How Else Do We Celebrate

Hi people.

I've been gone. Hiatus, if you will. I hate us, if you won't.

(...What?)

Anywho, I typed this up a year ago for Martin Luther King Day. It's not so much a tribute to his life and his accomplishments, great and unique as they were/are to the US Civil Rights movement, as it is an update of sorts on my version of the dream.

The update is different now. Which I will post later.

And by later, I mean, in an hour or so. Whenever I finish.

I'm waiting for laundry to wash and dry.

Sleep-deprived blogging. Should be fun.

Shall we?

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Well, today is MLKJ day. The day where fairies come from the sky. They land on all meanie administrators heads from all school systems (except Bob Jones U, maybe) and make them give the kids and sometimes adults a day off.

...

Ok, not really, but MLK is only "celebrated" by a few black people. I haven't seen Asian people celebrate it. Hispanic. Indian. And honestly, not many black people. I've seen a few whites on occasion do somethings, and those who celebrate at churches are mostly black.

But then again, I haven't been to many white churches, and not on MLK day.

Then again, I suppose the day shouldn't be made to celebrate just MLK, because there were many other people that helped and may have had a more political or social influence than King.

It's no big deal. The holiday. I don't think MLK cares that there is a day celebrating Civil Rights' achievements. As long as the achievements were made, he'd be just as happy.

In fact, being a doctor, he'd probably be happier seeing me and other minorities in school with all other groups of people than us segregating ourselves with our friends of our own respective races.

Well, kudos to you Dr. King and just as many kudos to the people of all colors and backgrounds that did their own thing during the Civil Rights movement.

Now.

.................

This is the whiny part.

I have many white friends. It's about a 80/20ish ratio white to black. I say 80/20ish, because I have a few friends who are neither white or black. Or they are both.

Of the close friends, it's closer to 50/50ish. I understand that because of cultural differences and whatever differences that may not exist due to culture (I don't believe much in the latter) that I usually have to keep those friends separate.

Segregated, if you will.

Dontae is a close friend of mine from football in HS, school, and when I worked at Harvey's. He's really cool. Cassie I know from many places, I guess. I spent the most time talking with her during a joint enrollment thing at Brewton-Parker. She's really cool.

I can't remember if it was 11th grade in Trig or if it was 9th grade Geometry, but Dontae, Cassie, and I sat together kinda in the back of the room. And for once, one of my (soon to be) good white friends and one of my good black friends got along. Well. On a regular basis.
The tastes in music were still different. The accents and dialects were different. The backgrounds were different. But two intelligent people got along, and even without me being there, they probably would have gotten along just as well.

It was good to see. And after a while, I was able to just enjoy conversation with two friends like usual.

But it doesn't happen often outside of school. TJ and Jason, perhaps closer friends than Cassie and Dontae are, because TJ and I, and Jason and I have been through more bad times, and most definitely more good times.

Anyway Jason and Bryna were going to Dairy Queen after a football game in Vidalia. I saw TJ there and we started to talk.

Admittedly Jason doesn't really know TJ and TJ doesn't know Jason. But it bothered me to know that two of my friends didn't even talk.

They weren't even fighting. They didn't say anything to each other. Like neither existed. And from the outside looking in, it was that way.

It wasn't because TJ is black or because Jason is white. It's because of the "circles" of friends people tend to have. Jason's circle included me. TJ's circle included me. And in both circles, I tend to believe I'm somewhere near the center. However, as big as both circles are (Jason and TJ have many acquaintances, if not friends) neither circle had the other person in it. Even with me being so close to the centers (TJ and Jason), and me being a center of my own circle with them being close to the center, they weren't close to each other.

If the center of a circle E is close to the center of circle T and circle J, then how can the circles of T and J not even touch?

They must touch. It is mathematically, moreso geometrically impossible otherwise.

So how can this be?




Because people aren't circles.




And I cannot make sense of it with a shape as simple as a circle. If it must be graphed somehow, it would include far more complicated shapes for most people. For me, it may be a circle, a line, something more asymmetrical.

For most, not really circles, in some cases not even shapes with defined boundaries. Sometimes, it's just two points.

And even with exceptions to my "circle" theory, you can't make sense of everything.

People are too complex. And in the way of friends, maybe I'm either very complex or very simple.

And in the case of Jason and TJ, too complex or simple.


Am I asking you to make friends with people of other races so that the ratio of your friends is more even?

No.

However, am I asking you to make some friends of other races?

No.

Just one good friend of another race?

No.

What am I asking of you?



Nothing.




I am asking nothing of you.




For whatever the reason, and there is a reason...there is a reason for everything, whether it can be figured or not, it is the way it is...

The situation is the situation.

Just because things don't seem right, doesn't mean it isn't right. Some things are above my thought, human thought, or human thought in any point of human's evolution.

So what's all this typing for?


?


I don't know.