October 2013: Are You Worthy?

http://www.interbasket.net/players/usa/worthy.jpg

When I first started watching basketball, “Big Game” James Worthy was one of my favorite players. I appreciated Worthy for many reasons, with the primary ones being: His game had style but without unnecessary flash. He played within a team concept even though he had a superstar’s game.

 In life we are often proving ourselves worthy of something- friendship, pay raise, love, etc…But what happens when you indirectly are told you are not worthy? The two most common instances where this happens are job interviews and courtship. When faced with this we have many choices. The two most common ones are avoidance, as in denial by stating the other party is clearly mistaken.

Or, we prove ourselves worthy as shown in this clip from Seinfeld:

In proving yourself, keep in mind your performance in big game situations matters as much as the value you assign to yourself. Most people have an inflated value of their own worth and assign a lesser value to others. This, in itself, is not a bad thing because life is a market economy. You set your value and see who is willing to pay that price, and confirm you are indeed worthy.

Two worthy ones

I now introduce you to two of my favorite people in the world, who also happen to be the best of friends. We met in college and I don’t know how, but I proved myself to be worthy of their friendship from day one. For this, I am happy.

andrea taylor. The best starting point is to say that she works with and for the youth both in her professional life as well as her personal life, through ministry at her church, Antioch Baptist Church of Corona.

Shaun Merritt-Scott. Always there to bring laughter, particularly through her brand of straight-shooting talk, she is an educator who has recently joined the entrepreneurial ranks with "The Pamapered Chef".

September 2013: You Ain’t About That Life!

[Third in a series, to show my appreciation for New Day Slang]

Do you know the meaning of flawless? It is hard to know the meaning of something which you have never experienced, particularly if it does not exist. I felt this way until about four years ago, up until the day I learned this phrase: You Ain’t About That Life!

As with most things in life, we learn of them through a negative lens or interaction. Someone was claiming moxie that was a bit extra and one of his confronters told him, “You know you ain’t about that life”. Two things make this phrase flawless, at least for me: (1) its meaning is clear; you do not need a dictionary, a thesaurus or your neighborhood hood dude to decipher; and (2) it covers both spectrums: the positive and the negative, hence the phrase does not need to be reframed.

For a clear exposition, check out this filmmaker (Carl H. Seaton) whose work I recently enjoyed:

I will now use the phrase to make a sweeping generalization: none of us are about that life, any life we are claiming. Most of our life is just pure hogwash, fiction. Seriously, what was your last original thought? Tell it to me and I will google it and show you it was created centuries – or more – ago.

Of course we should not set out to recreate the wheel on a daily basis. We should model ourselves, our careers after someone, some category. But, imagine that every thought you ever have had, you read or heard somewhere! Slowly each day you chose the script you are acting: comedy, travelogue, Dilbert, the number 752, or being one of the great ones.

See, I can follow and be about that life, “the great ones”. It comes down to your own truth, your passion. If we can acknowledge that - at minimum - 90% of the life we lead is fiction, then we can jettison the false bravado and just focus and be about that true life: Being a great one!

Two More great ones

Above I introduced a filmmaker making the works that try to set us on the right path. Along with him, I now link you to two others who need your support as they tell your story. Visit and “LIKE” their page on Facebook.

wilkie cornelius, director of single hills

Ava DuVernay, director of middle of nowhere