With My Whole LifeReweaving the Conversational Threads of Faith & Culture.SearchMain menuSkip to primary contentSkip to secondary contentHomeJosé HumphreysMy City PhotographyMy Prayers & Blessings for the MomentsPost navigation← Older postsThe Most Important Thing I’ve Learned from MandelaPosted on December 13, 2013  by  Jose HumphreysReplyPhoto Credit: Adrian SteirnMandela taught me dignity.Having followed Mandela’s life for many years I would often hear him use the word dignity. One story Mandela would retell during televised interviews would be about his first day at Robbin Island Prison. At Robbin Mandela demanded that he and his fellow prisoners from the African National Congress be treated with dignity. And it was so – even though he was hated by many.Dignity went beyond simple respect. Giving people respect is necessary, but respect is sometimes demanded as a consequence of ego. Dignity on the other hand has a divine mark. It’s about recognizing one’s own worth as a child of God, as an image bearer. Therefore we seek to be treated with dignity, as we treat others the same. Sound familiar? “Do unto others…”When Mandela got out of jail he was angry. And perhaps his being able to forgive had more to do with remembering…that even his enemies needed to be treated with dignity. If we caricaturize people it might just be easier to exact revenge.  But when we assign our enemy dignity we’re left to pause, remembering that they too are created in the image of God.I haven’t actually “learned” dignity as if it were something to be mastered.  But I’m glad that it was enfleshed in many ways in the life of Mandela.“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”– Nelson MandelaPosted in Life| Leave a replyFusing Hip Hop & Jazz: Robert Glasper’s Black Radio 2Posted on December 11, 2013  by  Jose HumphreysReplyRobert Glasper’s Black Radio 2 has been in my ear for a couple of weeks now.  Glasper is one of the progressive voices of Jazz – a genre that in many ways has not appealed to younger generations on a wider scale.  The album is a wonderful fusion of piano Jazz, R&B with elements of Hip Hop.My favorite track on the album so far is the collaboration with Rapper Common Sense, I Stand Alone.  I was running on the treadmill this morning and the following lyrics caught my ear.I shine, shine like the hour noonTune is to stay in step with every day menAnd women, the rythym of the realnessStill I’m Legend like Will SmithIn the presence of the fake I am a real giftOpen it, hopin’ it’d be something dope in itMovement of the people getting motion sickWe ride on the highs and lows of itOn the Southside, we got hosed for itLove that there is still socially conscious rap out there when Common says, “We ride on the highs and lows of it/O