I entreat you to dig deep inside of yourselves and reach up to find some of the answers you have been longing for and realize that your search has not been in vain. I have too wondered about lots of things in regards to religion, life, death, love, the pursuit of happiness, politics, communication, children, peculiar attitudes of people different than I, the true meaning of Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day, enlightenment, faith, deception, and most importantly the Truth. I can’t honestly say that I’ve captured everything there is to know but I will say that I’ve done some of the work to reveal some of the things we’ve all wondered about. What make’s my book different from others are the facts being presented and the way I present them to you. I have listed a few shorts from my book for your viewing, for the full version please feel free to purchase “THE TRUTH: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MAURICE STREETER.”
“Warning: Please Note the following, since this is an autobiography of my life, the events are based upon true experiences throughout the course of my life, therefore I have taken the liberty of changing several names for security purposes whereas some others will be mentioned since they were used for public interest purposes and since I have received permission to do so in most instances. Examples of such instances included but were not subject to college professors, staff, administration, family, friends, and the like."
"It has been often said that ‘the truth hurts,’ this is due to the fact that the truth is undeniable and irrefutable without exception. The fact of the matter is that when something is true it pierces our very mind, body, and soul with a new found knowledge giving us the right to explore new foundations in the hopes of finding answers to questions we have been longing to have addressed. ‘The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,’ can be something funny, sad at times, emotionally disturbing, and most of all groundbreaking and real to the core. It is my belief that as a human emotion we are prone to feel embarrassed, upset, comical, sorrowful, pitiful, and even uneasy when a fact or the truth is suddenly presented to us by surprise rendering us in some sort of temporary state of shock. Take being in love for example, when true love sets in and is realized one feels an overwhelming joy and displays a radiant glow about them in their ways and actions especially when both parties express this love.”
“Unrequited Love:
Why is it you always want what your heart can’t have? How come we always long for what may be unattainable? It has been my experience to come so close to true happiness with someone whom I thought was genuinely interested, but in the end turned out that I was alone in feeling the way I did and eventually was left alone feeling all alone once again. Why is it that people say they’re looking for love or something deep and honest and true but never act and/or react to that premise when the opportunity presents itself? Often times we tend to ask ourselves, why does love and heartache linger when it all goes bad or wrong? Perhaps, it’s because we can’t or don’t let everything go from a previous relationship. We keep holding on to the past as we lose ourselves in memories and moments that were shared once before. Our minds work around our hearts and feelings and our emotions, perhaps this endurance keeps us from moving forward. With that in mind, I have often found myself crying or getting teary eyed, wondering once one’s heart has been stomped upon, could that someone ever love anyone else again the way they once did? Is it really possible for anyone to be loved beyond the ache of his or her heart? If so, when is anyone truly ready to love another or be loved once more? I guess I cried because the truth of the matter was that I felt that I was missing out on the thought and the action of being in love and more importantly, I missed being loved. After having my heart broken into so many little pieces, out of fear of having history repeat itself, I found that it was easier for me to build up a wall, a barrier if you will around my heart whereas no one was able to penetrate against it, well not at least until the scorned was actually willing to let anyone get close enough to try anyway.”
“What is love? It is my conviction to perceive love as a sacrifice. At times Love hurts so badly because we are forever sacrificing the most important things that can never be regained. We sacrifice our time in which we invest an enormous amount into forming relationships that we hope would last. We sacrifice our efforts because we strive to maintain our own level of serenity and happiness while simultaneously balancing the comfort zones of joy and good times of those we’re trying to love, those we love and/or whom we’re in love with. We sacrifice our goals, our hopes, our dreams, our wishes, our wants, and our desires in order to keep and/or build what we anticipate will be long lasting relationships. Is love a necessity? Why do we search for it in so many wrong areas? Someone once said, “I’m looking for love in all the wrong places,” as do we daily. It has been too often said that one should never search for the un-searchable, i.e., “don’t go looking for love, let love find you.” On a daily continuum we seek love or facets of what loves made of by going out to bars, clubs, and/or restaurants. For those of us who surf the web, we tend to try to find aspects of the thing online via chat rooms, instant messenger programs, and/or various meeting websites. Is love a necessity or do we want it so bad that we think it is? To be loved is to feel like you belong, without that feeling one begins to question their existence. Even God loved, in the ‘Holy Bible,’ it states:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son…”
It is my contention that God gives us the power and the possession to love whereas man chooses to either embrace or abuse this privilege. The abuse leads us to our present epoch–we’re left with nothing but grief, despair, heartache, pain, struggle, chaos, trials and tribulations.”
“It has been often said that, ‘you can’t change anybody,’ and the infamous phrase, ‘you can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do.’ In my experiences I’ve found the latter to be both true and not. You can’t honestly make anyone do what they don’t want to do unless you’re either their parental guardian and/or you possess a great deal of influential skills. I have noticed that people will do whatever it is they want and most of the time whatever it is you want to do as well because of either some sort of curiosity or some relevance of pure influence that some people fall victim to because they’re naïve. I contend that we’re not all on the same intellectual level or scale therefore some of us may be a little smarter than others. In this light we can view this situation with the terms of the user and the used, it is up to each of us to know where we stand in this realm. Some of us take things for granted and some of us are taken for granted, which are you? I on the other hand possess such powers of mind manipulation and/or the power of persuasion, as I like to call it. Although I have such a gift it has been my decision not to use it for cruel intentions. I try my best to see what’s inside someone and seek something genuine rather than common but I usually leave this up to other individuals to provide such attributes on their own. You see, I’ve found out that if I was to interfere with the aforementioned process before someone was ready to open up to me, the outcome could prove disastrous and ruin the real chance of getting to know him or her. One should never try to rush into anything unless there were certain undeniable circumstances preventing the natural to conform. One should let most relationships in mostly all aspects either it be family, friends, and sometimes sexual mature on its own. Nowadays, it seems as if everybody is doing the complete opposite.
I have to admit, this along with the next few chapters dealing with this type of subject matter have been the most difficult for me to even begin to write due to their sensitive, emotional, and Spiritual happenings. I must also admit these are the scariest chapters in the book being that it scares me to write them; I guess that is why they’re the most difficult. While viewing the movie, ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose,’ I became aware of a term in which I had never heard of before and was intrigued of obtaining more information of such. As you read on you may understand why I believe that I fit into both of the characteristics of a ‘Hypersensitive’ individual. Below I have attached several notations from an article I researched on this topic so that I could better over-stand a little more about myself, please read...”
“In December of that year I felt obliged to honor my best friend Willie for all of the things he’d done for me by providing him with a beautifully designed plaque which was engraved with the following:
“My best friend”
Who is a friend?
A friend is someone you treat like family. One you trust and confide in; who is there to advise, criticize, and encourage when necessary, who over-stands the complications and rewards life offers.
Willie, you’ve proved you’re the best in this category by going beyond the realms of the latter. You’ve broken through the barriers so much that I am not comfortable with the title friend anymore.
To show my appreciation and gratitude on this day of Dec. 5, 2004, I am overjoyed to recognize you, Mr. W. as my Brother.”
“To communicate is divine. I strongly believe that it is the only form of life that causes most things to make sense. Think about it, if we stopped communicating with one another, could you imagine the implication of anarchy and chaos there would be? In times of misunderstandings sometimes we need to say you know what I’m not going to take the low road in this situation and be as stubborn and uncompromising as in the past. I will take the high road here and try to talk things through to hopefully find a common ground so that all parties involved will leave with feelings of being satisfied and fulfilled. It has been my over-standing that men and women often times stoop to levels of selfishness and foolish behaviors due to their unwillingness to share or open themselves up to show a side of vulnerability as a way to socially avoid being viewed as a ‘punk’ or to display a sign of ‘weakness.’ In my view, what we as a people must learn is that no matter what society deems our actions to be while concurrently degrading our demeanor with useless labels, we must rise above this sickness, unlearn if you will. In view of the fact that life is so valuable and bestows no guarantee for any of us, it is imperative that we act and react to one another’s needs and give our undivided attention where applicable and show that we care, we understand, and we sympathize with each other in every situation. Words with incorporated emotions such as I forgive you and I apologize, not I’m sorry – (one should never feel sorry for themselves), should be said time and again when pertinent not only to avoid any and all confrontations but most importantly to prevent friendships, relationships, and family ties from breaking apart. I believe Alexander Pope once said,
“To err is human; to forgive is divine.”
“Weekend Splurge:
This is intended for all of us who try each week to roll back the hands of time by trying to stay up late when the weekend arrives. I find it most interesting that even though we all are pretty aware of how our internal body clock works being preset to a specific time we should awake (God willing) and the time we become fatigued and sleep, yet we still attempt to party hardy trying to hang out and splurge each weekend. I guess this is done in a way to try to make up for all of the missed time during the weekdays that we couldn’t stay up late, hang out, and/or party. Even still, we take our bodies for granted when we push the snooze button on our internal clocks as we tire throughout the weekend nights in our efforts to be night owls concurrently pushing our bodies to the limit. Think about it, are we really celebrating by making ourselves dog-tired each weekend trying to do all of the late night things we couldn’t do because of our daily commitments and responsibilities, or are we really damaging our bodies from over exhaustion on a weekly basis forcing it to breakdown in advance of its normal schedule as we older? So, who’s the real party animal?”
“Self Realization – Keeping in touch:
When people say, “I’ll call you” after they’ve met I’ve noticed that this type of salutation has been said usually out of shear convenience. Depending on the level of pleasure and/or enjoyment each party encountered measures the validity of a return call from one another. People normally say the “I’ll call you” line as a way to avoid feeling awkward or embarrassed especially when he or she was not particularly entertained with the company they chose to keep. I’ve discerned the fact that as human beings we often conjure up feelings of compassion and say the direct opposite of what we really want to say or what we really feel serving as a scapegoat to avoid telling the truth in order to spare the feelings of others. But, is this type of deception fair to the other party? These types of situations only become more difficult because everyone is different by nature being that we all handle certain states of affairs in our own way. So to evade what we may perceive to be a future complication, we lie. So, if you should hear those three infamous words, don’t act all surprised if that call never comes to fruition or vice versa. In other words, the discernment of the emotions you’ve recently experienced during your encounter with the other party should very well determine your expectations of whether or not you will either make the call or receive a call from the other person.”
“What is true love?
Could true love possibly be that sensational feeling you get when you think you’ve found that special him or her? Or, is it that feeling you get when you look into the eyes of another as they look into yours and you both get a weird but good feeling towards each other? Well, my interpretation of what true love means would be defined as a mutual feeling within both parties. This is a feeling unlike none other, a feeling so distinct and unique that both parties realized simultaneously that they both feel the same at the same time, more or less, a strong spiritual connection from one being to another.“
“Cheating = sabotage
Why is it that we are not content with the one we’re with when we’re with that someone? How come we allow temptation and/or infatuation to enter into the union we’ve shared with our loved ones? How is it that we succumb to the fascination of being with someone other than the one we’re with to satisfy whatever fantasies or premonitions we think we have towards him or her? What is really behind the thrill of ‘seeing if I still got it’ anyways? I mean, are we greedy in our way of thinking? Do we really believe that we can have our cake and eat it too? When or is it ever okay to cheat on your partner? Take this for example, if you found out that your significant other was cheating on you, are you then inclined to do the same to sully your partner’s feelings towards yourself and make them feel how you do, does their behavior make it okay for you to turn and cheat on them now? In this light, do two wrongs really make it right? If you’re with someone monogamously either you’re dating, in love, partnered, engaged, or married, is temptation and/or infatuation really to blame for your willingness to cheat on your loved one? Seriously, what is in the thrill of flirting? Why do we purposely obtain phone numbers when we know we’re with someone else? Are we really so into ourselves that we honestly perceive our actions to be good on our part? Or, are we so naive to the fact that karma will not find us out thinking that our loved ones will never know or does this matter, do we even care? Or, are we so secure in our ‘game’ that we know that we’re not going to get caught, and just in case we are found out, do we already have an alibi set up? What is your take on all of this?”
“Instant Relationships
Are you taking notes yet? Well I’m about to give you the herbs and spices of my interpretation of a rushed totally unseasoned quickly thrown together cuisine of a love concept without a proper foundation. Here are the secret ingredients for a recipe I like to call an instant relationship. First take two individuals who just met, making sure that at least one of them has a very high level of attraction towards the other while all the while has been ready to commit for some time with anyone whom they associated well with. Then add a pinch of water or thin air, mix in a little to no real communicative dialogue, and most importantly leave out family, closest friends, and life’s most conversant experiences of regrets and/or rewards. Throw in a bit of physical contact if any, and a little pleasurable enjoyment with a smidgen of romance, and there you have it an instant relationship. The point I’m making here is that many of us seek to obtain an instant connection with anyone we deem fit so that we are not left feeling emotionally, spiritually, and/or physically alone. In actuality, we shouldn’t do this because in the long run feelings get hurt and heartache will be created once again. We should always remember that a relationship is not just I, myself, and mines, but it’s we, us, and ours. Now from what I’ve observed in this sphere is that one becomes either smitten or very impressed with what someone else has offered or is offering. In this view, one becomes intrigued in knowing what else and how much will be dispersed from the other party and when or how soon. I have learned that people fall in love with a moment or moments of interest instead of other people. They say that first impressions are golden and everlasting being that you only get one chance to make it. People fall for the ambiance, the clothes you wore, the materialistic things, the fragrance you had on, the place you visited, the entire dining experience, and the movie: you know all that 1st date stuff. The lesson(s) to be learned here is that in some cases don’t feel bad if you’re not the center of their attention initially, if anything real is to develop be sure both parties are in sink towards that goal, there’s no we in me.”
“In summation, although this book seemed as if it was geared more towards Black people, in actuality it was meant for all races with the intentions that we would all learn from one another and grow together so that somehow we could mend broken bridges with hopes of truly becoming ‘One nation under God with justice and liberty for all.’ I hope I’ve challenged you all to have an open mind because it was my sincere wish that you gained something from my experiences.
I have observed that in this life one can do at least 1 of 3 things to become what they’re destined to be ultimately. The first, one could become a conformist and simply accept their environment and adapt to it. Second, one could ‘rage against the machine,’ if you will and become a revolutionary and rise up against oppression and other social, psychological, economical, educational, racial, and all pseudo pretenses of the world to try to change the outlook for the good of all mankind. And the third and final way, one could simply choose to do absolutely nothing about anything, becoming a hermit and/or a non-participant in any and all social matters. Now you decide, after reading my book, which one these do you think I am, furthermore, which one are you? The choice is yours.
I implore you to please forward your comments, concerns, questions, and feedback to my webpage and/or bring forth your commentary at one of my upcoming book signings and/or discussion sessions soon to be announced.”
MS
