Lecture from an older sisterfriend, edited "Good Name is for Damn Fool"

All this cussin does not become you Lady M, but if it helps you vent knock yuhself out.

Now that we have dispensed with the joke, now let me give you the lecture.  Yeah, yuh heard me, I'm going to give you a lecture:

If I remember correctly, you are as sharp as a whip intellectually, quite savvy socially and might I add, politically; you have a strong sense of yourself and a warm sense of humor once you get going.  Yuh don't look too bad for a mature woman of thirty-something; when you step out you always make a statement, which suggests a certain confidence being in your skin.  You are a beautiful woman with a quick smile; And you've lived an interesting life thus far, more and better than most; God has blessed you with a flare for poetry and a taste for the finer things in life; and when you choose to recognize your individual worth just standing by yourself naked to social relations, you'll see that like every other black woman who has done this -- You're like cork -- You Never Sink.

...

Obligatory behavior is too time-consuming and too much of a waste of time.  My mother used to always say this : "good name is for damn fool"  - meaning simply that trying to be all things to all people so that they'll like us is just foolish.  You can do a whole life of nice things that you didn't really want to do and there is no guarantee that people will appreciate you or the things you do.   SO SIMPLY, DO ONLY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

Okay meh dear, there is the lecture.  Now cut back on the cussin -- your soul may be repulsed by it.  Stop beating up on yourself and others.   Do Lady M -- this woman of thirty-something is who you know best, Now, protect her, and only share with her what feeds her Blessed Soul.

Peace, Lil Sis.
Nuff love.