WARNING: THIS MESSAGE MAY CAUSE YOU TO THINK!!!! READ WITH CAUTION




Ok this is the start of my real blogging advice experience. So I was talking to one my friends and she just graduated from college and now she is having a hard time finding a job. But even more stressful is the fact that she doesn’t really know what she wants to do in life. She graduated with a degree but she realized that’s not quite what she wants to do. She has working in hospitals, schools, restaurants and all types of places but she doesn’t really like any of them. So I asked her “what do you think your purpose in life is?” She said” That’s a good question.”

I have come to realize that most of us do not know our purpose in life. What is purpose? In study guide 21 the Honorable minister Louis Farrakhan asks that same question only he asked what is it to be happy. He says this:

“Don’t you want to be happy? I hear so many people talking about happiness, so I questioned—not the dictionary—I questioned myself. I said, “Well, what is happiness?” Happiness comes when a person understands their purpose for existence and then they fulfill that purpose. When one fulfills his or her purpose in life, the soul is satisfied. That soul has unspeakable joy!”

Then it hit me see purpose is defined by happiness. If the only time you are truly is when you have found your purpose then we can find our purpose by what makes us happy. Now this is the tricky part. Because then I asked what makes us happy. Now most people would say a nice car would make me happy. A big house would make me happy. Nice clothes would make me happy. But if that was so why do you have millionaires taking depression medicine it must be something deeper then money and material. The Minister says that “Every human being should be able to pursue that which makes that individual happy, but in the world we are living in, we all have the illusion of happiness.”

Could it be that we don’t even know what real happiness is? What is happiness? In my trusty Merriam-Webster dictionary it says that happiness is a state of well being. So the Minister asked us are you really happy? Or is your being well? In today’s society honestly how many of us are really happy. All of us are sick, tired, worn down, washed down, and just dissatisfied. And it’s all because growing up we was taught to look for a job but not look for our purpose. The minister says are so unhappy that we just keep busy so we don’t have to think about it. The minister says this is how we sound:

“I’ll work hard all week long. Oh boy! I can’t wait ‘til Friday! TGIF. Thank God it’s Friday. I can go to that place and eat some greasy food. And I can go to the liquor store; get me a quart or a pint, you know? Or, I can go to the reefer man. And bring my friends to the crib. To the crib! Where we babies, who don’t know our purpose in life, can play games, and flit away our time on the Earth, drunk, delusionally happy. Waking up with a headache on Monday to go back and do the same thing over and over and over again.”

Because we don’t know our purpose is the reason why we are so sad, down, and depressed. Have you ever seen a depressed bird, bee, flea, duck, or any other animal? Wouldn’t it be crazy to see a bird commit suicide because life just isn’t worth it? We probably say that because animal are not smart enough to know they are depressed. Well they smart enough to find food, build a home, and take care of their family with having domestic violence in the nest Lol. The animal have mastered all the things we struggle with so they must not be that dumb. How are we the best of god’s creations yet the most troubled? It’s because we don’t know our purpose. The reason why bees don’t stress and ants don’t stress and birds don’t stress is because they know exactly what they are here for. Stress comes from a lack of duty.

Example is like what if a pick up truck was in a NASCAR race even if the pick up truck won it would probably break down at the end of the race because it’s not a race care. And to flip that example what if the NASCAR was used to carry brick on a construction site even if the NASCAR made it to the destination the NASCAR would break down because that’s not its purpose. So here you and I are. We are lawyers, doctors, accountants, or what ever you do, even if you make partner as a lawyer become the top doctor of your time you are worn down ,stressed out ,and my end up leaving this life early because that wasn’t your purpose.

Somebody once told me that when you find what you love to do you never get tired of doing it. You can’t sleep at night because you are excited to do it. And most of al it’s not stressful. So once you find your purpose you never get tired of doing it, you’re not looking forward to retirement or counting down the years. You can’t wait to wake up in the morning, most us hate getting up in the morning. Going back to the animals isn’t it funny how the bird wake up every morning faithfully with no alarm clock. When you found your purpose in life every night feel like when you were a child in 4th or 5th grade and you had a field trip in the morning, you could barely sleep that night before and wasn’t tired the next day either. And most importantly once you find your purpose you are not stressed out!!

I spoke at a career day at Earl elementary school back in May and there were four or five speakers. One brother was a physicist and another sister was a nurse and there was two more sisters there but I can’t really remember exactly their titles but anyway we were all talking and fellowshipping and what not. And I ask the two sisters, who I can’t really remember what they did ironically enough, do they love what they do. They answered well I like it better then my last job. I said no do you love what you do. She said no. I asked well why are you doing it. She said well because it pays well. I asked are you happy. She said well I’m content. And ask what would she rather be doing she answered and said she wanted to open up a group home for teenage girls. Wow. It was a long way away from her current job.

See the Minister said that a slave can never be happy. You say I’m not a slave. No not with physical chains but a slave is just somebody held capture against his/her own will. So you and I have been held in a world that give us a free understanding of happiness and show us how to find purpose. We are given standard of happiness and told that if we don’t have these things you must be unhappy. They hold us capture with television, radio, magazines, and everything that we can see and touch. So I don’t want to make this to long but I want you to go look for your purpose and not your next job. I will post in a few days how to find your purpose and we can move forward from there. I hope I helped somebody today. And if you are reading this leave a comment to let me know you read it and what you think. Also if you have something specific you want me to touch on in my later to email me and let me know.






Peace

Your Brother

Bryant X

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. I bear witness there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. For those of you who went to school with me and do not know. I am a student of The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and also a student of The Honorable Minster Louis Farrakhan. I hope that Allah blesses me to say the right words in this note that will not just tickle your ear for the purposes of me being heard but touch your mind and touch your heart. For the subject that I am about to touch on is a very touchy subject but a much needed subject.

Brothers and sister this note is in response to the tragic incident and death of my brother Travon Woods. How heart breaking it was to hear that he was shot and in the hospital and then to hear the on Monday morning he was returned back to the essence of Allah. Many of you have heard the story so I don’t have to go deeper into it.

I was watching television last night and Boys “N” the Hood came on. That’s the movie starring Lawrence Fishburne and cubing Gooding Jr., and Ice Cube. It’s a scene where trey(Cubing Gooding Jr. ) and his father (Lawrence Fishburne) go to Compton and he is telling them about urban gentrification and he say “ see look they ( the elites of this world or white people) allow the black communities to flood with drugs, guns, and violence . Then once the property value goes down they kick all the people out buy up all the land then resale it for a profit”. One of the guys walks up with a 40oz in his hand and says “well what are we suppose to do if a fool rolls up on me trying to kill me imam smoke him first”. And Fishburne says “see that’s what they want you to do they want you to kill yourself.”

Now it was a lot more in that scene and I am going post the YouTube of it you can watch it for yourself but my point is this. That movie was made in 1991 but it’s what is now happening to us in 2009. How many of you know about the projects on 22 and state street? If you do… u see that Chicago allowed crime to go up, drugs to go up, and violence to go up right? Then they kick all the people out and started build condo which they sell at 100k and up. Does this sound familiar? Just like the movie says right?

Ask yourself right now how does cocaine get into our community, what about weed? How about guns? Could it be that by mouth and on TV they say it’s a war on drugs and gun but underneath the table they allow it to come in? Hmmm? Thinking yet? We are 140 years up from slavery but we are still slaves. What do you mean I’m not a slave? You might say. Well ok we don’t have to use the word slave. You are a tool… is that better? The slave master never wanted to keep having to kill us himself that take way to much work. So he put a system in place that we would hate each other so much that we would kill ourselves and do his job. So if you are a drug dealer you are a tool…if you are a murderer you are a tool….if keep trying to play gangster and the streets you are a tool….its simple.

Now what does this have to do with Travon Woods and why am I writing this note. Many of us are blood thirsty right now. We want to know who did it and where they are at. I understand how we feel. Because when tragedy happen the main question we want to know is who is responsible. However we have to rise above our emotions and think logically. If you go out looking for someone you will continue a cycle of killing in our community. Another mother has to suffer the lose of her son. And girlfriend the lose of the one she loved. The siblings the lose of their brother? Why are we so foolish to continue a cycle of death? We are still tools of our slave master and don’t even know it.

This is why in that same movie , boys n the hood, Ricky gets shot in the end and his brother dough boy , ice cube, went looking for the person that shot his brother . They found them and killed them. And at the end of the movie it said dough boy was killed two weeks later. Why because it’s a never ending cycle. 9000 black men die a year from gun violence that’s 9x the rate of solider who die at war. Only 1000 soldiers die at war a year. Wake up people stop being blind to the reality around us. Travon was a victim of the sick that we have in our community. The sick mind state that we have not to care about life of others lives. His death is physical manifestation of our own self hatred.

I have seen many upset face book statuses and heard about how people feel about the situation. I have heard about what people think should happen and what should be done. I have heard people upset with the people travon was with when he was shot because those people don’t have the information you want. If you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t worry about but if you do listen up. I want us to first put ourselves in those people shoes before we cast judgment out of emotions. When September 11, 2001 happen and the planes hit the towers. I heard many people give story about how they would have survived. How they would have beat up the terrorist and fly the plane back to safety. I was one of this people. Last February 14, 2008 it was a school shooting at NIU which I happen to be very close to. I was so in shock I didn’t think about saving the day or tackling the gun, I feared for my life so I ran. I was thinking today it’s so easy to say what you would have did or what somebody should do when you are not in the situation.

What if it was you on 59 and honoree ?What if it was you scared for your life as bullets bounce off the walls and doors of the house you was in? What if it was you holding one of your closest friends as he bleeds to death in your hand? Could you handle it? What would you do? How dare you pass judgment on someone before putting yourself in their shoes? The reality is you probably would have did the same thing. Some of us would have probable gone crazy. Some of us would have even went into depression.
Some people maybe reading this note and be up set with your brother for writing this. I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m not here to offend or make anyone mad. I’m here to help us get through this rough time in our life and for us to take a call to action to not let another one die this way.

For those of you who are reading this message I want u to pass it on and let everybody read it. Let us remember our brother travon for all the he blessed us with. His love, his friendship, and his knowledge. Let us now remove our foolish status off facebook and also remove our illogical opinions from our thoughts.

I miss my brother Travon. But as a Muslim But as a Muslim I must say it is Allah who gives life and Allah is the ultimate cause of death, and Allah says in the Qur’an, “wherever a misfortune befalls a believer, the believer says: Allah is my patron and to him is my eventual return,” . in saying that I hope Allah blessed you with the light of understanding why I wrote the note.

Peace and blessings

Bryant X

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtUMBzWF8Ao

this the video i was talking about early in my post it starts at the 6 min mark.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4a6cpI0pjg

this video finishing the scene.