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The environment that I grew up around was black and Christian. We went to Baptist church, but in my head I feel like we were nondenominational. I grew up here in Cleveland with most of my family. I have a pretty large family, mainly being my mother's side of the family. The main influence of how I look at the world is the faith I had been raised in and the people around me. While I haven't really felt connected with the faith I was raised in, it still helps me understand concepts like how to be a good person, things that I would later understand without connecting it to religion. And being surrounded by many black people throughout my life, I was always taught to look at the world as equal. Everyone is living life somehow, and no one is better or worse than anyone else. At the end of the day, we are all just "God's beautiful children", as my grandmother always put it.

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I never really had any thoughts about the divine, since they hadn't impacted my personal view of life. However, I did often think about who exactly we were supposed to be worshipping in church (when I would actually go every Sunday), and why we cared so much about making him happy, in the words of 5-year-old me. I often wondered what made life so different for everyone in the world, and the overall "meaning of life". Because I didn't process that life had meaning to people, hearing that phrase "meaning of life" always made me wonder what that meant and, once again, why it mattered to people so much. Growing up, I would only rely on kids shows to tell me what this meant, so the meaning had always changed. As I grew up, this helped me shape my view on life because it let me know that the purpose I give my life is important only to me, and it'll be different for anyone and everyone.

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What is the meaning of life? | The Question | Gumball | Cartoon Network

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I have a close friend who's nicknamed Angel that I've known since elementary school. We both talk about this topic a ton, with both of us being people of color. I'm African American, and she is Romani. She often talks about how her people aren't represented positively, if at all, in media. If represented at all, it's in a negative light or in a sexualized manner, or erased entirely. It's been something she's told me about so many times, and she isn't alone. I often see Romani people talk about how the media doesn't pay the proper respect they, or any minority group, deserve. And while there are characters with this identity in media, like Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver from Marvel, and Dick Grayson from DC, it's always an afterthought (the word she uses). That or "they're always a walking 'g*psy stereotype', they're usually a fortune teller or someone who is there to seduce another".

Hearing her say these things, and being someone of color who relates to her with my own background, this helps me understand the point of view of other minority groups of color better by helping me recognize what is truly representation and what is just a mockery.

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I feel like these ideas of giving up one's self for the betterment of others isn't an inherently extreme way of living, but people may take it to that extreme and believe others should do the same when their time comes. I don't know any personal experiences that are to the extreme that we might be discussing, but I can recall a time I've had to give up something of my own. One of my old friends, I'll call her Belle, had lost her home due to a fire when she lived closer to downtown Cleveland. She had lost many of her things, mainly toys and stuffed animals. So Belle would always come over my grandma's house to share my toys. There was one toy of mine that she adored more than anything: a large brown teddy bear I named Boo. He had a bow tie and a top hat, and Belle would always be hugging him and playing with him, no matter what we were doing. If we were playing pretend, we would give him a role. If we were playing on the trampoline, he would "jump" with us. My grandma and aunt saw how much Belle loved Boo, a little more than me, and asked if I was ok with giving up Boo as a birthday gift to her. At first, I was really sad. Boo was my friend too, and I didn't want to give up my friend to someone else, even if we were super close. But the more I thought about it, and thought about what Belle had gone through, I decided to give Boo up. It hurt a lot, but I felt so much better after seeing Belle happy. I still got to play with him, he just had a new home. She still has Boo today, and whenever I visit her apartment I see him with his top hat and bow tie.

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The Bible has influenced the West's culture, morality, laws, and societal values. It has inspired centuries of art, literature, music, and even philosophy. The moral teachings of the Bible, specifically the Ten Commandments, provided a framework for justice, charity, and human dignity, shaping the ethical and social ideologies of Western societies. Concepts like the sanctity of life, the value of human dignity, and the call to love one's neighbor contributed to the development of human rights, the abolition of slavery, and many social justice movements. The Bible also influenced the development of Western legal systems, where biblical ideas about justice, restitution, and fairness laid the groundwork for many laws. The Bible has been used to throughout history not just to better our society, but also to justify oppression, discrimination, and intolerance, specifically in relation to slavery, gender inequality, and LGBTQ+ rights. The Bible is used, often incorrectly, in debates around topics such as abortion, marriage, and human rights.

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The one practice we took part in was a cookout in June to celebrate Juneteenth. Even before people became aware of the holiday, black communities, including my own, would have a day to celebrate. Most of the time, it happened on the actual date (June 19), but sometimes people had things to do, so we would pick a different date to celebrate together. In the morning we'd go get breakfast, usually the ones in our family who lived in the Cleveland area. If it fell on a Sunday, we'd go to church and get breakfast afterward. If there was a service dedicated to Juneteenth, which there usually was, we'd have breakfast at church. Then, we'd meet up with family who had been coming out of state to celebrate, and spend some time with them in the city. At around 4-5, we'd head down to the suburbs of Cleveland where our grandmother lives and have a cookout. Since she lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, other families celebrating would come over or invite us over. One cookout turns into a block party in just an hour, maybe even a few minutes. Someone would play music, which included line dances that I still can't remember. Before anyone eats, someone leads a group prayer. Even if they weren't religious themselves, almost everyone joined in. At night, they gave kids candy and ice cream and sparklers to play with, and the adults would hang out and traumatize some kids watching them play card games. I guess that shaped my identity being black, and helped me gain a sense of community and helped me find meaning in the people I knew there.

(the flag shown above is regarded as the black american history flag)

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I was, and still am, into many different genres of music. It takes a lot for me to not like a kind of music, and at one point that one genre I couldn't stand was classical music. It seemed so boring to me, and I never really found any interest in it unless it was a score in a film. One of my friends had an extra ticket to an orchestra, and she asked me if I wanted to come with her. I thought about saying no, because she knew I didn't like anything classical. But she told me it was a live orchestra playing all of Swan Lake, and I adored that play growing up. I reluctantly agreed, and soon we were in Playhouse Square in formal attire getting ready to sit through hours of music. I was disappointed to find out that the show didn't include the dancing, since that was the main reason I loved the play so much. Still, we got in our seats and prepared for the show to begin. I hadn't been to an orchestra before, so I didn't really know what to expect. But just from the tuning of the instruments at the beginning, I was already in awe. And as the beginning of the theme for Swan Lake played, I was completely shocked. Every time my friend turned to me to make a small comment on something, it went in one ear and out the other. Everything about the show left me in awe, from the strings to the winds to the percussions to how the conductor moved and controlled everything (it always reminded me of a wizard). It was so beautiful to me. I was confused why I didn't like classical music before then, because this had been the best thing I had ever heard in person. I hardly cry when it comes to reactions to things, but this was the first time 13-year-old me was moved to tears because of music.

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Indigenous communities see the earth and its organisms as more than just a resource. It is regarded as a being that is deserving of respect and care. Many Indigenous cultures understand their relationship with the environment and that the health of the resources and creatures are linked to the health of the community itself. Practices like rotating crops, hunting with permission, and sacred ceremonies are ways to honor and maintain balance with the earth. In these traditions, the land is not an object to be controlled, but a partner of life. In contrast, modern industrial views often treat the environment as a set of resources to be extracted and used for human progress. This perspective has largely been shaped by industrial ideas that prioritize economic growth, efficiency, and technological advancement. Nature is something external to human society that exists to serve our needs, whether it be for food, fuel, raw materials, or space.

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Recycle Song | Rocko's Modern Life | NickRewind