There’s a great contest played out daily in communities around the country, and black people watch in astonishment and disbelief. No not at the teams that made the cut and are arriving in Dallas as you read this. But at the fact that there are so many of our young players on life’s stage that won’t make it to the big game or even the minors in that great abyss. But there is a deeper calling in life that compels us to choose roles in the stage play of our lives in the constant and continual fight to survive. That stage is the chronicle of our actions and the vehicle for transporting communications across the tube. And sometimes we hope for our sakes and the sake of our children that it’s positive in intent and effective in nature so that our children will prosper and our young will mature.
The fire alarms. The murders, the things that leave us in such despair. But every now and then on the sports channel there is something that keeps us all riveted there, it’s the championship game and that’s the name of the Super Bowl that’s coming soon. But there’s a Super Bowl of sorts that happens in our lives and is played out on community gridirons every day.
It’s a Super Bowl for a young brother to wake up in a home where living parents reside every day. It’s a Super Bowl for a brother to grow up with a mother in the home who keeps him grounded as she prays. It’s a Super Bowl for that young man to understand that life is not what it seems and that he can fulfill all of his dreams if he chooses to understand what it takes to get upstream. Just like the migrating salmon that swim upstream and fight the unrelenting current, a brother has a similar struggle to avoid the traps and pitfalls that lie in the path of his upstream migration to stability and the good life. Not only does education and intelligence present a barrier for young African American men and women today, being cool is better than understanding what is in school, so it’s a travesty in the making and they are going to find themselves delayed and then waylaid. The education of our entire community seems to be in disrepair and one can understand how important intelligence is, but I see them importing it like oil and hoarding it like the companies that are gouging consumers around this time of year. We are not the producers, so they don’t care.
At the end of the day we wonder why we are locked out and replaced. It is because we no longer find ourselves in the race for educational prominence, we just want to get in somebody’s face and complain about the space once we get there.
For those who imagine that they are a rapper or an athlete in play, I think they couldn’t fill a high school gym with the rhythms that they skim. But the aspirations of just one child can fill his world in a productive and meaningful way. But they prefer to be an athlete or a superstar and they risk losing their personal contests every day.
The tragedy is magnified for poorly informed and uneducated parents who are attempting to educate and sustain the future of their young charges, hoping that they won’t squander opportunities as they did. So children come here, as soon as you can recite your ABCs and count 1, 2, 3, you should know it’s time to lend an ear. While you play in the yard and imitate your favorite guard. It is important for every member of the family to better their stations in life today.
The Super Bowl is a testament to the victors of the day. But the Super Bowl of thought and introspection requires more than physicality, it requires intellectual skill and an adroit mentality. But we no longer want to be first when it comes to being the valedictorian of the school. And it seems we no longer strive for the standards that lead to high scores on standardized tests. We lean toward mediocrity and the “I don’t care” attitude promoted in rap songs.
But look at the model Mike Tomlin presents. He remains focused and keeps things in perspective and remembers that there would be no Mike Tomlin without a Tony Dungy. Why wouldn’t rappers and celebrities do the same, and reach back to mentor a potential protégé? Until we acknowledge and realize that there is a collective mission and a bigger cause that lends itself to the greater good.
Remember the type of greatness that got these players to the Super Bowl is a matter of excelling at all times and in all things. We all must act like we are Super Bowl bound, like we are champions and destined for greatness. That winning formula is one of dignity and pride and a heartfelt desire to play the game of life, leaving it all on the field.
I don’t know if you’ve been to a Super Bowl, but I have and I’ll tell you this much; win or lose if you’ve paid a high price for your ticket it always feels like it was too much. But if you’re a winner, to the victor go the spoils and it’s more palatable you see, than leaving the field without that joie de espirit.
The Super Bowl is analogous to this game of life in which we engage, so play your part and do your best and give it all to this stage. Cheer and applaud your community each day and keep the ball in play. Play hard.
Peace. –Munson Steed
