Returning to the Center

Greetings from Afrika. My name is Audrianna Edmonds and I am a senior at Creighton University. I have been given the opportunity to spend my last semester of my undergraduate career in Ifrane, Morocco. As it relates to academia, I am a Justice and Society major, but my passion lies in the study of indigenous peoples all over the world with hopes of correcting social ills through means of non-violence.

 

I would like to dedicate this blog post to Dr. Ashton Welch who has since transcended, but remains a mental reminder of what a man or woman can be when he or she maximizes more than the 10% of his or her brain. For those who were not fortunate enough to meet Dr. Welch, he was a scholar in academia, but more importantly on his knowledge of self. He served the function of a respected history professor at CU. I was signed up for four of his African studies courses and not soon before school was intended to start last fall he transcended. Through only 2-3 momentary interactions with him and the overwhelming presence of his spirit, an insatiable global curiosity of what he had seen, studied and what he knew to be truth was planted into me.

So why Afrika? I think it’s important to establish early on that Afrika was not an idealistic pursuit fabricated to avoid post-graduate decisions or to become more “peace.” In fact it was just the opposite. Living and operating in an industry of illusions keeps society in a permanent state of drunkenness (a social state of lack of expectation and/or intense focus on preoccupation). Chief Crow Dog said, “When we sober up we start asking questions.” Consequently, it makes sense that everyday life is geared to keep people drunk. In my infancy of sobriety, I have come to realize that life is about returning to a pure state.

Consider this analogy: When people are conceived they are a seed. The seed is the heart. Life markets the seed and teaches the seed that it needs to consider going through some processing to make it more “refined.” The seed is sprayed, spayed, dunked, punked (something that can’t recognize its own power), mass produced, sterilized and packaged to the global society. The seed now has layers that represent protection, exclusivity and homogeneity.

Afrika represents finding my mother because I was machine-made; genetically I am not aware of my original creator. John Neafsey wrote that prayer is a countercultural experience. “Prayer with feet” is living one’s life undoing the mechanization that life once meant and promoting this countercultural experience in hopes that one day, after I have found my mother, I now stripped naked will be able to return to my Father.

Kindly,

Audrianna Edmonds

Senior, Justice and Society