Thoughts on Life's "Historical Legacies"

Everywhere I turn lately, I am confronted with the "richness of historical legacies," whether verbalized or implied in casual conversations or in the intensity of documented dictates. It creates pause for reflection and life thoughts. As each of us treads with purpose into the innards of the 21st century, what has become painfully obvious is that the shelf life of some historical legacies appears short-lived and oftentimes short-sighted. There is a global exposure of history that will leave future generations with wonderment coupled with an infusion of bewilderment for those who lived and left indecorous and indecipherable legacies for them to internalize and understand.

If we look at today's world where the armpits of humanity are exposed in public forums with a superfluous fling of attitude and polarized intentions, the historical legacy that is being left to the next generation and to those yet to be born borders on a deep-rooted power struggle of polarization that is more emotive and selfish than historical. The incessant verbiage of recent conversations on the richness of historical legacies that are being left as imprints on our planet creates a social, economic, emotional and educational divide for current generations and future ones.

As voices raise in the inculpatory polarization echoing off the mahogany walls of the power-mongers in a world inundated with debasements of cause and creed, there is an inherent marginalization and oppression of some that continues to create its own historical legacy. What historically has been rich and deepest in its roots of transformation has become a pourparier of inclusive groupings catering to misoneism as the history of demarcation continues to define our world.

But yet in definitive contrast, history has marked our life thoughts and our lives. What is even deeper in our collective world are the historical richness of legacies born of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, that have served us well and created change and inclusivity within the depravity of fear and flux. It is important to understand and remember that there is indeed a "richness of many historical legacies" that have provided life, civil rights, equal opportunity, legislation of Brown vs. Board of Education, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou and a host of historical legacies and lives that have lived, given back and continue to live and give in the universal consciousness of our thoughts and actions.

The beauty of this richness of history is that it was not done with polarization, denigration and exclusion of the very group that it purports to embrace, the collective world. In its truest manifestation of history and legacy, those who gave of their lives and their dreams did so within the collaborative drumbeats of the social consciousness and within the collective hearts of honor and integrity. Again, it gives pause for reflection and life thoughts.

I live my life in the richness of life's "historical legacies" that are written on the scarred backs of those who toiled the cotton fields and created rebirth on the soils of the African Sahara. I see my heritage in the sweat and tears of those who learned to read and run towards educational freedom and freedom of the mind and soul. I honor the legacy of those who gave the ultimate life sacrifice to etch in the soils of the global land, the richness of history that is not written in textbooks or stored in the deepest chambers of the historical vaults containing remnants of a history created to divide and polarize the spirits of humanity.

We are a world built on life's "historical legacies," and as we embrace upon the journey of a new year, it is imperative that we revisit that which is rich and historical in our own life thoughts and within our own legacy. It is important to revisit the richness of historical legacies that continue to serve as life connections of the spirit, hopes and dreams of our current world and the world of generations now and yet to come. It is time to pass the torch as our global world moves towards the collective goals of unity and change.

As the gatekeepers of our new world, it is our duty and charge to go forth in an "historical legacy" of renewal. As we leave the peaceful etchings of a global beating heart in the sands of a world that is evolving and creating its own richness and "historical legacy," only then can we rest forever in the folds of the Universe and rebirth.