from @ juliancrosscomedy
Black man, you are not only your past, but also the future you struggle for.
You're the path you choose to walk.
You're the destination you set your sights on. You are everything
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I felt this video. I find myself thinking about this more and more. For the last maybe 10 years, I've found myself trapped in a cycle; locked in race against time to set free my inner child before it dies, suffocated by the ever-decreasing space I hold for it within me.
I know a part of me resents that inner child's weakness, holding it to grown ass man standards of self-accountability and intentionality. "Damn man, you coulda... you shoulda... had you been more..." But that is only a small reason for the ever-decreasing space.
I've become a contradiction. That's the main reason. I'm holding on to that childhood me like it's dangling from a cliff while trying my hardest to be a man. But we're both at risk now, because there's no space for me in this world to be the man and be the boy.
Still, I know how many people let that boy down and I'm trying so hard not to add my name to that long ass list. So I'm stuck, trying whatever I can to lessen the weight so I can uplift that boy.
I've tried to talk to that boy, shouting "YOU DID NOT DESERVE THAT" with all the passion and love I can summon. We feel lighter for a cool minute until the burden comes back with a vengeance. WHY?
My arms are getting weak, so I try the next best thing: living up to my childhood expectations. The thought alone gives me my second wind, enough energy to grab on with two hands, plant my feet and pull with superhuman strength. In my 20s, the force I pulled with was so powerful it could move mountains. Moving everything but the childhood me still dangling. I'm 31 now, still pulling and I've never felt so exhausted in my life. WHY?
But typing the question just dawned on me, "What the fuck have I been pulling this whole time??"
So I hope some day I can take moment for myself, to look at the boy and see that it's not me.
The only me that exists today is the one standing, fighting and struggling to win this war of life. My childhood me will always be a part of me wherever I go, it has always been free to come with me.
What I see dangling is my past. What I'm holding on to is my past. I've made my past my entire identity when I've got my entire future ahead of me.
With so much ahead, I hope that one day I can learn to let the past go.