So..I finally caught the Fela! Broadway musical at the Atlanta Civic Center. And I have to say..it was amazing.

It made me think about a couple things.

1. Helped me to define what it means to be a whole person = “Someone who knows what he wants and goes after it. Whether he is a afraid or not.”

And I think the most important part of this sentence is the word “want”. These want’s that a person has, have to be or should be divorced (as much as they can be) from the definitions of happiness sold to us on a consistent basis from the time we wake up until we’re asleep. We’re told that a new (mercedes, house, girlfriend, toys, degree, etc) will finally give us the push we need to catapult us into permanent happiness. Dastardly lies.

Fela, and everyone that I have ever admired – were men and women who went after what they wanted, with no apologies. Who were willing to want what they wanted, even if the world thought it was silly, or juvenile, or plain dumb. Sometimes I think that the world can convince us that  our dreams are not worthy to be chased and that instead we should ascribe an external, more mature, more worldly point of view. I’m not with that.

Its a slow road for me because I tend to take responsibility for things/people that are not in the normal course for a 27 year old, because of my culture and where my family is. Responsibility (to Americans) sometimes feels like a paperweight on your dreams, but the older I get the more I recognize that I need to look at them differently. That I need to appreciate them and look at them more as roots that are stabilizing me in order to ensure that I as I rise I wont topple.

Onward and Upward.

OFO