Not gloating just hoping to move someone's heart & soul...

Please excuse my absence. I haven't graced the world wide web with my thoughts through my fingertips, tapped through a keypad, and stored online. I've been moving & shaking, and shaking & moving. I can elaborate in future posts when I have the time, but honestly I want my own website and I'm working towards that. I'll have it soon enough because I am enjoying and have plans for the future, which I will attain (Lord willingly).

I wanted to highlight a special day, which was a few Sundays ago, May 16th. I participated in the NYC AIDS Walk 2010. This was the second year in a row that I participated and help raise $500 personally, but around $8,000 with the help of my entire team: GMHC-WBLS M.A.D. Soul Runners. We had a group of 100-120 young and seasoned individuals from our local Harlem community and from abroad (e.g. as far as New Orleans). I walked in remembrance of my father, Nicholas Figueroa, and the handful of close relatives that I have lost in the past to their own personal battles with the virus. HIV/AIDS claims the lives of many and I can say that I'm here to help prevent it from spreading. I'm doing the research at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, but what is truly going to stop it from spreading is informing people of safe methods to have sex and how to protect themselves from those that wish to continue to spread HIV/AIDS either willingly or unwillingly (i.e. for those that choose not to know their status, and never get tested). I walked with friends and family members from Harlem and my church community, First Corinthian Baptist Church (FCBC). We walked for about 3-4 hours taking our time. We met new people, heard the stories of many, and gave our personal testimonies of why we were walking. After taking that 6.2 mile long walk we went to BBQ's and ate a good meal.

Now, on my way uptown I was escorting my good friend Maria A. Davis back to her apartment building. When we reached 116th Street we were posted up on the sidewalk for a little while and a woman who was walking with the alacrity of a speedwalker began to pass us by. Maria quickly asked her if she was hungry, because her spirit was moved and proceeded to ask her. We all had Styrofoam containers with food from BBQ's. We all combined our containers into one big plastic bag and handed it to her. Then Maria began to dig deeper and see if she needed anything else. She reached deep inside and told us. We purchased her a new shirt, some jeans, socks, and shoe strings. In the process of getting all that she would enter stores asking for what she wanted and they would tell her to get out. All because they saw what was out on the facade. She might have been strung out, but she had needs to. Now when I entered in they offered me their business. Before we were to part we all joined hands on the street corner and began to pray; not only for her, but for ourselves and others. It was very emotional because that same day of taking part in the AIDS Walk we met a woman named Natasha, who was living with AIDS. May 16th happened to be her 30th birthday. She didn't look 30, but her body had grown weary from abuse mentally from others, through drugs, and the toll the virus took on her being. Through all that I cried like I never cried before and she saw me and wiped away my tear.

That day Natasha grew far more than I have. She saw my tear fall, and the hurt and pain on my face. Despite having been abused by her only family, and native New Yorkers she wiped my tear. I haven't seen her since, but I still look out for her. I owe her a birthday cake. I hope I see her soon, because there's more that I can do to help.

I know this post is long, but this goes to show why I choose not to walk in the streets with headphones in my ears listening to music. You never know when you'll cross paths with another human being that might need your helping hand or time. I just wanted to share, because people walk along in life without truly living and helping someone else along.

Live life with the Kingdom in mind. The Kingdom is here on Earth, but only if you believe.

Wrestle with it...

"Wrestle with what it means to be a Christian instead of eating whatever is on the spoon and thinking it's good."

Groupthink: "That Just Isn't Right..."

This world can be so limiting sometimes. We are so capable of so much more. Just recently I have begun my new mantra and repeat to myself, "Today I wake up with the possibility of GREATNESS." Everyone in this world would be on a whole other plane, if from their entry into this world they were told that they had the power to move mountains or the will to overcome death. To often individuals or groups seek to hinder creativity, curiosity, and open dialogue.

I respect Erykah Badu for using guerrilla tactics when it came to filming her most recent video for her latest track, "Window Seat", off her upcoming album. I'm not going to front at first I was mesmerized by her vivacious curves, but I took a few minutes...collected myself and paid close attention to what she was saying and thought to myself why would she use the Dallas, TX and the location of JFK's assassination for her video? There was news coverage about how people were disgusted and outraged, but I don't see anything wrong with what she did. Some people just don't want to be walking around naked, but a child doesn't come into this world knowing that he/she is naked. We put that that thought within their mind as soon as we cover them. They don't reach to cover their genitalia. They bask in the glory of their new birth (even though they're crying after being purged from the mother's womb).

We are better than this. We have to change how we raise the next generation, which is also a good reason why I'm waiting to have children. Each and every day I'm learning more and more, not only about myself, of others, of my relationship with the Divine Creator, but of the responsibility that I have--that WE all have--for the future.

"They who play it safe are quick to assassinate what they do not understand...They move in acts ingesting fear with every act of hate against one another...afraid to respect the individual...to love oneself...to EVOLVE!" -Erykah Badu "Window Seat"

To the sTochAstiC rhythm...

I'm a little tempered with it being 7:21pm on Friday evening and I find myself still in the lab. I have a pair of gloves on my hand typing these random thoughts on a contaminated computer that might have infectious particles festering all over it...while allowing my cells to incubate with the proper antibodies to fluorescently label the proper cellular markers that give me the answer to the questions we ask for the plethora of patients in our cohort. I haven't written in a long time, and I felt compelled to write during this 15 minute period. February 11th will be the two year anniversary for me being employed with the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. I'm surrounded by intelligent, supportive, and inquisitive scientists, physicians, and technicians. I'm very appreciative, but know that I need to go back to school and embark upon a journey on my own accord--translation; I need to conduct my own research, design and carry out my own project from start to finish, and more. I need more...I wish I could divulge even more, but my timer just when off. Back to the lab.

Scams

I'm getting really frustrated.

People are really evil. Here I am looking for 1-Bedroom apartments, and I happen to use "Craig's List" for a few listings. A good amount of them have come as being absolutely steals. Then I speak to the owner, who clarifies that due to job obligations they are now working overseas. If I want to move-in (Note: this is without even getting a glimpse of the apartment) I would deposit anywhere between $500-$1,000 in an account and they would send me the keys. I could THEN view the apt and if I like it I can move in. In the word's of Ed Lova, "C'mon Son?!" LOL.

Watch out for the scammers...

And the winner is...President Barack Obama

They voted him winner two months after he was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America. A little premature? I cannot disagree with that opinion, but does it tarnish the name of the award? By no means at all.

To keep it short and sweet, Obama was the perfect individual to receive this honor. He is the figurehead of a movement of change in one of the most popular and unpopular nations of our time. There is a love-hate perception that comes with the mentioning of the USA. That started to change as soon as Obama was elected as President. It was seen all over the world. Obama is well-spoken, charismatic, and an archetypal component of hope/change as his successful campaign for presidency was labeled. He is worthy. He may not have the track record, but it's what is to come. The NPP committee are putting a lot of eggs in Obama's basket of hope/change/peace, but it is up to Obama to live up to this honor. He's shown that he is humble, and undeserving, which help in supporting my confidence in his ability to lead this country while at the same time promoting peace, bringing about change and fulfilling his duty as the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. I can't wait to hear his official acceptance speech in Oslo. Until then I will share a bit of what Dr. King said when he accepted his prize...

"I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice...Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live -- men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization -- because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake."


-Martin Luther King, Jr. (December 10, 1964 in Oslo, Norway)

Stochasticity

Al Sharpton was on WWE (formerly known as WWF in my day)...smh...what is the world coming to...

President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize...hmmmm...I'm sold, but a smorgasbord of people aren't...(see next post)

They're creating a "suspended animation solution" that could be given intravenously in order to resuscitate a patient later...

Results from AIDS Vaccine trial in Thailand involving more than 16,000 participants show that combination of two vaccine candidates administered sequentially lowered the rate of HIV infection by about 31%...Note, that this is the first time an AIDS vaccine candidate has shown any efficacy in preventing HIV infection...

The US Men's Soccer Team is on to the World Cup 2010...

People still believe that when individuals listen to rap that it somehow promotes acts of violence...

What if we all loved beyond our prejudices...better yet, what if we imagined how God [or whatever higher being you believe in] loved and tried to mimic his actions...