Ghetto Insight

Stripped away of pretenses, bareness reminds us to remain vigorous and vigilant.

Tomorrow is not assured. Rest on no laurels; atheistic toward laurels, dismissive of rest, even as the bourgeois flatter temporarily good outcomes. What have you done for me lately? For a fine yesterday tells us nothing about tomorrow. Soulless bankers robotically mumble "past performance does not predict future performance" without understanding its implications.

Nothing is granted, everything is threatened. Are you going to fight and maintain yourself against those who challenge and poke from the edges, or let crumbs start trouble and hoodlums take from you?

Ever in flux, not a placid suburb where nothing happens but solitary addictions and consumptive entertainment. Read the situation, not the words and other hiding facades. Street smart and able to fend for oneself because in the time it takes police to arrive, the outcome is long over.

Your girls might forget you're the greatest thing they've ever had. Love them recklessly, fervently, and assume they are likely to flake and botch. Life goes on; worry not when the disposable dispose of themselves, but appreciate nature's curious and consistent character and smile at its comedy.

The urgency remains though those outside the ghetto deny it and look away, seduced by cheap comforts to sleep through subtleties, and often the whole. But we face life raw, with honor, and do what must be done.