South Side Sanctuary

Since the beginning of time—one incontrovertible reality has both plagued us and plotted our course: haters. Imagine, Joseph standing there, proud, in his fresh new “Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. Imagine his brothers—hating—leaning over the earth they’d eagerly excavated for him to die in—covering young Joseph with the fresh dust of discord. Hating—as old as time.

The full-frontal truth is, we need haters. What? That’s right. As efficient as the gag reflex is when attempting to swallow that reality—without haters, we know not how to emerge. Back to Joseph—most of us know the ending—he emerged from the depths of that “pit” up to the heights of Pharaoh’s side. But, it wasn’t easy, and, it took a score of years and a heap of hate. Who would we be, without hate? Who would young Martin Luther King from Atlanta, Georgia be today—if ‘haters’ did not exist? I realize it’s an absurd question—I mean, who wants hate? Despite that, it’s clear, we’ll always struggle to understand not only it’s origin, but also, it’s hand in shaping us. The why will always haunt us? Why?

(Genesis 37: 2-4) Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

First things first—Joseph is young—let’s remember that. We all know the limitations of our youth—if we’ve lived it out. Fact is—we don’t know the details about why Joseph ‘brought a bad report’. All we know is that tattling, also, is as old as time. But, the crux is this: when we’re aware, I mean fully aware, that a desired love is not for us—hating is conceived and instantaneously born into the thralls of a violent revolution within the soul. Regardless of what we know—be sure of this: seated on the throne, lording over the lords of jealousy, rage, covetousness, and envy, is hate, the realization of love’s hand upon another.

Let’s be clear— it wasn’t Joseph’s dream—it wasn’t his “robe of many colors”—it’s what the coat represented: love withheld, freely given to another at our expense. I think Lil’ Wayne captured it, and nestled it into “She Wants Me”: “My reality is bigger than your dreams are. Got your dream girl, riding in your dream car. She wants me…Cause, I got it all…” Even further, I know another Atlanta born man, a “King” in his own right in 2007, who has captured it: T.I.’s “What Up, Whats Haapnin”. Funny, but not, it always seems to begin the same way—just as it did with Joseph and his brothers, as it did with young Martin, and with us: (haters) “Somehow he must be stopped. Something must be done… …(King) what up, what’s happening, all you haters can get at me, cause, I hear you, and I’m watching, but, I’m still here, I ain’t stopping…

I suppose the ‘moral’ is, beware of ‘dreaming’—it’s where haters are conceived. And, it’s this hilltop that we’ll all arduously ascend, if we aren’t already. Remember, the question isn’t why, but what and how. What will you do? How will you respond? For this coming Monday on MLK Day, in our ten and two thousand years, we remember a man, perhaps the most recognized proprietor and innovator of ‘having a dream’—a man, in some ways, made by haters—absorbing hate in order to absolve it of its power. Whatever King you worship, whomever that might be, be it King Jesus, Martin Luther Jr., T.I., Elvis—rest assured—whatever King you aspire to, and, at whose feet you sit—know this—his crown is embedded with the jewels of haters…

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The Raymond

Raymond is the cultural critic for the South Side Sanctuary, traveling to the outer-limits of the social realm to discover to unique facets of the human existence. Strike up a friendship if you like: ray [at] southsidesanctuary [dot] com