Priorities: How many of us have them?

As a decade long employee for a pharmacy along with my lesser stint in education, I've noticed a disturbing trend among members of my community here in New York especially young parents (I consider young parents those under 40 years old) of my ethnicity. I'm constantly in contact with young parents through my profession & recreation. I see them pick up their children from school, order medicines for them through hospitals & pharmacies, and I see them in nightclubs.
I'll give a quick example. Last summer I went to a club in the Chelsea section of New York called Suzie Wong. I went there on a Monday night after work & it was jumping. There were hoards of scantily clad, juicy, and overall sexy ladies (I use that term loosely here) in the spot who were stacked from head to toe. There was this one young man who was no older than 25 that was acting particularly wild on the dance floor. Suddenly the DJ played the record "plenty money" by Plies. This dude pulls out a knot of bills that could choke a raging bull & throws it in the air. Everybody in the spot ran after the money. Out of nowhere four bills fell right next to my left foot. I quickly stepped on it & didn't lift it until 5 minutes later when I went to the bathroom. They were all $20 bills. I was eighty dollars richer for no damn reason. lol
The following Thursday afternoon I went to a local pharmacy to buy me a case of Cranberry-Pomegrante Juice that was on sale. I see this same young man in the pharmacy with what appears to be his son & another woman (maybe it was his wife or girlfriend so I won't assume it was simply his son's mother). They were buying a box of diapers & the woman didn't have enough cash. She asked this young man for some money & duke said "I only have $5 to my name." My manner went from happy go lucky to mad as fuck in a matter of milliseconds- almost instantly. This guy threw hundreds of dollars in the air to total strangers & in a few days didn't have enough money to cover his son's bare bottom.
This is my issue with many of the young parents I see today. They have the poorest money management I have ever seen especially those of my ethnicity. I see students who come to school in shoes & apparel more expensive than mines (at times....I do have a taste for upscale clothing) without proper school supplies like notebooks, pencils, pens, paper. etc. This unfortunate 5 year old child I see often in my residence wears a nice Sean John jacket while having lips badly in need of medicated balm. What happened? As a child my parents made sure I had adequate supplies for school as well as clothing, but they wouldn't spend their last dollar on purchasing brand name clothing for us. If anything both my parents would leave that task up to me. The last decade or two, an alarming amount of parents have lost sight of what's most important to the offspring they created.......which is their well being (my opinion).
At times I've been disparaged for having this opinion about young parents namely because I'm not one & don't really know the perils of parenthood. In no way would I want to intentionally hurt this group of people who are vital to my community. As Martin Luther King said 40+ years ago "There is no great disappointment where there is no great love." Indubitably I love my people from the elders to the progeny. I only want to see my people in a better state. These days my people can't blame all their troubles on the ubiquitous yet often invisible "White man." Some of that blame needs to fall on our own backs for not PRIORITIZING CORRECTLY!
Now don't try to play me for a simpleton though. I look at television. I read the magazines. I peruse the different blogs on the internet, and I see all the advertisements for high end merchandise as I skate down the streets of New York. With all of that media hitting the young parents at once, I sincerely understand why some make decisions that show a lack of true priorities. We all want nice things for ourselves & our children. That's human nature & in theory I believe that Allah provides for his creations. I think that all people of earth would live in moderate affluence if the wealth of the world were evenly distributed. However, the reality is that the world is filled with a few "haves" & an alarming majority of "have nots." Therefore as responsible people, we should try our best to live according to our means until we see an increase in what we earn. This includes the young parents I scrutinize at times.
Until the next blog, I'll be riding sideways on my skateboard. PEACE!

The Little Things (India Arie was right)

Greetings to everybody who really cares or was board enough to stop by! This is the opening blog of my new page here on blogger.com! I'm really excited about this page as if I'm expecting a newborn child (which I'm not). Maybe it's because I haven't been blogging regularly for about 18 months or so & I suddenly found the time to do so. It my just be that I've had too much Red Bull as well. Nix that thought because Red Bull tastes like liquid ear wax with red 40 food coloring. lol Let's get started.
Until today I had been locked out of my apartment since Thursday. I have no one to thank but myself because I lost my house keys. From Thursday up until today I was basically living like a homeless man. I wore the same clothes everyday. I slept somewhere other than home every night. I washed up in someone else's bathroom. I wandered around often & sometimes aimlessly. Lastly I began to look disheveled all around. My beard was scruffy (like always). My clothes weren't pressed. My coat had lint all over. Even my mouth became putrid like the Hudson River. In this state I was feeling lower than the dog poop. Suddenly while I was laying down outside my locked apartment I realized something.
Just a week ago I was contemplating what I should do with my tax return. I was thinking of buying a designer watch, maybe some more designer shades, and maybe even some more kicks to add to the reservoir I have in my room. As I was contemplating what to buy, I threw a tantrum because my anticipated return wouldn't buy me as much as I wanted for myself. Then a week later I was spread eagle laying out on hardly mopped project housing floors. Reality just bitch slapped me & made me realize something that's always in my subconscious but may at times escape my immediate conscious:

I'm just as broke as a homeless person. The only difference is I have a roof over my head. So every last one of us BETTER be grateful for the LITTLE THINGS in life that give us so much joy. That was just an appetizer! Until the entree comes I'll be riding sideways on my skateboard. PEACE!