Shoe Personality of the Week: 8/01/2011

This sandal, perhaps from another angle, just may be cute. What I’m seeing right now is NOT. & yet, something about it catches my attention.

From another angle. So, my professional constituency has rallied together yet again in an effort to remove me from the forefront & prevent me from being a strong voice sounding off to & for their children. My mother says it’s my intensity. Couple that with my aesthetic, the steady sound of my voice, the fact that I can often look childlike & that I am usually unyielding on things that I find important & I assume folks don’t know what to make of me. Instead of trying to figure that out they just keep trying to make me sit down.

I’m probably as confusing to them as this sandal is to me. If you were to break down all of its parts individually it would make more sense.

The flower. It doesn’t get too much girlier than a flower. I AM a girly girl. I AM all woman when you see me, despite the boyish lack of hair. I am soft & orotund (loogidup! No…seriously, LOOK IT UP!) Children know that they can find comfort with me & feel at ease, much like the way walking through a flower garden can make us feel. Flowers are typically not dangerous, tend to be appealing to most, though some come with thorns. Perhaps I’m a flower of the thorny sort. But why must a flower have thorns? Because fluthas are always trying to muck them & pluck them from whence they stand. #IAintGotTime

Classic. What’s more classic than an espadrille? They date way back to like ancient mayans wearing them to parties in honor of their awesome calendar. It was the shoe of the time. I actually have NO IDEA of what I speak, I just know the espadrille is older than me. I too am classic. By classic I mean old school. By old school I mean I don’t take no mess off no people with no driver’s license. & truth be told, I don’t take no mess off no people with them. You gotta be this SMART to ride this ride. & by smart I mean that you have to understand that EVERYTHING with me is EARNED. There are NO special privileges, unless they’ve been earned. You don’t get something for nothing ‘round these parts. & you will not eat at this buffet without at least bringing some napkins or a liter of something. You AND your kids (in my Auburn Ave voice) #GotTaKnowIt, & the kids are quicker studies than their parents. Do better, grown folks…do better.

Tall. As in high. As in highfalutin. Yup, I CAN be pompous. I work HARD at being me. I’ve earned my way ALLAWAY to where I am & I’m CLEAR about where I wish to go, the path I gotta take to get there & that I may potentially have to mow you over in order to get there. As The Guru so eloquently puts it, “we’re all out here learning at each other’s expense.” What that means, in essence, is that I don’t mean you no harm, but sometimes the means to my end involves you potentially being off course. Totally absent of malice but if you show up to the Spades table with the rules to Go Fish, best believe you will be taught a lesson at YOUR expense. You came unprepared. As long as all parties come prepared, nobody really has to get…jacked. At the end of the day Wait…I said all that to say wait…in the end, I’m going to be OK—because I say so. If you deem the same as truth for yourself, we can skip hand in hand to our separate enlightenments with few, if any, bruises. What does that have to do with my professional goals &/or demeanor? Well, the demeanor part is obvious…to me. The goals? Well, I’m going to continue pushing forward to do the best for the people I serve. 1st & foremost, that’s children. So, whether you like my style, approve of my methods, dig me at all, I’m gon’ get it in with these kids. It’s all I know to do. & THEY will tell you that I makes IT—whatever IT they need at the time—happen. It may not be the IT on the pacing chart, but I address the IT’s as they appear.

Wood sole. Wood comes from trees & like most trees, I am not easily knocked over. No need to delve any deeper into that 1.

Yesterday my sister told me how she ran into 1 of my students at a boutique & all she did was gush about her love for me. My students rap me up on Facebook with their problems & their struggles, their triumphs & their love. I don’t play ‘bout that. & they ride hard for me because they know I ride hard for them. So, scared adults, I wish you the balls to get over yourselves & pay attention to the message sent by these kids. They are our common ground. Ultimately, your personal issues with me ain’t got nothing to do with the price of mambo sauce at the carry-out. At some point we’re gonna have to stop saying it’s about the children unless we gon’ really be ‘bout the children. I know I am. I can’t speak for them, but I have my suspicions.

Watch me move.