Back In The Day...

Back in the day, it was pretty easy to call it. Your "friends" were unequivocably your friends. Your pleasures were selfish, but that was socially acceptable. Your needs were met without the efforts of your hands. It was pretty good, right? But then you grew up. You began to notice that your friends are more than friends. Your selfish pleasures were reduced (if you really grew up) and the need to provide for others became paramount. Your needs are now met through toil and in some cases, even fall short. Life has become what it has become.

What made back in the day different, though? Other than the age difference and home-life, what really had to change? Surely maturity, society, and expectations will always dictate our direction (to a degree) but other than the obvious, what changed with us? Did we become calloused? Did happiness become an expendable option? I think it's deeper.

Back in the day, I was not afraid... of anything. I wasn't reckless, but I wasn't over-cautious either. I approached life with the vitality of youth and the creativity of years before my time. A slight oxymoron, I'm sure, but valid nonetheless. A friend asked me years ago a simple question that I struggled to answer. He asked "what would you do if you were not afraid?" Wow. So simple, yet so infused with the vague and ambiguous nature of a Jesus parable.

I gave this much thought. This friend was my best friend through the majority of my childhood, so I didn't want to give him a "blow off" answer. I must admit that it was difficult to even begin to gauge the response I should render. At first, I looked a "surface" response. One that would be relative to making more money or accomplishing a short-term task. I knew better, though. Next, I began to ask myself other questions. Such as: what would I change in the world? Or, if I could have any power, what would it be? So on and so forth...

After a few days, I answered that friend. I told him I would wake them all up at once and have a resource to keep them up. Now he began to pause... The "them" I referenced were my people, of course. The "waking up" is in direct reference to our state of mind as a people. After some time, we began to talk with the unspoken understanding of why I answered that way.

When I think on that time and being a child, I can say with confidence that fear is the only thing that changed any of us. We now have FEAR. Fear of losing a job, loved one, or possession. Fear of being accepted. Fear of being understood. Fear of being afraid! We have enough fears to satisfy Satan's fetish for at least several lifetimes!

I want to bring "back in the day" to today. My strongest moments and greatest accomplishments all stem from not giving a fuck. I would be so worn out by this or that until I reached a point of not giving a fuck. That emotion (or characteristic) would always propel into a direction that God intended anyway. I would have even been there sooner had I not been a scared pussy at first.

My challenge dear readers, is not to wait for us all to get close to our breaking points, but rather to break the points of complacency NOW! Fuck fear. As a Black man, I fully understand that I am godbody. I am crafted in God's image. I am the first man. I am bigger than this world. I am making my today better than back in the day...