Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Hoes Everywhere, even in the bible!

I told them to bring their hoes and you wouldn't believe their answer. 


A while back the local anti-poverty program allowed me to use an acre of land to show young men how to till the earth, plant a garden and grow produce. That was something new for a group of city boys accustomed to getting their food in micro-wave packets or from order boards at McDonald's and Burger King. 

On the morning we were to break the ground, my secretary made an early Saturday morning wake up call. The message she gave was, "We are going to till our garden today. Be ready to go at 8 a.m. and bring your hoes with you." To her surprise, after calling about 40 different households, each time she talked to a young man she received responses such as: "She can't come." "She sleep." "She say she can't come with me, but she'll bring me." "I'll tell her, but she ain't coming with me." 

 Not a single boy associated a hoe with a garden tool. Each one associated the word "hoe" with a female. Then it dawned on all of the adults involved that this generation of boys is not agricultural and therefore not familiar with agricultural tools. 

The word "hoe" in their subculture is only associated with women. It doesn't always mean a bad or ungodly woman, but it most definitely refers to a woman in their mind. That's what they hear in their music and see in the music videos. They hear men call women hoes. They even hear some women call themselves hoes. 

 The urban dictionary even has a formal definition for hoe: "1. A skank 2. A woman that is too loose in the booty." Obviously words mean different things in different situations and to different generations. Even the bible uses the word "ho!" 

It's usually a warning about messing with the people of God. Zechariah 2:7-8 says, "Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon. For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye." 

 There is another ho in the 6th verse. The gardener has a hoe. The hip hop generation has a hoe, and even God has at least of couple of hoes in the book of Zechariah! 

 My, my, my!

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