To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles? To die, to sleep, no more! and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is air to. 'Tis a consummation devoutely to be wished. To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream; Aye there's the rub that makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the laws delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes. When he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? For who would Fardels bare to grunt and sweat under a dreary life. But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose born, no traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have then fly to others that we know not of. Thus conscious does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sickeled o'er with the pale cast of thought. And enterprises of great pith and moment, with this regard, their current turn ary, and lose the name of action. Soft you now thy fair Ophelia, Nymph in thy orisions. Be all my sins remembered
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Now, as a blactino woman, I believe we deserve our own race category to forge an identity, Jerry. That's how I feel.
Jerry Springer:
Did you just say "blactino"?
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Yes, I did. I'm a blactino-American.
Chinegro Woman:
Wow. Uh, first of all... first of all, you don't even look latino. You look black. You're... You're black. Second of all, I'm of mixed race, and I've struggled my whole life as to whether I'm Chinese or whether I'm black.
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Chinegro! What you are is chinegro!
Chinegro Woman:
Chinegro?
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Chinegro! There you go!
Chinegro Woman:
Chinegro?
Lateesha Rodriguez:
You are a chinegro!
Chinegro Woman:
What the [bleep]
Chinegro Woman:
is chinegro?
Lateesha Rodriguez:
That's what you are! Chinegro is you!
Chinegro Woman:
That's some bulls... [bleep]
Chinegro Woman:
.
Jerry Springer:
OK, as I understand it, you brought a mixed-race flow chart with you. Why don't we bring that out? [Crowd shouting and booing]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
[to a random heckler] How you doin', sugar? All right. I'm gonna call you later. Mwah. All right. [Crowd laughs]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Take a look at this... [she unveils the chart]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Blactino, blackasian, hispasian, OK? Now, for the Asian subcategories, [to the Chinegro woman]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
I got you, sister. We have chinegro right here. That's you. Chinegro.
Chinegro Woman:
That's not a word! That's not a word!
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Yes, it is, sister. We have koreagro. Japegro, OK? [Crowd laughs]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Chispanic, koreaspanic, and last but not least, check this out, y'all... japanic. [Crowd cheering]
Lateesha Rodriguez:
That's how I flow with it!
Jerry Springer:
Do you believe the government should recognise these racial subgroups?
Lateesha Rodriguez:
Yes, Jerry, I do.
This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, somg go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And babve, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up becuase if you give up, you'll never find your soul mate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
Elder Aaron Davis:
Do you ever read the Sunday comics?
Lila:
[confused] I beg your pardon? [changes her mind]
Lila:
Yes, of course the Sunday comics.
Elder Aaron Davis:
Well, when I was a little kid, I use to put my nose right up to them. And I was just amazed because it looked like this mass of dots, and none of it made sense until I pulled back. Life looks like that mass of dots to me sometimes. None of it makes any sense, but I like to think that, from God's perspective, life, everything - even this - make sense. It's not just dots. Instead we're all connected, and it's beautiful and funny and good. This close we can't expect it to make sense, not right now.
When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
