"Extreme Frugality"

When I was on the NPR website, I happened upon a story on frugality that many of you passerbys might enjoy. Its an experiment by a family that includes raising chickens. You can listen to it here.

Update

I know I've been away for a while. In this time, I have finished an Associate's in Applied Science in Human Services, something I'm not quite sure I will continue to pursuit. Hopefully, I will have summa cum laude stamped on my diploma. I also had a blessed Holy Week and Pascha. On Pascha morning, I discovered a tick latched on tight, which caused a series of worries and antibiotics, but all appears well. So for the future? I originally planned to continue school right through the summer, but because I finished yesterday and summer classes at Wilmington University (the school at which I'm going to earn a bachelor's) start on May 11, I've decided to take a break. I may go back for the second summer session. So in the spirit of my recent accomplishment, I am adding a video. In it, Rhiannon from the Carolina Chocolate Drops is doing her thang.

Black in America

After a series of events this week, I have been thinking long and deeply on the topic of Blackness. My week began with arguing with an older Black lady how, in my opinion, living in America was a lot better than being in Africa and how I identified myself more as an American than an African. (In fact, I don't call myself African American, I prefer Black American, but that's another post.) In an Oral Communications class we watched a movie called The Great Debaters, a must see, and I also read a short biography about William Jason, the first Black president of Delaware State University. What I gathered from this week's experiences is that young Black Americans, like myself have no excuse for failure.

Growing up, I never experienced any overt racism in the public sphere. I was never barred from any institution or bathroom based on my brown skin and thick lips, but it seems that society has taken pity on me, because I was so unfortunate to have been born Black, a descendant of slaves and oppressed peoples. I have received many handouts based on my race along with many other people I grew up with, but I look at them and compare where they are now to where I am now and no racism held them back from ever succeeding, but it was their own stupid decisions. We grew up in the same ghettos, churches, schools, and with similar belt swingin' Black mamas, but it was our own choices that g0t us where we are. Institutionalized racism is no longer an excuse.

While watching The Great Debaters and after reading the biography, I noticed that if such genius can be born under the pressure of oppression, what can happen when society creates programs that try to foster it (Head Start, Affirmative Action, etc.) I certainly have no excuse for failure and if for some reason I don't do well, it is my own fault. I don't have to hide my books from Massa' or sit in a classroom with a bunch of rabid racist classmates. Booker T. Washington said it best when he said, "character, not circumstances, makes the man." We see in the example of Washington and others like him, that your circumstances do not always determine your future, but that in the harshest of circumstances (i.e. slavery,) a person can lift themselves out of their state by hardwork and good morals to success.

I certainly have not totally exposed my thoughts and opinions in this one short post, but I plan to, in the future, write more on the topic.

Agrarian Testimonies

Growing up in the Holiness Pentecostal tradition, a portion of our Sunday morning worship was devoted to what was called Testimony Service, during which any person in the congregation could rise and give thanks to God, usually expressing this through some anecdote (they weren't always so short.) Well how much fun would it be to listen to agrarian testimonies?

Well there really are some and you can find them at Cumberland Books, an online bookstore with many great agrarian titles. You can find those testimonies at Plain Talk. I have, over the course of a few months, listened to all of them and I have even started listening to some of them for a second time. A couple of my favorites are those talks by Amy Scott and the one by Nathan Black, a young agrarian. Also most of these participants are also bloggers. Make sure to check them out!

Leaving the Orthodox Church?

During my weekly blog surfing rounds, I came across a letter that Father Joseph Honeycutt wrote to a person contemplating leaving the Church. Check out his response over at Orthodixie.