I’m gradually recovering from the awe of just watching people of black skin with golden achievements. Aired on BET (Black Entertainment Tv), I saw the true picture of honor. The canvass, art work and frame was simply magnificent! I was bedazzled. Gladly so!
They all, regardless of gender awoke the snoring giant in me. My highlights seemed all too frequent, I could with great prudence call it “a compendium of highlights”.
Delight surged through the screen when Whitney Houston was invited up stage. It was her first time in a long time as the commentator aptly echoed. She introduced one of my newest role models and who is so for many good reasons. With well crafted oratory, she introduced one man whose acts and scenes have made our actions and sins a bit more glaring. His movies have helped draw our deep evaluations to our past moves, especially our critical ones. My role model, Tyler Perry is one man whose messages have shaped our perception of who we are and how we are meant to treat people as well as be treated.
“You have never completed anything” a job interviewer told him; “not even your application”, he added. Tyler Perry henceforth decided that against all odds: “I will complete whatever I start”. That to me is one of his unscripted messages. It tells me that every book opened, every project assumed, and every prayer point taken up must been seen to its finish line. No rooms anymore for spiky enthusiasms and fleeting zeal. No more levity for matters of my destiny.
Indeed I was quite guilty of running on too many tracks with very few crowns to show for it or even consolation prizes as proof of race completion. It’s disheartening! Incomplete book, poems, business proposals, visions and even thoughts. It is revelatory of impatience, intolerance, and only modicum measures of perseverance. He made a decision to finish everything he starts. So have I. That’s why I can say “was guilty”
While it was an award ceremony for achievers on different rungs on the impact ladder, I also got an award. I was awarded with the realization of cancerous mistakes including a depth of ingratitude. He narrated how he met a destitute who he thought was begging for just money. Quite shocked he became, when she asked “do you have shoes?” “Well, I guess I can get you a pair he said”. The second she received the perfect fit, she exclaimed “thank you Jesus, my feet are off the ground”. Not “what beautiful shoes”, or “wow, now I will show Monica, who’s boss”. She thanked God her feet were off the ground. It’s mind-blowing when people cut through the nitty-gritty of life as if with a laser beam to unearth the real essence of our everyday lives.
I should learn to thank God for the ability to see myself in the mirror. It is one wish I feel Steve Wonder might highly esteem. I should learn to thank God for each rising of the sun; it’s a renewed chance to right my wrongs. I should just learn to thank God for every little shinny drop that makes up the ocean of my life and of those dear to my heart.
Lastly, this physically huge role model of mine suffused my thoughts with admiration when he said “although Jesus didn’t have a place to lay his head, he never lacked a place to pray”. Hmmmmm!
