What I am about to say should not come as a shock because I have made it clear that I am an individualist, so when I say that I never liked the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," you should say, "of course, that is what I would expect you to say." The truth of the matter is that the saying makes my flesh crawl because it takes the responsibility away from the parents and gives it to the group, the collective. Recently my granddaughter was removed from her school about a month before the official end of of the school year and ever since then, when my daughter runs into parents from the school they ask her for an explanation as to why she did this, as if she owes them anything. They try to tell her that she went about it in the wrong way and that she should take their approach and speak to the teacher or at least make them understand her problem with the school. They all seem to feel that she owes the school an acceptable explanation and they are waiting to hear something that will satisfy their collective conscience. They have suggested that it is the problem of the parents and not of my granddaughter and that my daughter, her parent, has some how taken their child, my granddaughter from the school against her will. They think that they know what is best for her and they feel like one of their children has been taken away from the control of the collective or the village if you will. The village knows what is best for this child and what is best is that she, like each of their own children, learns to grin and bear the below standard education that is being doled out to her. If this school is good enough for their children, it is good enough for her because she is a part of the village, the collective and every Black child is expected to have the same experience or else, how will she feel at home in the village? I don't know about anyone else but, one of the reasons I had children is so I could teach them my values and standards and in the end to teach them to always live by their own values and standards and not that of the village, the collective. The village has voiced its unsolicited opinions to my daughter but she made her decision almost a month ago and they will have to live with it because in the end, it is hers and her husband's sole responsibility to raise their daughter.
I returned home from our mini vacation last Sunday and I am ready to go again because seven or was it eight days just isn't enough and it is taking me a week to unpack. We had so much fun with one another, one of the coolest things happened on this trip, we visited the cafe from the famous movie, at least to me it was famous, Bagdad Cafe. I was so excited that I actually could not stop smiling while I snapped pictures and drank lemonade. Then it was on to Las Vegas and our favorite hotel, Bellagio, wow, I am missing the yummy dinners that I had there. We love Bellagio and we always have a fabulous room on the upper floors with a full lake view and it is important for me to have a room with a view of the strip. We were there for three days of walking around and seeing the sights and we even got to see the Musical Play, "The Lion King," and it was alright but I would have preferred to see a Cirque Du Soleil production. We spent the last three days of our trip in the beautiful mystical Mt. Shasta City which is at the foot of the awe inspiring Mt. Shasta. From the minute the mountain comes into view from highway 5, you can't take your eyes off of it, never mind that it dominates the landscape, it is magical. Mt. Shasta is a magnetic vortex that summons people from all over the world and they come in droves to walk her/his beautiful slopes. The mountain is surrounded in mystery from, UFO's to Lemurians living in a city inside the mountain. There are stories about ascended masters who have appeared on the mountain and little people who have lead campers to their city on the mountain. We have seen strange lights hovering over the top of the mountain at night and the magnificent clouds formations that form over the mountain. The energy of the Mt. Shasta affects all of the surrounding area for miles. There are waterfalls with entities around them and lava tubes that are portals for inter-dimensional travel. Just spending time in the natural beauty of this powerful area is priceless. Mt. Shasta city is the perfect place to pick a personal crystal and to get a reading on the crystal itself in order to find out why this particular crystal attracted you to it. All in all, it was a wonder filled trip and the mountain informed me that I need to visit her at least once year if not twice because she has knowledge to pass to me so, I will return as soon as possible.
