on the seeds of greatness that we all possess, despite what was done to us in the system that they maintain to hold us down.
WIN ANYWAY!
I am not saying that we should to turn our backs on the struggles as the opposition continues. It’s important to understand that we must sit down in the trenches of war, and share, and show love to each other to replenish our souls, and strengthen our psyches.
I accept that there is no guarantee of me ever finding that good old 1970s love…….
That good old velvet psychedelic blue light type of poster hanging on the wall, while The Ohio Players music flooded my young ears…….
Discovering those old Richard Pryor records that our Elders thought were well hidden from us…….
Soul Train on a Saturday morning…….
Going up to Jamaica Avenue to see the pretty girls that were guaranteed soaking up as much male attention as they can get, without appearing to care one bit…….
Shopping for our new outfits, print polyester shirts, marshmallow shoes, and the widest bell bottom pants imaginable…….
While I may never find that again in my life, those memories will always exist within me; and as long as I have the breath within my body to
send out my messages to the world to possibly find someone who is like me, I’ll never stop trying.
You know we have countries that send up signals into outer space, radio signals, to see if there is intelligent life in outer space.
…….and while I never doubt that there are other intelligent beings out there who may or may not look like us, I have an increased hope that I can reach those who have had similar experiences like mine and who want to connect and continue the love that we had back in the 1970s. We must join onto each other because in this crazy year called 2021 we don’t realize that it is “divided we stand united we fall.”
Trust and know that there are some who look like us who take a special joy in seeing us divided. As we stand and hope, in the end we all will take a united fall.
We have so much to give to each other yet we offer our talents to an open enemy whose Colgate smile betrays the brutal fact that they will rip us off for pennies on the dollar to leave us destitute.
For us to come together as a people we are going to have to revamp all that has been fed to us, and absorb our own doctrine of unity, and strip away everything that has been given to us by our common enemy, to rebuild not only our community, but the planet that belongs to us.
Our motherland is the richest most fertile land on the entire planet, but we’ve rejected it and make it seem as though it’s the worst place because we have absorbed the propaganda of the enemy, hook line and sinker, as though it is the gospel truth.
I’m not going to give up as long as I’m alive, but I often do feel a sense of hopelessness when it comes to our unified mission to live in our purpose. But the beautiful thing is that every time I begin to feel that sense of hopelessness, someone reaches out to me to let me know that they feel just the same way that I do.
If all I receive is an occasional “signal” returned from the intelligent Black life who looks like me, that’s enough to sustain my enthusiasm for a better world to come, free from the oppression that profits others and not us.
That my family would truly make me happy and moving forward, to say the least.
Peace, Righteous Love & Revolution Always,
Your Brother,
LanceScurv
407.590.0755
