FOR THE BROTHAS: CULTURE AND INTELLECTUALISM: February 2016

FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Monday, February 1, 2016

THE SKILL OF SELF-COUNSELLING: A GENTLEMAN'S BEST TOOL

EXCUSE ME, I'M IN A CONFERENCE CALL WITH MYSELF! I'LL CONTACT YOU WHEN I'M DONE.

Before his day ends a gentleman should set aside time to have a meeting with himself to review the many twists and turns of the day. The purpose of this meeting is of course to go over the fine details regarding how you handled the day's situations complementing yourself and also counselling yourself when you've not handled something as effectively as you would have liked. You'll ask yourself questions like, "how could I have made myself more clear" ordinary did a great job communicating my point but how can I brainstorm effective strategies to be applied to other situations I my encounter"? The possibilities of this kind of self-management are limitless and powerful.

In addition to helping you honey communications skills self-counselling can empower you to identify and set about acomplishing critical life goals. One of the most important features of self-counselling is that it helps bring mentally healing closure to the many issues we do not have time to manage during our hectic day.

Self-counselling does require a great deal of honesty so It can build a person's quality of self-awareness. Look at it this way, you spend an inordinate amount of time managing other people's baggage so why not set aside 15 minutes or more to handle your own. You more than owe it to yourself and what's more, it's 100% free! You might forget sometimes but setting your self-evaluation as a daily goal is essential to your mental health. So just pick a time that's best for you. Otherwise could even be early the following morning or at midday next day.

BIG DADDY BLUES