Phillip Blair (Dot) Com

Lupe Fiasco - B* Bad

Of course, I know that just like all of our other previous saviors he's going to be either ignored or mis-understood by the masses and will only go down in history being hailed as the genius he really was by the few who can appreciate him and his work for what it really was..

An incident that happened day-before-yesterday will help to illustrate the unique situation you’re going to at some point face while becoming my friend.. so, while cooking breakfast I developed the need for soursop leaves, so I went to my garage door to pick some off a tree that grew just outside when I heard some tenants talking about ‘certain people's states of mental health’ allowing them to proceed undisturbed, the conversation went to mikey (this fellow I know who begs down at four roads) one of them exclaimed that mikey used to be a bank manager! now that one was so absurd I had to jump in and correct her. I said 'mikey was never a bank manager' she insisted ‘yes he was!' I said ‘you don’t know him personally, you know *of* him’ she said ‘I have it from a good-good source’ I said ‘but mikey is someone I know personally, we've gone clubbing together, he was the one who introduced me to girls girls girls on maxfield avenue! do you know him personally? have you ever even talked with him?' she responded ‘after me no talk to mad man!’ Now the fact of the matter is mikey was never a bank manager but because someone told her he was, and apparently someone who she respected, that idea somehow meshed up in her mind, and obviously in other peoples minds, and so mikey is now a former bank manager..

On our journey through life, (as my friend Dale Harrison once pointed out to me) all of us are evolving (hopefully), but not all of us are evolving at the same rate.. some of us are in.. let’s say sixth form, and some of us are still in pre-school... I’m about to make the central point of this post now, so pay attention: The pre-schooler IS NOT GOING TO PERCEIVE HIS/HER WORLD FROM THE SAME PERSPECTIVE THAT THE SIXTH FORMER WOULD! perhaps a slightly better comparison would be between someone writing their doctoral thesis in philosophy and a sixth grade student at a local secondary school. the Ph.d. candidate would have a completely different perspective on the world around him vis a vis the sixth grader. the basic concept, however, is the exact same. the two cannot view the world around them in the same way, or even a similar way because of the difference between their level of mental development/exposure. in the former analogy, the one is looking for girls while the other is looking for ice cream when he gets home from school, in the latter analogy, the one is looking for the Big Idea that’s going to make the whole world a better place (hopefully!) while the other is looking for cheat codes for counter strike on the xbox! you got that? good!

now then. I’ll give you a more finely nuanced version of the first point: a pair of sixth formers is going to have a different conversation to a pair of pre-schoolers... similarly, a pre-schooler is not going to perceive a sixth former in the same way a sixth former is going to perceive another sixth former.. I must tell you another story here; years ago I was talking to this girl who worked at a telecommunications company, she was a customer service rep and was this day deriding this co-worker of hers, a girl who was doing her first degree, I think, at UWI for being 'dumb’. she was telling me the story of how the other girl was sorting out some money that the company I think owed her (the sexy one in front of me) and some other money that she (the other girl) owed her (the sexy one) (I think!) and she told me how the other girl was handing her some of it and withdrew it and put it down and as she told the story (thankfully she at least was faithful in the details) I could clearly see the degree candidate ‘dumbing it down’ and using a physical illustration to show the other girl which part of the money belonged to her and which part belonged to whomever else.. BUT DESPITE BEING ABLE TO RECALL EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID, THE ILLUSTRATION STILL WENT STRAIGHT OVER HER HEAD! so now it doesn’t really surprise me when people (especially the people with whom I have to do every day) mis-interpret my actions, because they are coming out of a particular situation that’s very, very different to mine, so their entire perspective is very, very different to mine. and you need to understand that. yes, that’s an actual takeaway.. people don’t get me because they don’t have sufficient depth of experience to fully comprehend someone who’s had a different experience to them. yes, we’re both jamaicans, yes we both even speak the same language (ostensibly!) yet our experiences are very different. If you'd like to be my friend, you're going to need to get that.. even though they don’t get it, you will need to.

Okay, I’ll tell you another story now.. There were once three blind men who had an elephant in their midst. one blind man felt one of the elephant’s legs and said “an elephant is like a tree!” another was in the elephant’s hind quarters near the elephant’s tail, he felt it and proclaimed ‘an elephant is like a snake!’ indeed the third blind man was on one of the elephant’s flanks so as he reached and felt, he could feel nothing but the elephant’s side, so he said ‘an elephant is like a wall!’ the sad truth is that individually none of them had sufficient perspective to fully comprehend an elephant. In fact, even collectively they still did not have enough perspective to comprehend an elephant- I’ve heard versions of the story that included the elephant’s ears and other body parts as well! I want you to think about that a little bit before I go on.. yes, I did make that same point twice before, just from a different perspective. it’s important for you to get it..
So this is what you're going to need to understand now. If someone perceives me in a particular way, it is critical that YOU understand that THAT IS THEIR PERCEPTION BASED ON THEIR PERSPECTIVE! let that sink in a minute.. so even if the person told you a FACT.. (versus an opinion) wait, hold on- let me stop and expand on this point..
If someone says to you "phillip is a very angry man" this is not a fact, it is an opinion. "phillip weighs 120 lbs." that is a fact- it’s not true, but it’s a fact. because facts are measurable, “very angry” how do you measure that? okay, I’ll give the person who stated this opinion this much- it may very well be a popular opinion- but nonetheless.. it is an opinion.. there ar many, many examples of popular opinion that have turned out to be wrong.. especially in certain sections of the populace. I can probably find a few very reputable people who don’t think I’m angry at all.. the crowd isn’t always right, there’s a reason for that, but I’ll tell you about that on another occasion. I’ll tell you this though- there are many, many opinions widely held which are very erroneous. like Jesus being born on the 25'th of december, or the myth that if you pay attention and do well in school you’ll get a job and you’ll end up financially secure.. So anyway.. as I was saying before- even if the person told you a FACT, I never told you any of those facts about myself. Usually what happens is people state facts completely out of context to suit their own agendas which obviously can render you badly mis-informed (and this is actually a far worse form of deception because it has an air of truth to it..) and it’s much, much worse if the person states a fact that’s outright untrue...

I’m very sorry that I could not have personally facilitated your introduction to me. (yes I did write that, this is true in the case of a very high percentage of the people I meet) I hope it was through someone benevolent and not through the many people whose feathers I’ve ruffled throughout the years both in my business and personal lives.. And while I understand on some level and try to be very charitable and respectful towards them, I cannot allow them to sidetrack me from my quest for excellence. If they don’t want to themselves live excellent lives, that’s their business, and if you want to follow suit, I won’t stop you! your life is your responsibility, not mine! in the same way no-one takes actual practical responsibility for my life, I don’t take responsibility for anybody else’s life, so if you want to follow them, I won’t stop you, but I will stop you from bringing mediocrity into my own life.

Think about all I've just said to you; if you 'get it' you get it, we can quickly move on to more serious issues when next we meet, but if you don't, well.. as I said before, I'm sorry..

I'm sure it has something to do with the distance between your expectations and your actual reality. :)

The only *real* party we get to enjoy is the one going on now... If there was one in the past, then it's happened and is now gone my friend! There might very well be one in the future (thursday!) (or friday!) (or next sunday!) but really, who knows how that's going to go? It might get messed up somehow... (and again, it might not...) I say get the party going *NOW*! That way you don't need to wait for thursday (or friday.. or next sunday)! And you get to actually enjoy the party *now* rather than just the memory of what you did last night..

It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.

After being found at the site where a factory is planned, people worldwide have speculated on the circumstances surrounding the couple's deaths. They are thought to have died young because they both had all their teeth intact. But beyond that, the skeletons are a mystery. Archaeologists announced Monday that they will move the entire block of earth the skeletons are resting in for further study and eventual display in a museum.
-from ZDNet