Sin and Rotation

La Vonda R. Staples

http://lavondastaples.blogspot.com/

Societal changes rarely delete an institution which is vital to the existence of life. Meaning, there is no cataclysm which can eradicate birth, sexual interaction pursuant to said births, or even the exchange of communication or tangible gifts leading up to the possession of a mate to have sexual interaction to in turn produce a birth. There will always be a boy who picks the brightest apple to give to a girl in hopes of being the one most favoured by the deserving (or undeserving) ‘she.’

Humans have evolved and during this evolution customs have also expanded, constricted, gained meaning and lost meaning. In example, Jews break a glass when they are married. What did they break when they had no glass? Another example, Africans enslaved in America changed their rituals which told their corner of the world, that this man and this woman were a couple. The descendants of those long-dead souls have created yet another evolution: the rotation.

The rotation has existed in one form or another but it was mostly a female means of obtaining goods and services. Want someone to go to a certain club? Call Carl. He works the door or he’s a baller. Food stamps have run out early in the month? Call Willie Bobo, his dad and mom own the soul food restaurant and sometimes they have a lot of leftovers at the end of the day (especially when the weather is bad and the buffet table barely got touched). The female to male rotation is an institution of existence and subsistence. This new twist in the turning of romance is a device of use and abuse and not to lay blame on the man, the supplicants are all too willing to be placed within the orbit of a “made it” man. The male to female rotation takes advantage of Black women’s needs to find suitable mates. Not just husbands but to have men who are capable of being an asset to a career. And yeah, it’s marriage-minded servitude in the minds of the women (“if I just go through this then maybe he’ll notice…”).

What it amounts to is a taxation on a consumer by the goods. The goods are in short supply and the desperate consumer is willing to go to any length to simply lay claim to part of a man. A piece of a man. A moment of a man. The hope is always there that she will become his wife or at the very least share a home and a life with him. Strange behavior indeed from a population which reports the highest degree of Christianity. Jesus and his tenets are quickly cast aside in hopes of the rotation. Everything may be lost for the chance to be in an elite rotation , rather, a man who has already made it and needs a wife for nothing. Except companionship when his step is not so sure and his eyesight begins to fail. At which point, he’s perfectly free to go outside of his rotation and pick yet another candidate.

That’s the sin of the rotation. It has no honour. It has no conviction. It exists to the detriment of Black America. But just like any orbit, or rotational force, there’s no way to quit it without loss of life, dismemberment, confusion, and maybe just a little pain.

Summary to Rebuttals of "Sin and Rotation" (answering questions regarding this essay)

Our problem is not having enough women, our problem is that there is no reason to pick a single woman and therefore decrease the bounty of mate-seeking behaviours. You know, not picking a fight, not taking offense, dressing a certain way, or even committing sexual acts or sex itself sooner rather than later in hopes of gaining a coveted spot in the rotation.

Just as China has to now deal with the reckoning of the one child policy, we will see a reckoning (I predict). The reckoning will come in the form of a large demographic of Black men, aging, without proper connections to children or family, and without wives. In Latin America there is a culture of caring - you don't leave uncle Julio just sitting by the side of the road like an unwanted couch. That's a generalization but you get my point.

There is an unwritten requirement in Black America that excellence requires that you separate from family and friends who behave as "crabs in a barrel." So, you're single. You're old. Your doting mother and grandma and auntie have all gone to their heavenly reward. The women in your rotation have either married down or settled into singularity. Your children by at least two different mothers either don't know you or don't want to know you or have become like father like son and daughter and have also severed their ties with those who haven't made it and this includes you.

Where are you? You didn't have an additional income to build up your pension and if you do have means you're spending and spending for the "free" help you would have gained with a wife. Wives create social networks for husbands. Plain and simple. Husbands do not plan the birthday parties and do not send out the announcements of births, etc. This is still women's work. You declined all of the women with money as too bossy and you declined to be captain save-a-hoe and elevate some nice woman who only needed love and opportunity.

So there he sits. The Dr., Esquire, Professor, etc. etc. etc all alone. With no one to guide his hand to his chin. Long bearded and full of nothing but memories of when he went round and round and round. Pretty flowers all around his head like a halo - fitting for a demi-god. He sits and mourns his rotation.

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