Live & Let Live--- Seems I have read and heard this for years and years. This cliché and others like it appear to me to be empty and void of meaning. Straight never advocated that one practice this quaint lil slogan. If it were ever actually discussed (I say ?If? because I don?t recall it ever actually being a topic in a ?rap?) I think the repercussions would have been contradictory to the teachings/dogma of the program.
Imagine, if this were the case. Imagine, if we had discussed allowing one to actually ?Live and Let Live?, imagine if we had learned the concept of ?forgiveness? and ?acceptance? as a result of learning to ?Live and Let Live?. Would the long lasting effects of Straight impact our lives differently? Would I be able to ?accept? others without suspicion or judgment? Would I truly be able to agree to disagree without hostility? Would I be capable of listening to someone without retaining key points to later use against them? I wonder if my view and memories of Straight would be any different had we investigated this idea of ?Live and Let Live?. On the other hand, would we have butchered this concept like the one of honesty?
A basic, simple idea this ?honesty? thing and so bastardized that many, if not most of us walked away thinking it?s ?the best policy?. Yet, I don?t recall anyone (including myself) ever saying that if this simple, basic concept is made into a ?policy? that something is inherently wrong.--- It is because of ?policy? I will be ?honest?.--- Sounds like a ?policy? of the dishonest.
Such a simplistic life may have been established. Who really knows what the results might have been had such ideas been examined. Perhaps if the ?Live and Let Live? cliché would have been a part of the curriculum more so than a wall covering,the other concept, ?forgiveness? would be simpler to grasp. Maybe years of anger and hatred towards those entrusted with my well being while incarcerated may never have consumed my life.
Then again there is the ?reality? of it all.
The cliché was nothing other than a wall covering and never explored. People turned against each other in a wholesale fashion, trust was just another fallacy?faith in others, naw, nooo way. Relationships could never fully mature as trust along with faith never materialized. How could trust/faith in other human beings manifest while we systematically ostracized, without regard, anything and anyone that ran contrary to the program?
I think the whole idea behind my incarceration in Straight was to learn valuable lessons that I somehow (according to others) missed. Yet how can a thirteen or fourteen year old begin to grasp these ideals when now in my 40?s, I am just beginning to comprehend? Now consider the absurdity of a eighteen or nineteen year old (shit, even a 21 year old) attempting to teach such ideas to kids 12-18?Fucking insane!
Forgive my Sunday morning rant, once again competition for my computer is stiff and time is always at a premium. I realize I may have missed the sprit of this thread with the lyrical content?.my bad. I thought of John Lennon?s song, Imagine?Powerful, yet Paul McCartney offered another that seemed much more appropriate?
But In This Ever Changing World In Which We Live In Makes You Give In And Cry
Say Live And Let Die
