KID LOGIC
My son came to me one day
And asked me
“Daddy, if I get older what can I be?”
and before I answered him
I corrected him
Told him that the question isn’t “if” but “when” you get older
And he boldly told me that I was wrong because
Ryan in his class told him, that his mother said that it’s not always a given
To see another day if you’re young, black, smart and male
So he had now taken the stance that his tomorrows are not promised
Thereby making it "if" as opposed to when
And I smiled
And frowned
Because this wonder before me, God’s creation
Had taken the time to think and criticize what his father had said to him
And he came to him for wisdom
Yet the answer that would have to given could not be shortened
There had to be a lesson and so I told him that
He could walk on water if he believed in himself
Because the Word told him that he could do all things
And accomplish greater things than Jesus had done
With His assistance and strength
That whatsoever he fancied in his mind to design
He could fashion
He asked me about the young boy in Florida
Who he was sure had heard the same from his father before
What about Him?
And I told him that though I had no answer
I would do all I could to make sure that that was not how his story ended
That his mother and I conspired on the wisest way to guide our seeds
And we would depend on the Father to grant needs and wants
And abandon those things that haunted us as children
So that our children never knew abandonment or poverty
Like her and me
Yet he inherited the very best of our unified we
So he could be whatever he wanted to be
Told him that I told him this frequently
As I regaled him with stories of our history
And memories of a strong community
As opposed to the Brothers Grimm bedtime stories
And instilled thoughts of peace, love and justice in him
And his siblings
And I wanted to tell him that contrary to what Facebook tells him
He is not Trayvon Martin
Like Martin wasn’t Malcolm and Malcolm wasn’t Martin
Because I fathered him correctly
Rightly, making sure he knew that
Righteousness and justice were synonymous
In the Greek
And reality is not the garbage he sees
So scripted on TV
And in the end that justice wins
That the good guys win and
Every Zimmerman pays for his sin
But I’m not into telling fairy tales
To growing young black boys, so I tell him that
With God all is possible
That Christ’s hand rests upon him, but it doesn’t mean that
He’ll never know struggle
That even though he would have been sheltered from the harsh pain of actuality
Because his mother and I knew better to show him and his siblings better
There will be times as a young man that he will doubt the necessity of his very existence
And he will have to fight for respect and equality to be given at all times
Not because he is less man than the next man, but because
Fallible man is so much man and
Not everyone recognizes the God in his brother
But I promise him that
He can be whatever it is that his mind dreams him to be
That if his vision remain clear then he could
Without a doubt in my mind, go beyond where his father has climbed
Exceed further and see more than his own personal Moses had traveled
That he has the capacity to be exactly who he, his parents and his God says he can be
Extraordinary
So that if his own son, my grandson, were to come to him one day
And ask if he were in danger of being a Trayvon if he wore a hoodie
That he could tell him easily
‘Son, you can be more Barack’ than Trayvon if you so choose to be
Because the world has evolved so much from what grandpa has seen
And praise the Father because you have inherited the earth, and a Kings' dream
All because my father taught me
Against what society taught him
And married him a good woman
Who never had to be concerned with Lil Wayne teaching her how to love
Who understood that love and relationship journey with fidelity and commitment
Like this, fingers intertwined
And they raised a testament to it
In me
And I tell you that you
Never have to fear a hoodie combined with candy and iced tea
As my father told me,
The world is in danger of you being whatever you want to be
This is prophecy
I think forward
As time rewinds itself back to this moment
Where I face this little boy with brown eyes
Wide, whom I call mine
And guide him, teach him
Talk with him about this beautiful gift
Of life
And for him to make it as he is to me
Extraordinary
©2012 Bryan Winslow
Thanks Bryan!
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