A struggle is a struggle is a struggle...

---The GUMBO BOYZ is the name of the group I sing with. We are one of the group’s celebrating Black History. It is a day that was set aside to honor the struggles of the black man in America. The songs that we are singing are ‘’This Little Light of Mine’’ ‘’We Shall Overcome’’ and ‘’When The Saints Go Marching In.’’

---It got me to thinking. It seems that we are ALL struggling with the way things are and our acceptance to where we belong in it. Black people have certainly had a struggle with feeling and being accepted in a white man’s world. I’m very glad that things are changing and the notion that it is NOT a white man’s world...is getting more play. That understanding is leveling the playing field. We ALL have a long way to go…BUT.

---The reason I say that we ALL struggle is that we ALL have something that we are reconciling - something that we are struggling with. We are finding that struggling isn't given to a certain race over another. We struggle with the fact that we are judged by others and we think that they may be correct. It really becomes a question of how well we know and accept ourselves and DON'T concern ourselves with saving-face and being sure that everyones opinion of us is the ''right one'' according to how we want to be perceived.

---I, myself, being born with my left-hand as it is had me spending a lot of my time accepting and wondering if I was as good as everyone else. I didn't know what it was...so, everyones judgment, opinion and reaction shaped the way that I dealt with it. The kicker in all of this is that everyone has something that they are NOT too cool with having. Everyone’s pain is there own pain. And…people learn how to deal with one another and learn their life lessons in dealing with this ''difference.''

---We ALL want that light within us - to shine. We overcome the roadblocks to that shining. The saints are allegedly the ones that have overcome [meaning learned to live…despite the so-called fault or faults.] They are the ones that learned to accept themselves and transcended the regular ways of ego-centered behavior that runs the lives of most people.

---This is much like the story of Jesus. Bearing your cross is being your unenlightened self. Dying on it or to it is like accepting it instead of resisting it. The resurrection is the transcendence and taking that next step free from the chains that bind. It is the process that we ALL go through in freeing ourselves from whatever it may be that hang’s us up.

ATTITUDE CHANGE - ‘’We Are More Free Than We Give Ourselves Credit For. It’s A Matter of taking that risk and APPRECIATING/LIVING IT’’