December 2022.  Visited today with a home bound friend.  All in a tizzy over his encounter with women!  Heck, he isn’t telling me anything new – I am married!  Ha ha on both of us!  Sometimes we get so very worked up and serious we can no longer see beyond ourselves.   So in the middle of tonight I woke up!  Hey I am now legitimately “WOKE”:!   Oh man – trouble brews!

My mind was working over time of the lament of the day!  I was witness to and how we humans struggle with grasping our diverse perspectives while stumbling all over ourselves that prevents us from being able to communicate!  Part of the problem is we lack courage to ask and courage to criticize one another!  Fear Fear – How to without destroying a relationship!  Love one another is not an easy task!  Taking the necessary risk to try seems to be our Achilles heel!  Hello There!

Life’s journey through the bowels of Atlanta during the early HIV / AIDS days was the doorway to the discovery my spiritual ears and eyes were being trained.  It was that very uncomfortable place I traveled to be and sit in the presence of mostly young men who were pouring out their souls in the accelerator lane self debating themselves and the others present.  They were in a self grappling match with themselves, questioning life’s purpose and meaning filled with a deep lament in regard to the very serious life and death circumstances they found themselves.

Why am I here?  What can I do?

I myself am probably not yet fully aware of just why in the heck was I present their with them in the first place?  What qualifications did I have?  My only answer that makes sense is – “I was called and I answered the call”!  I didn’t know it at the time, but I had worked through the Air Traffic Strike of 1981.  11,000 controllers walked out that day.  PATCO was the union and had negotiated the first contract with the Federal Government and pretty much had gotten everything they had asked for!  Why Strike??  It was part of my preparation to listen and hear to human cries that rise up out of the soul!

A 3rd Party AFLCIO Hidden Agenda:

The AFLCIO had control of the Trucks and Ships!  Now if only they could control the airplanes they would have the Power to shut down the Nation’s transportation system.  Funny how this event had prepared my spiritual ears and eyes to see and hear!  Yes, this is the deadly sin hidden in the Garden Story in the Book of Genesis.  Yes hidden in the symbol of the tree!  Yes the tree that belongs to God holding the forbidden fruit!  Fruit natures lure of good taste and healthy food – yet hidden within lies “choice”, “free will” and the consequences = “death”!

Why did 11,000 Controllers Go On Strike?

That is the precise question I wanted an answer to!  Fortunately I was not alone!  A number of Leadership and Human Behavior courses were rapidly opened up and I was able to participate.  I used this training today December 2022!  Morris Massey’s video “You are who you were when” hit the nail on the head.  It takes a significant emotional event to open the doorway of the human heart and mind to begin to search and ask why am I upset?

  Thus the Beginning of Lament:

A short few years later I found myself in the bowels of the HIV / AIDS crises amidst genuine laments!  Why me!  Why I asked myself was the word “Lord” missing?  Another treasure missed – created in the image of God within -= ones soul!  The battle in the beginning continues today!  Within in this battle I was unknowingly being prepared oh so long ago to see and hear with spiritual eye and ears!

to be continued . . . . . . . . .