This Issue
has been revised from the Break It Down post originally conceived,
created, and published December 29, 2010, and re-posted December 28,
2011, December 31, 2014, and December 30, 2015. This is my last post
of 2015, and 496th Edition of Break It Down,
which debuted August 20, 2007 on the BlogSpot platform. I
migrated the principal site to WordPress August 3, 2012,
approximately three weeks before the Fifth Anniversary of the
blog. You may find this and most other posts at either site.
With this
post I wish you a blessed and bountiful Happy New Year. While I’m at it,
I also extend to you my hope that you have a Happy Kwanzaa.
Today is the
third day (of seven) of the annual celebration, and participants and observers will
commemorate Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), the third of the seven
(one principle is observed each day from December 26th to January 1st)
core principles (Nguzo Saba).
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility):
To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and
sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
The complete
Nguzo Saba appears below:
1.
Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain
unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
2.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and
name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
3.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility):
To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and
sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
4.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain
our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
5.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective
vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our
people to their traditional greatness.
6.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as
we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and
beneficial than we inherited it.
7.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our
hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the
righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Now, enjoy
today’s blog.
The one-half
fortnight between Christmas
and New Year's Days is a unique occurrence in the unfolding of the American
edition of the Gregorian Calendar.
It is the only instance in which the space of a mere seven days separates two
major holidays. Unquestionably, the timing is propitious. Millions of holiday
travelers return home from their Christmas commemoration and revelry,
just in time to get a day off to "celebrate" the New Year...and
recuperate from the old, most notably
their extracurricular activities,
including the exploits of New Year's Eve.
In last
week's post, I presented a re-formatted airing of my personally crafted Christmas Concert
(https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2016/12/21/12-days-of-christmas-the-e-concert-2016-edition/)
from past Noels. This week, I doubled
down and reverted to my trusty time capsule. Once again, this
tack permits new readers to catch-up by seeing the
piece, it allows long-time readers to reflect upon both the passing
year as well as the theme lifted in the post, and finally, it ensures that
those busy readers, with no time to invest in checking
out a new blog during the holidays, will not have to miss
anything. It's a win, win...win!
Since we are
still in the Sweet Spot of the holidays, I shall
practice minimalism. For your purposes,
that means the blog should be available, but not intrusive.
To that end, I am taking a page from the Christmas e-concert, but going a
step further. Instead of a concert, I give you a song…of reflection.
Robert
Burns, a Scot, wrote a poem (Auld Lang Syne) in 1788
that has come to symbolize the spirit of mass contemplation that people around
the world invoke as the clock strikes midnight, signaling not just the dawn of
a new day, but of a new year. Undoubtedly, you have been somewhere, at
sometime, when you joined those assembled to sing Auld Lang Syne, which
loosely translated means, Times gone by.
Once again,
that time is upon us. After thoughtful reflection on my 2015, I have had
no choice but to conclude, my travails have been few and small, especially when
compared to my blessings, which have been both abundant and vast! All praises
to the one true, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God;
a mighty fortress is He.
No need to
thank me for my inherent thoughtfulness. But, by all means, “Drink a cup of
kindness,” or eggnog, or Champagne, or “name your favorite adult beverage,” for me. And, if you are
a teetotaler, water will do nicely,
thank-you!
As I
complete my last post for this year, and, prayerfully and faithfully
prepare to embrace 2017, I leave with you this familiar Irish Toast:
May
the road rise up to meet you.
May
the wind always be at your back.
May
the sun shine warm upon your face,
And
rains fall soft upon your fields.
And
until we meet again,
May
God hold you in the palm of His hand.
I invite you
to click on the links directly below, which lead to an A
cappella and a Jazz interpretation of Auld
Lang Syne, arranged and performed by the late Lou
Rawls (and listen to the remainder of this week’s edition
of Break It Down):
It has been
my unique honor and privilege to visit with you briefly for each of the 52
weeks this year. I hope you have derived a fraction of the pleasure reading the
blog posts that I have experienced from preparing and providing them
to you. May 2017 bring you the fulfillment of all your fondest
desires. Happy New Year: Here’s to Auld LangSyne Redux – 2016 Edition!
I’m done;
holla back!
Read my blog
anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.
To subscribe,
click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home
Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated
space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break
It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.
For more
detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the links below:
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