Life Work.

I saw on another blog a photo that said "I pretend to be religious because I want my life to have meaning". I started thinking if my religion defines me or gives my life meaning in such a way that I would be empty without it. In honesty, it does not. Although I do worship my God and Jesus, my religion does not make the Dedan Kevin Hedrick that you know today. I have not read the bible in it's entirety but I do respect many verses and stories which I have seen to be be true in my own life. Religion does not define me.

There are 3 things that define me. Death, the under served populations and poetry. The 3 are threaded together because when I was younger, I feared death soooo much that it kept me from sleeping and functioning normally. I looked to artists and poets and such who had their life work keep their name alive and that's why I started writing poetry. I wrote my thoughts on life and death. The works if Malcolm and King left such huge impressions on me that I started to feel inspired to work towards keeping their dreams alive. That's where my dreams formed to give back to the under served population. This is what defines me. Working on my dreams has allowed me to escape my fear of death because I've reached the position where I can help those who struggle like I have and I can publish a book of my poetry. My lifes work is what defines me.

I'll be teaching my children to believe in a God and have their own way of interacting with that God. I don't want my children to believe in any teachings because it is in print. The strongest way to believe is to SEE and FEEL for your own. If one were to read a book about heartbreak and never have been faced with such incident, the belief would be undistinguished until he in fact feels the pain and suffering of a legitimate heartbreak.