Soul Food on a Platter

Education is the entrée that we can’t afford not to eat.

Yet we feed ourselves junk food and then call it meat.

It is sweet to our tongue and assorted in flavor.

But we’re swallowing our legacy....leaving nothing to savor.

Why are MONEY, POWER, and SEX the main forces that motivate us?  As our gas prices rise and our economy declines, we must reconstruct our mindset if we are to comply and endure through such times of distress.  In this year of new beginnings, the stakes are too high and the consequences are too great for us to maintain our deluded mentality upon acquiring the ‘American Dream’.  Our outlook has been slanted and unfortunately it has redirected our opted path to success.  If we as a whole are to ever excel in life and live more abundantly, we must relinquish the mentality that playing professional sports, selling drugs, and prostituting our bodies, are the acceptable and yet only ways to possess money and obtain success.  An initial effort in changing minds, reversing stereotypes, and negating defeated attitudes is to re-examine what we have been taught or mentally fed.  By analyzing our ‘food for thought’, we gain awareness of its nutritional value and become more educated about the status of our health.  Education is the knowledge and training that enlightens our minds and prepares our lives for opportunities to multiply our potential in the communities in which we reside.

Many of our children are misinformed because mommies and daddies have failed to show the power in agility and commitment and the longevity in diligence of legitimate labor.  Instead, they have perfected the art of living outside their means and supported the habit of overly emphasizing sports and demoting the value of education.  These actions are counteracting the motions that were implemented centuries ago.  Our beloved ancestors picked the crops of the harvest and were lynched from an old oak tree as “Strange Fruit” (Billie Holiday) because they desired for their offspring to one day have their soul food on a platter.  Soul food is more than just collard greens, cornbread, and yams.  It is the perseverance through trials and tribulations, the determination to see a brighter day, and the will for the black family to sustain.  Soul food was the nutrition of our ancestors and our black heroes which contributed to our strong tradition of unity and legacy of survival.  This meal is deep fried in pride and dignity, and well seasoned with zeal and strength.  Soul food is the delectable cuisine of fortitude that Dr. Martin Luther King ate, as he wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech, Maya Angelou swallowed, as she defined a “Phenomenal Woman”, and Barack Obama consumed, as he underlined his proclamation of a “Change That We Can Believe In”.

            We are at a crossroads, and we must decide.  May we not let their sacrifices and lives be in vain.  It is imperative that we take responsibility for our children’s minds as well as their bodies.  Communication within families is one of the most significant ingredients of soul food.  We must talk to our children about the hardships of the past, which we were forced to face, compared to the difficulties in the present, which we elect to face. We must explain that life is about choices, and the decisions we make often have consequences.  But more importantly, we must teach them that our greatest opponents in life are not our enemies but ourselves.  Nobody but ourselves can stop us from reaching our full potential and living a life of prosperity.

“Fast money” is not rice, and “world fame” is not gravy. Substituting snacks and junk food for full course meals has stunted our growth and caused many to suffer malnutrition.  We are at risk of diminishing our moral values and impeding our progression in oneness.  The time is now for the black family to sit around the table and enjoy a healthy, balanced, and soulful meal.   Educate your children, strive to be your best, and live your life as an example for others; this is your Soul Food on a Platter.                

KALISHA (KALI) NELSON                                                                         

Editor-In-Chief

BE THERE Magazine