All Matters of Dopeness (Musings and Comedy in Erie's World)

In general, I barely watch television but when I have an opportunity I love a throw back black sitcom--hands down. I especially like "Living Single" and watch it as much as I can...well, at least when I have access to cable. The show is the joint! I mean, you have four sisters and a couple of good brothers just doing life together. They kick it hard; they have each other's backs and have a great time simply living life. (It's like the black version of "Friends". Actually "Friends" is the white version of "Living Single" when we think about what came out first.) What is significant to me is the bond that the women have. Even the theme song says that they are "true blue and tight like glue". That is how it should be, so with this in mind (as well as a few other things) I have concluded that something is a little bit off in how we as women treat our sisterhood nowadays. Sometimes it seems as if we have forgotten how to gen...

"Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time." Arthur Ashe I could not formulate a better philosophy about trust then the one stated above. Many times people thing that trust is something automatically given, but in my opinion, trust should not be expected off the bat. In our day and age people are always "creeping on a come up" and looking for ways to get over one another. Manipulation and usury are on the menu with healthy servings of each as the daily specials. We have all heard stories about how one person "stole" their best friend's lover or how somebody purposely pretended to be something other than what he or she really was in order to dupe their "victim". Yet, when we hear these stories they rarely phase us--unless of course there is some type of bizarre twist. You know why that is? It's because we know folk are shady out here. We know that it would be foolish to go around trusting folk all willy ...

"Are you going to wear that?"  "When are you going to start working out?"  "Do you think we should break up?" On the surface these questions seem innocent enough. Better yet...they can be interpreted in a straightforward manner if the speaker really ONLY means what he or she says.  However, questions like these can also be "double entendres" and that is indeed a problem.  A double entendre is a statement that has an ambiguous meaning because the language lends itself to more than one interpretation. Let's break these questions down:  "Are you going to wear that?" could mean the questioner wants to get your outfit prepared for you, he or she thinks you would look good in that outfit, or he or she thinks the outfit is terrible and if you wear it there might be cringing and a proverbial shaking of the head.   "When are you going to start working out?" This question is terrible because it could mean that the person wants to wo...

*A Throwback Worth Re-Posting* Let me first start off with a disclaimer.  I love men.  My father was a man; my brother was a man, and some of my closest friends are men...  I have been blessed with really good men in my life (family, friends, etc....), so I do not want this to come off as if I am being harsh on the men (And at some point I am going to go in on women too because I feel like the "game" is messed up because we are compromising and flooding the market with certain commodities that should only be given in marriage, but I digress).  But today, I am about certain men. If you are a man and this doesn't apply to you, then, amen. However, if it does apply then maybe it'll help you get your mind right.  If you are a woman then you already know why there are some men we just cannot fool with, but here is our reminder.   ********************************************************************************* Some men think women give them a hard time, treat th...

I remember it like it was yesterday.  The year was 2005, the country was Ghana, and the feeling I had deep within was a mixture of gratefulness and anticipation.  I had longed to go to Africa as a little girl, and was most sure that my mother, brother and I would go as a family.  Well, a year and a few months after my brother’s death I found myself getting off of a plane with my new "boyfriend", looking wide –eyed all around me, and thinking about how the people I would be with were not who I had planned to be with on such an adventure.  Kim, my new friend and team leader, met us at the airport accompanied by a couple of West African PIONEER ministry leaders and got us started on our journey.  We spent several days in Accra and then went south to Tema where we stayed with Enoch and Lydia, a doctor and a dentist who were native Ghanaians, before heading to the Elmina Slave Castle in Cape Coast towards the close of our trip. We were constantly on the go:  pre...

As a kid I used to always hear, “You are what you eat”.   The thought behind this was that whatever you ingest will exit your body.   Though this phrase was some kind of campaign for healthier eating choices many people saw its usefulness in applying to the spiritual dynamics of life.   Whatever you feed yourself is what you live out.   If you feast on shadiness and hypocrisy than you will vomit those things out in the lives of people you interact with.   If you continue to feast on yourself (being all about your desires and wants only), to the exclusion of others, then selfishness and self-centeredness will come out as your rulers.   If you let envy and jealousy be your fuel and motivation for moving ahead then you will continue to be a jealous-hearted hater all your life.   What goes in comes out—whether you like it or not.   I think this was the issue with the “Sheeps and the Goats” Jesus had.   Matthew 25 records Jesus as saying that Fath...

A short while ago Oprah actually had a show talking about things that women learn in their thirties.  I had been saying that my learning curve happened in my twenties and continues in my 30s.  I have always been thought of as a person who is wise beyond her years but there are somethings you just can't learn until you have lived and taken some lumps and suffered some bruises.  For some reason I thought I learned that a lot of people are grimy and selfish when I was young. My first bestfriend dated my first "boyfriend" behind my back when I was in grammar school and my other bestfriend did the same thing to me behind my back when I was a freshmen in highschool. I concluded people were scandalous early on and was proven right repeatedly, but it never phased me much.  I just kept it moving.  I had no idea that there was intense seasons of life coming to teach me more about people. ...