Peace, Superior – February 14, 2022 (45/365)

Power went out for around 2 hours. On Valentines’ Day, of all days. Not that it matters for me, but, think of the children.

Anyway that blackout prompted me to jump into doing my daily unload, ora mismo.

I’ll say this. I do recognize there’s some FOMO still lingering around. I saw that as I felt the urge to post on my personal Social Media accounts just to get in on the Valentines’ hype. It also didn’t help that I watched the Superbowl Halftime show. There was a lot that I wanted to post but I felt, just as a certain Presidential candidate felt as he declined to join certain debates. It’s not specifically a feeling of quitting while you’re ahead – no, that’s not the idiom I would choose.

It’s not hubris, either. That shit is deadly. No, it’s really just a peace with yourself and with all that really matters, which channels out all the noise and, more importantly, all the anxiety. Here’s a powerful question we ought to keep asking ourselves when FOMO pushed us to do certain things – ‘Do you really have to do it?’

So far that’s saved me from posting emotionally. It’s saved me from overeating. It’s saved me from binge-watching. It’s saved me from porn. Asking that question is also sort of just telling yourself that you’re all good. You’re at peace.

More than FOMO pushing me, I was held together by peace today. And not just today, mind you, but the days leading to today as well.

Facebook has this tendency of telling you at the start of any day of ‘memories’ or posts you made on this day through the years. Needless to say, I was ‘treated’ to a cringe-fest of posts that I’ve been making during previous Valentines’ days. The pictures felt forced. The posts felt as if they were there only for the sake of me posting on Valentines. I was that desperate for attention. I was probably asking myself the same question, and answering, ‘Yes, I absolutely have to post on Valentines’.

Like I said, there’s still some fear of missing out. I won’t deny that. But it’s either more manageable or I am just that much more in tune with this everlasting peace that I have right here right now, that I’m just really down for whatever.

Speaking of Down For Whatever, Ice Cube wasn’t in the Halftime Show, but I can say he was definitely well-represented. I mean, Dr. Dre could have led that show on his own and it would have been cool – well, probably not. Everyone else worked with each other, and made a great representation of the generations influenced by their beats. Eminem. 50 Cent. Mary J. Blige. Snoop Dogg. I didn’t really know Kendrick Lamar but I guess he was pretty cool. Great choice of talent, great teamwork – each one of them had their time in the spotlight, and that finale? Man… Still D.R.E. was a perfect choice.

And speaking of the peace of our Presidential candidates, well, I’ve held back on posting on politics on lots of things, save for this one narrative that’s being pushed – That your vote reflects your own character. Man, that bothers me. I guess it bothers me even more because I have friends and relatives who are saying the same thing.

But if you’ve hung out with me long enough you’d know that a statement like that would be something I wouldn’t appreciate, at the very least. For one thing, I just hate how people can be reduced to a particular event. It’s a sad fact, and I hate it. A schoolmate of mine pooped his pants during high school and up until this day he’s been known as a pants-shitter by a majority of our batchmates, more than anything else. I may have done a couple things in my past, and I’m pretty sure there are people out there who squeeze my entire existence to that one mistake I made.

For anyone to say that their vote represents everything of their entire being is insulting and degrading, for everyone involved. See, if anyone says that about me and my vote, I could certainly dwell on how insulting and degrading that is on my part, but it also shows how their own view of themselves is so insultingly limited and reduced to their own vote. It also shows how, perhaps, they’ve been degraded by the same or other means with the same magnitude, and as they have been hurt, so they feel it is justice to hurt others the same way.

Right now part of me is thinking that I am typing all of this to see if I could reduce it all into lesser characters for me to share on my other social media accounts, but, again, I’m down for whatever. If anything, I don’t really have to post anything about it elsewhere – I’m just happy I’m able to clarify it here, for myself, and Lord knows who else would read this.

There’s certainly so much more about ourselves – too much about our beings that we simply could not be truly categorized, nor can we be fully defined by one aspect of ourselves. This is not to give ourselves any credit, and it’s certainly not to excuse any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ behavior we may have… Well, some of that may be laced in the words I type tonight, but the main point I’d like to deliver here is that, whether we believe in God or not, He gets a whole lot more credit for designing each and every one of us so precisely, down to the smallest detail of each and every aspect of our being.

Every breath we take, and every beat of our hearts is under His supervision and by His grace. He is aware of the composition of the air we inhale, each and every time we’ve been inhaling, down to each and every possibility of when we would be taking our last breath. He is aware of the strength of the muscle that’s been running non-stop ever since we were born into this world, each and every time it beats so blood would make its way in and out and around our circulatory system.

He knows the possibilities, and the potential we have. The dirty little secrets and the greatest achievements we’ve had and will have. He knows the number of hairs on our heads. The thoughts we have in each and every moment. The lines between the lines we spit out.

And we dare say that our vote defines us. What an insult to the Creator, through whom we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Only He knows all there is to know about us – we don’t even know everything there is to know about ourselves! How DARE we fall for the temptation of accusing someone based solely on ONE choice they made?

Exhale, JB.

Sorry, I just had to get that out there, and I’m glad you’re still sticking around for the ride. See, I didn’t even stop to ask myself if I really had to go that far. I guess that’s an observation we need to make, a guideline best practiced and applied sooner than later – to take a step back when things get too emotional. It’ll be good for ourselves and others.

The perfect love, the perfect peace will always reign over fear. In any of its forms.

Continue to have a good day.