RYAN COOGLER'S "SINNERS"

 

I went to the movies today (Tuesday, 6-10-2025) to see Sinners for the sixth time. It's never happened before in my life. I've heard the soundtrack seven or eight times. It now ties with the Cowboy Carter soundtrack. Sinners is a wonderful and sad movie. I think everyone can identify with at least something in this movie, if they're honest.

Today, I found some posts trending on TikTok where mostly young people (maybe not though) are taking the meaning of this movie in the wrong direction. I really believe that. Here's why:

In frantic attempts to find a sin in every character's closet, they zero in on Annie - and the wrong sin, if there is one. Since they can't find a feasible one to attach to her bosom, they conjure up one: Annie is a witch who sacrifices (kills) her baby girl with Smoke in order to protect Smoke and Stack. Then, they conjure up another dark-hearted thing for Annie to do: She sacrifices (eventually kills) Stack when she reactivates Smoke's neck charm before they leave her house. (That must be when she does it.) So, Mary, whose privileged intrusion brought death to the Black folks, can turn Stack - and she does.

What happens to Stack's protection? Like Annie tells Smoke when he asks her why Hoodoo didn't or couldn't save their baby, " I don't know." Who knows? Stack may have tossed his charm if he had a separate one in the glove compartment of their car, but it is not on his person in the juke joint. I really think Annie makes one bag to "keep you and your crazy-ass brother safe." It must be Karma. It's not for Stack to be protected this time because, logically, without Stack, there can be no Smoke. Stack is "the best part of me," which makes Smoke a shell without him, being identical twins.

For the thinking ones, if Annie does use that spiritual art for evil when it serves her purpose, she knew how to save their baby, which would have required a sacrifice of some sort because the baby couldn't be saved righteously being too far gone, and the baby wouldn't have died. That's witchcraft. Also, she would've told Smoke, "Yes, I can bring him (Stack) back to life" (that's Necromancy). No to all of that darkness. Annie is a spiritual and physical healer with the help of the ancestors. She is a worker in the Light.

Unfettered, Unconfused, Unconsumed

  

                                                                         Source: April White

I have no fear of entering any thought-out venture

However, I avoid the angst of two-fold accusations 

And take great caution about it to dispel great censure

By misunderstanding and other outside critics’ agitations

If I end up in a state of happiness, hence, thankfulness

My end, ever evolving, will be better than my beginning

May you prosper as your soul prospers, is great ampleness

Whereas ampleness’s colossal opposite will be non-winning

Those who are sane understand the two realms of bountiful

The objective, material well-being by accumulated measure

That motivates striving for our portion from meager to plentiful  

Meant for growth. Then there's the subjective, hidden treasure

I rely on the hidden treasure where is stored my wisdom

That right-decision-maker that eliminates room for schisms

The reservoir of sanctified, unalloyed, and faithful rhythms

Movements of a soul undisturbed by the fickleness of isms.

~~Mary Handy Moore

 LET’S SHARE TOGETHER

Share with me your story

Please be willing to hear mine

Share with me your wisdom

I’ll share ways and means I found mine

Reveal your life’s losses and finds

I’ll share my own apportioned line*

Does your attitude rightly align 

While I examine my own in kind?

The right attitude helps us unwind

The static, uncomfortable inclines

That we must control for the decline

Of separateness and one-island confines.

~~ Mary Handy Moore

*Measures of Destiny. No more, no less. A line is infinite in space. Points (in time and space) are positions on a line. Let a point in this case be a Star. We are that.

Tell Me, Tell Me, Tell Me

Tell me you love me

And I’ll say it right back.

Tell me you trust me

And I’ll thank you for that.

Tell me that you see me.

I promise to see you right back.

You tell me you find worth in me.

Your insight makes me feel like that.

Your wisdom about life and times includes me.

Tell me, how can I not revel in that?

Your understanding wisdom makes me see

What you see. I’ll make that my top hat.

~~ Mary Handy Moore

 Cover My Head 

~~~”He will cover you with his feathers, and 

under his wings you will trust; His truth will 

be your shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:4 

This was a dream–until it wasn’t-after 

preparation for years later. 

Whenever I peek out from under my cover, 

When I find an avalanche of snow all over, 

I get in a hurry and go back – back to my bed, 

And pull the many covers over me and my head. 

I will hide from the storm - come, daylight. 

I could get covered by the snow at midnight. 

I'll stay under my cover where everything is warm. 

This is not my fight; this is not my snowstorm. 

I’m going to stay undercover where all is warm. 

I’m not going to let the snowstorm do me harm. 

~Mary Handy Williams

 Stones of Darkness

I don’t have very much,

But I have all there is to have.

I don’t know many things,

But I found knowledge in

The uttermost of all

I need knowledge of.

I can’t see much

But I’m a seer,

I see all I need to see

In the raincloud of

Seeable things.

I have no knowledge

But I know, just as

I am also known.

I can hear all things:

Things in heaven

And things in hell.

I can feel all things,

My nerve trunk is

Connected to the Root

To which are joined

All the other roots.

So, daily I’m fearless

While I’m filled with fear.

I’m delightfully hopeful,

While swimming in a

Sea of hopelessness.

I command myself to be brave,

In my daily walk towards

The certainty of death.

I realized I’m Light

Encased in a

Stone of darkness. Live.

~Mary Handy Moore

11-22-24

Allusions and metaphors can be heard and seen throughout this poem; a lyrical one is “I Don’t Know Much,” recorded and released by Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt (1989). There are words found in 1 Corinthians 13:12. The first 22 Stanzas are personal subjective and objective experiences in "the raincloud of knowable things," a phrase used in Theosophy and Transpersonal Psychology. The last 11 Stanzas are ancient and recent experiences and meditation. Unthinkingly, this poem ends up being 11-22 or 33 verses. I never intended that, but it’s as it should be. The picture is not as first seen; I have not been able to prompt a generative AI response to fit the colors and other things exactly as I saw them. For example, I settled for green grass in the end. This vision or dream made me sad for many months. 

GENDER FLUIDITY WAS NEVER A PHRASE

 I reckoned for most of my life if it were me ... I have family and friends who are what I reckoned could've been me, and I love them more as my life progresses because I must keep seeing them as who and what they are. They help me be a better person because I grow towards them, not away from them, which makes them feel free to grow towards me. Grace is our enabler.

https://www.reckon.news/lgbtq/2024/07/gender-fluidity-was-never-a-phase-these-13-ancient-cultures-prove-it.html