covering

i was thinking that i understand why it's important to honor your mother and father/respect your elders... we know how to live because when we get to this life, they show us everything. how to communicate, eat, clean, work - all that stuff. the success our present existence is a result of accumulation of knowledge gained from the experiences of elders. their trials and errors, their ingenuity, their inventions, their thoughts, their communications with the Creator. when you look at our community, i think it's fair to say that the well being of the youth is undoubtedly traceable to the relationship between the youth and the elders. they are necessary for our survival. eastern cultures - african cultures, asian cultures - seem to understand this concept well. if the youth were to dismiss the wisdom of the elders, or disrespect them, or mistreat them, the acrimony that results could be the downfall of the future. sometimes, we follow rules without thinking about the why? i don't know how i happened upon this train of thought, but i figured i'd articulate it. who knows who needs to read it.

this sore throat/coughing thing has me thinking about mortality, too. i'm not afraid that i'm about to die or anything. it's just that we often don't value our health until it's in jeopardy. it pained me to not be able to sing along with jil.l sco.tt last night in the car. i stood in front of my poetry family and couldn't share my poems with my everything because my voice wasn't at 100%, and i really took that to heart. life is not something we can postpone. there is no t.i.v.o. for life. and that means trying to enjoy it to its fullest. and sometimes that's hard to do when your health is hemmed up. the past few days, i've been worried about being able to enjoy my birthday and my poetry feature because of my health - that is not enjoying my life to the fullest. this recent resolution of mine to take better care of myself in my new year has become that much more important to me because of this. i never want to have preventable health problems stand between me and living my life happily. i hate not being able to visit my cousin's baby girl because i don't want to make her sick. i hate giving people half-assed hugs 'cause i don't want to put them in harm's way. i need to be whole and healthy - well fed, well exercised... so that when my time comes to be out of here, i won't wish i had spent less time on a sick bed.

my grandma told me to make sure my neck is covered up out there - my dad is always telling me about my head. i'm usually covered. but my mom says it only takes one night.