One thing I can count on in my Circle of Life are random opportunities to gain clarity with the help of a friend. A casual conversation can change my outlook…a viewpoint that has been a part of my DNA for the longest time can be altered with The Word…a wise word not a clichéd reformation of canonical scripture.


We get older and wiser. Then we experience, The Chance – not a preacher approved Godly retribution.

A Chance that forms as a result of the decisions that we make. It is one step forward with numerous steps backwards, and if we are stuck in the Learning Curve that learning constantly introduces we are not getting wiser. To be wise is to be Simple.


A reduced priced T-shirt from Target, a pair of aged cargo shorts that were pants in another life, and a pair of vintage black high-top Converse are classic items that scream, Simplicity.

This is what one of my best friends helped me concentrate on a few days ago, Minimalism. He said, “I am so tired of all this rhetorical verbiage that dictates what is necessary to Make It…all this emphasis on the American Dream…what is that anyway? It is simple for me…I want my life to be modest. Nothing more, nothing less.” –The Teacher


I am definitely in agreement! I am so thankful that I did not terminate not knowing that a life lived…really lived is one of Simplicity. The cars, houses, shoes, clothes, all this materialism consumes humans. Avariciousness occupies our thinking, our lives. This Occupation is a self-made trap that entices.

It is like a rat that knows if he steps forward to reach for the cheese he is going to suffer a major consequence, Death. It is as if the rat wants to die just to get a taste of the finer things, aged cheese. Human beings are the rats. We want, we desire, and we covet to the extent that we die chasing a Dream that’s fantasy; that was defined by men who were banished from Europe, The Forefathers. Inconsequently, it is a ‘thing’ that we will want to eliminate when we finally reach a state of non-Occupation.

The men and women who are occupying space, not a Cause, are commendable – but in the same vein they are hypocrites. Sadly, they have no idea that they are the stink bugs of Hypocrisy. They are Standing for what…? They are fed-up with elected officials ‘making it easy’ for the wealthy. I to some extent agree with them. However, I also remember bits and pieces of my Intro to Human Psychology class. Most of the Tent City Occupiers know that they would eagerly jump at The Chance to be rich. They would be just like this One Percent of people that they find pleasure in demonizing while taking pleasure in identifying themselves as the righteous Ninety-nine Percent.

99% is the latest and greatest fad. In my complex lifetime, there is nothing Simple about a fad. It is usually consumed by bandwagon folk who have no individuality. To be eccentric he/she HAS already embraced the Simple things.


I often times wish that I would have learned this years ago as an undergraduate student. I, many of us, were so green…we studied and passed our exams so that we could put ourselves in a position to make money: attain letters behind our birth certificate names. We stayed up all night fueled on No Doze memorizing so that we could ace the test or cheat to pass…this effort taken to be among the One Percent or at least in the class of The Middle and Upper Middle.

We certainly did not acquire student loan debt to become friends with Sallie Mae even though she periodically sends text messages laced with default threats. We did not acquire student loan debt with the hopes a liberal black president would bail us out. We did it to make money! With that same money many of us idealist Democrats would have – and some have – purchased the Mercedes truck and the oversized house…two items that we will never really own considering paying a tax on both means that at the end of the day: The Government owns the vehicle and the home.

Americans got it all wrong. Life is Simple, not tough. It only becomes complicated when we convolute our existence with outlandish expectations and outrageous STUFF. My friend, The Teacher, and I have vowed to downsize our lives in an effort to be like Jesus….

St. Lucia, Peace Corps Service 1995

Yes! Jesus was a simple man. Many of us pass the essence of Jesus day after day never realizing that Jesus is the one who looks poor. He could very well be a child in disguise...He might just be the boy in the middle holding a representation of maturation, a Birthday Cake or the girl to the right holding life, The Baby.

Muata Nowe