Author: Higher Up IDEALS

  • According to the World’s Rules

    According to the World’s Rules

    I am beginning this post with the question in my mind, “What is the most liberating message that I could convey to readers at this moment?” I’m asking this, because I want to make a positive contribution to some of what I am witnessing with people right now. When I asked the question to myself,…

  • Have This Attitude Among Yourselves: Humility

    Originally posted on Fat Beggars School of Prophets: Sometimes people think I am homeless. Yes.  When you sit on a street corner eating a sandwich, ride a bike across town with a placard that says “Pray for the Homeless”, or spend the night in the park next to a dumpster, the people who see you…

  • Can You Spare a Little Change?

    Can You Spare a Little Change?

    Typically I wouldn’t call myself an elitist. As far as I can tell, on the surface I don’t have any reason to be. But the other day I had an experience where I felt the sense that I was infected by the mentality despite my sincere efforts to discipline my thoughts and acts in the…

  • Do Not Resist Evil?

    Do Not Resist Evil?

    “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak…

  • When One “ism” Ends, #Embracism Begins

    When One “ism” Ends, #Embracism Begins

    Racism doesn’t exist. There I said it. Now we can move on. Don’t you wish it was that easy? What if we could uncreate racism or all of the other divisive isms just as easily as they were created and create a new way of being together?  Let’s call that effort #embracism.  As I define…

  • Conflicted Elector in a Corrupt College

    Originally posted on The Blessed Path: When running for the Presidential Elector Nominee some six months ago, I had no idea the conflict that would ensue both from without and within. To say that it has been an “educating experience” would be an understatement. I embarked on this journey with a basic understanding of the…

  • Know That You Are Loved

    Originally posted on The Roofless Church: This Thanksgiving I had an epiphany that can potentially change the way I function in this world.  I asked myself the question, “How would the world be different if everyone knew that they were absolutely Loved?” Every time I go back to my hometown of Portsmouth, VA, I end up…

  • The American Addiction: Cheap Labor

    The American Addiction: Cheap Labor

    I have had a lot of jobs in my life. My first gig was as a paperboy which entailed getting up before the crack of dawn going from house to house delivering papers to many people who would take the paper and then do everything they could to avoid paying me for it. My cut…

  • Rise and Shine: Dispel the Darkness By Being the Light

    On November 15, 2016, a week after the election of DJT, two friends and I facilitated a mindfulness meditation on dismantling racism that we called, “Peeking Through the Blinds”. Kara Dansky, of One Thousand Arms led us through the meditations and Brian Rocheleau (aka Rosh), of The Blind Cafe, provided the music. I set up…

  • Can You Be Racist In the Dark?

    Who is a racist? In the wake of the election results, there are a lot of people who feel fear that our country has gone backwards and that somehow racism had receded and now, because of one man, it has reemerged. I understand why, but as I see it, what is happening is that we…