Picture Day

WORLDVIEW 101

I am just coming to realize the essential visual quality of online engagement.  I have always loved to take pictures.  I enjoy seeing a moment in time memorialized forever.  The people who come after and look at my images have a point of view that is filtered through their own lives and experience, so photographs provide an ever-changing creative interaction.  I don't even have to be around for it to happen.  I am represented as the picture-maker; the one who set you up for this unique interaction with my world view.

 Reflections are a magical gift from God, as far as I'm concerned.  They let you know that nothing is as it seems.  Reflections often provide me with a creative spark. I realized that I could see myself, the fallow field behind me, the interior of the room, and the life beyond the door, and capture it all in a single frame.  Awesome.  When I consider this image with a creative mind, it tells me that much of life is illusory.  There are a myriad of options available to me at any given moment.  I just need to take the time to reframe them into something practical, beautiful and creative.  My perspective changes.  My attitude changes.  My life changes.  Excellent.

Life is made up of chores.  Things to do.  If you bring your native creativity to the most mundane of tasks, something happens.  You see beyond current circumstances, and take in a broader horizon.  This blog is supposed to be about my son.  He cannot see how it is going to help him get to Europe next summer, so there's very little of him in it, at present.  I'm looking beyond the current landscape.  In my mind's eye I see Malachi boarding that plane.  I see him boarding that plane when I'm about to fall asleep, turning ideas over in my mind for this blog and other fundraising efforts I am doing.  I see him boarding that plane when he is staring at me, obdurate and entitled, in spite of the fact that we really have nothing.  He looks like a spoiled rich kid.  Let me help him grow into that persona, at least a little.  Sometimes Malachi runs into situations with his more affluent friends.  He says, "My friend is jealous." "Jealous?" I am stupefied. I am confused.  The kid he refers to seems to have everything.  "You talk to me," my kid says simply.

Indeed I do.  Sometimes I wonder if it does much good.  But, there's no point in having children if you won't talk to them.  Everybody should spend time laughing with their kids.  It's how you see who they really are.

Art is everywhere, in everything.  When you find the art in things, no matter how ordinary they seem, you find the divinity inherent in all things.  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass

P is for "Persistence!"

Ashton makes my persistence look good!

I have resolved to learn to crochet hats.

It seems like it ought to be easy.  It's not.  I've spent a few precious hours with YouTube, because I'm a visual learner.  I cain't make the beautiful items out at Meladora's Crochet Creations, but I made something!  To my amazement, Malachi's friend Isaac wants this hat.  "I'll crush that!" he hollered, when I brought it out.  "Golden State Warriors' colors!"  OK.  "Seven dollars, " I said, with what I hoped was proper marketing confidence.
"Put a fuzzy ball on top and some strings, and I'll give you ten," the young man replied.  All-righty, then!

http://www.meladorascreations.com

The difference between what I got and what I was going for?  PERSISTENCE.

Crocheting hats and scarves is a way to rest my busy mind somewhere, occupy my hands, and create something, all at the same time.  My grandma Lucy Coker Jefferson told me:  "Nobody can call you lazy if you make stuff!" She was teaching me how to crochet.  My mother taught her, and she taught me.  Most of her grandchildren crochet.  We discovered at a family reunion that we all do so for the same reason--out of loving memories of her.  I got major blowback for teaching my cousin Thurman, Jr. to crochet.  "It looks so relaxing," he exclaimed as he watched my hook flying.  I cain't walk and chew gum, but I can talk and crochet.  I like that.  I taught him what I could, with his mama and sisters screeching dissent the whole way.  They're on F**book, Lord love 'em, and they can stay there.

My goal is to crochet 1000 scarves and sell them at around $10 a pop.  This goal originated from watching a Steve Harvey stand-up.

 Steve Harvey is the New Oprah.

 Before he was that, he did stand-up comedy.  If you watch just one Steve Harvey comedy special, you will understand why yours truly is utterly inured to the n-word.  It has made that man millions.  More than Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, and Kramer from Seinfeld put together!  When he stopped denigrating and cussing, Steve got to talking about how he made it (wit de help ob de Lawd!).  He said, "Sell something for $5.  When you make $100, sell something for $10.  When you make $500, sell something for $20.  Do that for a couple years.  Look around and see yourself as an entrepreneur.  Look around and see yourself out of the hole.  Look around and see people respecting you.  Look in the mirror and see a new human being."  I decided to start out with $10 scarves.  If I sell one thousand scarves at that price, I will generate ten thousand dollars.  Of course, I have chunked this goal down.  I want to make fifty scarves and sell them at the local flea market on Black Friday.  If I can learn to make decent hats within the next week or so, I can raise my price point:  $10 for a scarf, $7 for a hat; $15 for both.  NAFTA and CAFTA put the textile industry out of business in North America.  This town used to be vibrant, affluent and alive.  Now, I'll be grateful to make those price points.  A single mom will have a handmade Christmas gift for a child, too.  It keeps me going.

My great-aunt Emma Mae Bullock was the very first A-A employee of Harriet & Henderson Yarns.
This is some of her stash.

I am persistent.  When I determined in my heart to send my son on a trip to Europe, I looked around at what I could do to make money right away.  Entrepreneurs know that it doesn't take making a lot of money to get the juices flowing.  I was overjoyed  when that boy said he wanted to buy my ugly hat!  I'm up early today, because I realize, I got a market.  Consequently, I must manage my time better, so that I may produce more "pretty uglies" for teenage boys.  Whatever your dream--remember, 'P' is for Persistence!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading my blog.
#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass