Follow Chronicles on Facebook

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

all I know


Speak of which you do not know,
This thing you call my home.
There’s something I hear in your tone,
This land you say; Is so.

Two lies and a truth in your case,
That’s what you know.
Don’t you see it’s what they sow,
Of a land that is my place.

Two truths and a lie, a case more real,
Let me show you how.
Come listen with your feet,
Come see with your heart,
Come hear with your eyes,
Then you will see the truths I appeal.

Two truths you ask? Curious to learn.
Dimmed by your cloud of disbelief,
It’s impossible to make it brief.
Slow down, come listen with a heart that will yearn.

The lie you so quickly believed,
Is one of desperation and oppression.
It makes you feel better about your position.
Empty promises from a land that pretends to grieve.

And the truths you ask?
We have the truth that time allows,
Which for you finds itself used,
Rushed beyond and abused.
With time; happiness and love follows.

Freedom is a word that too,
Is beaten up and chained.
The truth in freedom that we gained,
Is to live and be as you.

This land you say; Is so
This land I say; Is all I know.
… It’s all I have to show.

Friday, October 15, 2010

branding - from within


On the ‘Old Boys’ LifeXchange camp this weekend we spent most of our sit-down sessions brainstorming “Branding”. We wanted to try find solutions from within, from ‘the horses mouth’ so to speak, as well as learn what the expectations are as LifeXchange members. The outcome was very interesting! After discussing what they felt or thought when seeing brandnames like Nike, Coca-cola we asked them what they felt and thought when they saw the LifeXchange brand. And this is what they said…..

From the inside LifeXchange members want to see:
LifeXchange become financially stable,
To have a LifeXchange office/house where they as members can come “hang out”, play pool, play games, have their classes and for it to be ‘their space’,
They want membership to be exclusive and not just for everybody,
They want to feel LifeXchange pride in who they are and what the brand means,
They want to “stand out” from the rest.

From the outside LifeXchange members want the public to see:
Members of LifeXchange having bright futures,
Members that are well disciplined, educated and trustworthy,
Members that have good leadership skills and are talented, but that’s not all.....

Lastly, we spoke about the publicity of the lives of our ‘youth-at-risk’. We discussed how if a person has reached point “B” and has become a world renowned artist, has travelled the world and has his own studio, it’s an interesting read, but that it only brings value when you talk about point “A” - where he was when he started - sitting on the street corner, unable to read or write or tell one day apart from the next because of his drugged-up stupor! Only then does the story of point “B” become alive; extraordinary, amazing, outstanding, significant, noteworthy, astounding, remarkable, incredible, astonishing…..all the possible words you can think of to describe the life change that has happened.

Because of this, it becomes appropriate to speak of point “A” (with consent) even when that person is still AT point “A”. But, only because we have seen that point “B” is possible, through the success of other members, and so this becomes a story that the public can read and hear about, they can follow their journey and give support knowing that point “A” will reach point “B”

Have we started tapping into our solution to the “Branding” issue?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010