Monday, March 5, 2018

ELDER TALK, blessing


How do put blessing on a child? It is different than on a young person, and distinct in the proper way of being fair; it is a different delivery to boys, to men, girls and women. It requires a scope of one's own life to fairly assess what is needed in a young person's life at the exact moment you meet them.

It was a good day to sit outside in an open café with a cup of fancy hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich in DC yesterday afternoon. I saw two Black boys, here in the northeast part of DC, defiantly walking passing a joint betwixt them. They chose to sit at a table near me. The one facing me looked in my eyes, glanced again and then stared hard ignoring my nod and said, "Whutzup?"

I paused. His aggression was no more than anger wrapped with the tension preceding an anticipation of a diatribe. If, I'd been another type man the kid might have felt compelled to jump in my face. Feeling small is a bit part in the make up of boys trying to fill out the spaces of the expectations of being a 'bad boy'. It is the father energy with the capacity to quell their passion wild boys respond to with a degree of reverence. How this starts is with a question asked. The question shapes the man's character for the boy to understand as a safe place. It sets the boy up for new revelations he had not known how to ask.

"Your walk speaks to me about power."
"What?"
"I see you, the both of you, with a sense of power about you. The question to you is how will you develop it?"

The strongest boy who'd engaged in eye contact leaned forward, curious. "What'd do mean?" he asked. "This is not a question to answer now, and not to me." I said. "You grow with it as you grow and mature over the years. Just remember the question."

How do you put a blessing on a boy's head? You put a thought in their heads.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
October 21, 2017


Pretty sepia tone, slim lines, pleasant face holding a feel, a sense of who her presence is,
is not as an object, but a force becoming. It is marvelous the growth of youth.


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