Who Am I

     I had a good conversation with a friend the other night. He had posted some pretty thought provoking clips on Facebook. The man talking was an advocate for social justice and equality. As he spun knowledge and wisdom from his brain into the fabric of the moral conscious of anyone willing to receive it, I came to the following conclusion; Even if I don't agree with what this man is saying, I totally respect his willingness to lay down his arguments and justify his beliefs.
     Upon first glance this man looked little more then an eccentric senior who may or may not be totally "with it" upstairs if you know what I mean.  His hair was kind of wild. He was what I thought to be hiding behind sunglasses. His overall appearance just seemed to be slightly un-groomed. But when he began to speak I realized that his level of insight and intellect were so far beyond mine that I literally had to stop the video and ponder his words. I had to let his information marinate and sink in a little bit at a time in order to keep up with him. I came to know that this man is in fact an educator at an Ivy league university. The information he laid down was factual, though like anyone else the opinions were his own.
     When we know someone's background, we have a certain set of predisposed assumptions of what their stance will be on a situation. I try very hard to take each person as the sum of their life experience. It doesn't always work out that way, but I make an earnest effort. I think the world is a better place if you approach people sincerely and specifically. I had a man look me in the eye and say thank you the other day after I purchased some carry out and it made my day. I could not recall the last interaction I'd had with a stranger when our exchange was anything more than standard thoughtless politically correct pleasantries.
     What I am getting at here, is that I would love for anyone reading me, to take my words at face value. I hope and pray to get to the place some day where people have to stop and contemplate my words because I am a wealth of knowledge. But, my approach in doing this is going to be different. I am not going to set before you my stats. Where I'm from, what my background is, my political affiliation, my religion, my level of education etc.... take my words and evaluate them. I am trying to be open and honest. I will attempt to express the foundations of my sentiment, so that you can accept or reject what I have to say. To do the latter might muddy your perspective on  what you believe my view is. I loathe that we have come to the place where we ask people a certain set of interview like questions. 1) What do you do? 2) Are you married?
 3) How old are you?  [and then when we we are comfortable enough]  4) So do you/where do you go to church? And the final nail in the coffin. 5) How about what's going on in Washington?
     Let's see where you reading words by someone who you know little or nothing about gets us. Let's see how similar or different we REALLY are.