we above I. part 1. (i wrote this awhile ago. never published)

writing is a perishable skill.

my life changed when i realized that it is always we above I. it's has to be for any semblance of living a life, and not merely drawing breath as a means of survival.

if we take the measure of the truly great heroes of our society, and any other, we see a commonality among them.

they put the needs, not the wants, of the we that surrounded them above the needs and wants of the I that was them.

i use was because in order to fully grasp the concept, the individual that they are ceased to exist, merged completely into the we.

the greatness of malcolm x. he took on the surname of x in an attempt to relieve himself of the slave name imposed upon his forefathers by their owners. however, as his life progress, i believe the x took on a unintended meaning. the x meant that he could have been anyone of us. his struggle became our's. ours became his. intertwined until all lines we're blurred to the point that we questioned the existence of the line in the first place.

as we change from I to we, everything about us changes. our mind changes, and in turn, our mouths. vocabulary is transformed, and as vocabulary is the pre-cursor to action, our actions and behaviors follow suit.

our ego is sacrificed for we realize that there is no one without two. no individuality without a community.

i used to be smart.

and then i stopped writing. words became harder to access. phrases became puerile. i lost, in some ways, my ability to communicate to the best of my ability. i stopped noticing the world through eyes that sought to not only understand, but to interpret. i chose easy, and received nothing. now, i'm choosing hard in hopes of making it easier.