Book Review: A Man Man Worth Waiting For

Author- Jackie Kendall

Pages-240

Publisher: FaithWords (March 4, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0446699713

Most of my family and friends tend to tell me that in life I am a pure optimist, but when it comes to book reading I have become something of a pessimist. Here’s why. After reading books for so long, you become use to the story lines or for the most part, books become somewhat predictable. From the title of this book I can be honest in saying that I, I thought, “Oh my goodness, another book teaching young women how to get a man.” And honestly that’s what it was. But the thing that was different about this book was its references and approach.
It was not only teaching young women how to find a man, but how to find a good man and also how leave your extra baggage for the trip. Kendall’s usage of the well known man of god in the bible “Boaz” was as insightful a model for women as Ester would be to any Christian man who is looking for that special woman.

My favorite chapter is “Guard you Heart Against Demanding Your Way” because I am a firm believer in the method of being satisfied and at peace with whatever comes your way. I totally agree with her concept in that passage because we, as well deserving women, sometimes need to take a step back and look at the “Whatever God!” point of view. Meaning, we accept whatever way god or the wind takes us.

Overall, I would say that Jackie Kendall’s flamboyant view of God’s Plan for a woman to receive her Boaz is one of the best visual perceptions a woman can have.

Reviewer- Krystine Kory

Is Our Present Economic System Set for Success?

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much money you make there never seems to be enough to do everything that needs to be done? Does it seem hard to get by on a day to day, week to week, and month to month basis? Sometimes it makes you think that perhaps our economy is not designed for our success.

In the study of capitalism, we learn that the economic system is not set up for us to succeed; at least not many of us. Who succeeds and who fails is based on financial education and greed. Most people are greedy and that’s what drives them forward to gain things evermore. Some people, however, possess a financial education that allows them more flexibility than those without. They only use the knowledge to make the monies that they need and they are satisfied, but that kind of person is rare in our modern day shop-a-mania culture. Among the greedy is the financially informed, as well as the ignorant. What makes the ignorant different from the financially informed is that they are ignorant and therefore they do all kinds of crazy things out of desperation to make a buck. Since the greedy person is encouraged by society this brief article will focus on him/her.

Without greedy people, capitalism couldn’t work because there wouldn’t be long lines of people waiting to become the next big thing. These people are the reason why we do not make enough money to tend to life’s needs. If it wasn’t for the greedy person who cuts throats so that he/she can “succeed” where would capitalism be?

We are plagued by credit cards, utility bills, rents, taxes, holidays, food prices, gas prices, school cost, child care, parking tickets, fines, clothes, etc. most of us only have one job and therefore one income or if married have two incomes but they function as one. Oh, don’t forget to save for your retirement. Can you see my point? Even if a person has two jobs, I named at too many things that’s costing money on a regular basis, so already the math is off. So why do we continue to run ourselves ragged over these things if we know that the math is off? Could it be GREED?

At any rate, the trait of greed is triggered by the feeling of not having enough to make ends meet. A good scenario is the peanut butter and jelly affect. Ever notice that peanut butter jars are usually bigger than jelly jars? Of course, you finish the jelly first, and then run to the store to get another jar, but now you are running out of peanut butter. Our economic system seems to have something in common with that age old treat.

Strong Medicine Speaks

Author: Amy Hill Hearth
Pages: 224
ISBN: 0743297792
Pub. Date: March 28, 2008
Price: $23.00

I am Native American, and so is my wife/partner. Heather is from the Sukizeet tribe and I am from the Nanticoke tribe or as we say, “People of Lenni Lenabe”. Thus, we have the last name Elitou.

It’s true that most Native Americans hid their ancestry in the past and took on more accepted roles as white and colored in their outward expression forming a secret society, so to speak, for their inner cultural expressions. Many of us have the same experiences of other minority groups who have been classed in the same category and racially targeted. It seems that many people in the American communities have Native American backgrounds as we meet new people everyday.

In my family, there are light and dark skin people we don’t see each other in skin tone, but more so in blood tie. If you are Lenabe you are Lenabe that’s, that! Light or dark skin doesn’t matter. I mean that’s how we roll. We say that our cousins are the Lenni Lenape because they have slightly different customs and experience from ours since we have been separated by racial divides.

We are still relatives and share the exact same ancient ancestry but we express it slightly different. Being from the city requires a different approach to cultural life than country living and so with that brings the difference between the spellings of the two names which are really the same.

I was excited to learn about “Strong Medicine” Speaks: A Native American Elder Has Her Say.” I requested that my editor get this book and I was pleased to see it in my office the following day. It was a very interesting read and very close to home. The book is written by Amy Hill Hearth who also shares Lenape ancestry through a great-grandmother. I was surprised to read this about the author because as she says she looks “completely white”. Although, I was surprised I was not completely taken aback because as I said, we meet new family every day. They come in different shades and sizes but they are Lenape.

Amy Hearth is also the author of “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years” which is the true story of two African American sisters who are 100 years old. Having a talent for storytelling, reminiscent of her Native American background, the book went on to become an enduring best seller and the subject of a three-time Tony Award nominated play. What’s interesting about Amy’s story is that she didn’t know that she was Lenape until her father stumbled upon her ancestry but in spite of her not knowing there were ancestral traits to be found such as helping a stranger in need which is written in Strong Medicine.

Curious to find out more about her Lenape ancestry she researched and found Marion Strong Medicine Gold on the internet and was inspired to contact her and learn more about our culture. What she learned was so awe inspiring that she decided to write a book about it, but in a way that gives the source of the information a more direct voice to the reader.

Strong Medicine is a very charming individual with 83 years of life to talk about. She takes us all the way back to her humble beginnings. Walk with Strong Medicine as she takes us on a step by step journey through the decades of her life and rare views that otherwise would not have been shared with the outside world. Strong Medicine takes a leap of faith and opens up to Ms. Hearth. At some point it was questionable as to whether or not it was a good idea to go public with such information because racism is still very much alive in America and threats are around every corner. Maybe it was the kinship between them that made Strong Medicine comfortable with her regardless of the potential danger. You can tell that the chemistry is just right for an interesting story— one that keeps the pages turning easily.

Marion takes us back to the 30's as she recalls quite vividly, the days of her childhood growing up black, white, and Indian in America. How could she be black, white, and Indian you ask? She explains how we Native Americans are often mistaken for these races depending on outside racial contact and the misperception of the people. The truth is that we are neither black, white, or Indian- we are indigenous.

Back in America’s younger days, being indigenous was outlawed so most indigenous people would go about their lives neither confirming nor denying their identity. Marion remembers living her life as Lenape but not talking about it much when she was a little girl. Her mother was Lenape, and her father was Lenape and Black, thus giving her a skin tone that blended into most communities.

We learn that she was her parent’s second child, and their first born (a boy) died from crib death in 1921. Marion was born in 1922, and was stronger and faster then some of the boys she played with. She sometimes wished that she could do the boys chores because they seemed more interesting than the chores for girls such as washing clothes and gardening. When it came to boyfriends she caught the eye of a few but the one who caught her eye was a Lenape boy named Wilbur Gould, born in 1919. He was almost three years older than Marion and if it wasn’t for a chance encounter she would have never known him. As luck would have it she later married Wilbur, and as sure as life is full of test, they were tested as well. Wilbur was drafted into the army the year after Pearl Harbor was attacked and fought on the Western Front in World War II. He was taken prisoner during the battle of the Bulge, escaped and returned to active duty on December 31st. I could try to tell you everything about the book but that wouldn’t be fair because it is worth reading yourself.

Overall, Strong Medicine and Amy Hearth have teamed up to give the non-Native American community a rare, inside peek of the Lenape culture and local tribal community (if you live in or near NJ). If you have Native American ancestry, Strong Medicine is a book that should definitely be in your personal library.

Aalim Elitou- Reviewer

Multiplicity

Author: Rita Carter
Publishing Date: April 2008
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 0-316-11538-x
Price: $24.99


Have you ever lost track of time or thought that you were shy but every one else says that you are not? Have you ever made the statement, “I don’t know what got into me” or “I was somebody else back then?” If so, then you are witnessing MULTIPLICITY, according to the new science of personality. In fact, the main subject discussed in this book is that we all have multiple personalities albeit— not necessarily a disorder but the way nature intended things to be. Author, Rita Carter, calls this phenomena human plurality which is to say that psychologically, we are not individuals but a community of personalities in an individual body. If this is so, then we are definitely in trouble of finding ourselves in disunity with our neighbors, i.e. other personalities within our bodies.
Imagine, if you will, awakening to find that another personality that lives inside of you. Lets say the fighter in you (although it can easily be the promiscuous person or the gullible person inside of you) has done something that causes the rest of your personalities; the father or the mother, the giver and/or the helper to suffer. The way our current society thinks, there is one body and one person within. We will quickly find that we have gotten ourselves into trouble with absolutely no way for the other personalities to plead their cases. In fact, the entire community of people (personalities) may be punished for the acts of one personality within our psyche.

For many decades we have seen criminals tried for this offense and a great deal of them say that they do not know what got into them. According to the new science, it’s not so much what got into them, but what was inside of them all the while. There is a community of personalities better known as multiple personalities. Many of us are under the impression that multiple personality automatically means disorder but Multiple Personality Disorder is when the personalities become so dominant that the others can’t stop its actions. This disorder could be as simple as obsession with cleanliness to murderous tendencies.

However, we have all said at one time or another that we cannot account for our actions or that we do not know why we were thinking the way we were. So, could we truly be going along for the ride of each personality within us? Well, before you get upset, it may be a relief to know that the only time you are in danger of suffering from the misgivings of some other personality living inside of you is if you have a multiple personality disorder. If you have a healthy but very outward case of multiple personality or human plurality each personality is likely to be relative to the rest of the community, and therefore not so different that the life choices made by each personality are totally opposite each other.

The concept reminds me of George Gurdjieff who explained that we have no permanent and unchangeable "I".

"Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking 'I.' And each time his I is different. Just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion," says Gurdjieff.

George Gurdjieff took some of his ideas from Buddhist and Sufi psychology which teaches that there is no stable essence, no individual "I". Instead, traditional Buddhists divide the self into skandas which are heaps that are composed of shifting thoughts and awareness. Sufis divide the many stages of self into what they call nefs. What makes the difference between the old and the new science of personality is that instead of saying that there is no “I” but rather a conglomeration of thoughts and desires, Multiplicity is saying that there are many “I’s” within one body. However, like one of Gurdjieff’s disciples, Oscar Ichazo, Rita Carter has a personality wheel.

What makes the book helpful is that the first half takes the time to inform us of the situation which can be very enlightening to many people. Let’s think about it: you have more than one personality and most likely each one has some skill in handling anything that you are faced with, now all you have to do is get to them so that you can turn them on whenever you need them. In the second half of the book, there is the personality wheel and instructions on how to get to know you in a whole new way. Below are both Oscar Ichazo’s personality chart and Rita Carter’s personality chart.

Personality Chart

Rita Carter
Open-minded
Conservative
Extrovert
Introvert
Stable
Uptight
Agreeable

Disagreeable

Conscientious
Careless

Oscar Ichazo

Perfectionist

Giver

Performer

Romantic

Observer

Trooper

Epicure
Boss
Mediator

Multiplicity is a must read, it goes great with difficult times like these because if what Ms. Carter says is true, then we all should be contacting the personalities within us that are strong enough to hold on and ride the wave of the current economic situation that we find ourselves in. For those who are unaware of the many people living inside of you, it makes for informative and useful knowledge to anyone whom may be interested in or in need of a better understanding of the human psyche. Imagine never having to be alone again.


Aalim Elitou-reviewer
Copyright 2008